Ephesians 3:3

How that by revelation was made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote before in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ.

By revelation ... Paul always emphasized that the wonderful truth he brought to people was from God, not of himself, that it was given to him by Christ, disclaiming any credit whatever as belonging to himself. Yet, it was absolutely necessary that Paul emphasize the world-shaking importance of that truth. When he implied (in the words "when ye read") that people should study his writings, it was not vainglory or egotism on his part, but the mere statement of a basic obligation every Christian has to study divine revelation in the Scriptures.

The mystery ... the mystery of Christ ... One cannot fail to be amused at the "problem" some scholars (?) find with this! As Foulkes said:

Mystery here is defined differently from its definition in Colossians, leading to the assertion that the difference is so great as to make common authorship impossible.[10]

Foulkes rejected such a simplistic understanding of the mystery, asking, "Can they not be different aspects of the central revelation?"[11] Of course, that is exactly what they are. Not merely two but a dozen complex and interlocking elements of the Great Mystery were revealed by the apostle Paul; and as for the quibbles about one element being stressed here, another there, such problems are as laughable as that of the six blind men describing the elephant. "The Mystery of Christ includes far more than the fact that Gentiles were fellow partakers with Jews of the promise in Christ Jesus."[12] This writer has published The Mystery of Redemption[13] containing a full discussion of this subject.

I wrote before in few words ... Like many of Paul's statements, this is capable of a number of meanings, and no one can be certain exactly what he intended. The usual understanding is that this refers to a mention of the mystery earlier in this same letter (Ephesians 1:9f); but of course, there is nothing to keep it from referring to another letter not preserved through history. This uncertainty poses a problem, then, concerning what was intended when Paul wrote, "When ye read."

When ye read ... It is not fair to leave this without calling attention to a possible meaning of this proposed by F. J. A. Hort who believed that it means, "in a semi-technical sense, the reading of the Holy Scriptures."[14] The more radical critics have screamed themselves hoarse about such an interpretation; but it is logical, in keeping with other significant passages of the New Testament, and probably correct! Christ himself, quoting from the prophecy of Daniel, said, "Let him that readeth understand," both Matthew and Mark giving the quotation exactly as Jesus made it. The most obvious and ridiculous error supposed to support the so-called Markan theory is that of making Jesus' quotation from Daniel a parenthesis injected by Matthew or Mark, with the accompanying conclusion that one or another of the sacred evangelists copied the other! May God deliver his children from that kind of "reasoning"! Both Matthew and Mark gave that quotation, because, in all likelihood, the admonition to Christians was constantly reiterated from the very first, requiring them to read, study and search the Scriptures daily, etc. Jesus, it will be remembered, asked the lawyer, "How readest thou?" It was, therefore, a proverb from the first with Christians that they should constantly read the Scriptures (at first, the Old Testament, and in time all of the writings of the apostles and New Testament prophets as well). In the light of these facts which cannot be denied, how naturally, Paul should have included the clause, "when ye read."

[10] Francis Foulkes, The Epistles of Paul to the Ephesians (Tyndale) (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1963), p. 93.

[11] Ibid.

[12] David Lipscomb, New Testament Commentaries, Ephesians (Nashville: The Gospel Advocate Company, 1939), p. 57.

[13] James Burton Coffman, The Mystery of Redemption (Austin, Texas: Firm Foundation Publishing House, 1976).

[14] Francis W. Beare, op. cit., p. 666.