Was Jesus Running A Mysteries School?

Was Jesus running a mysteries school?
What did he mean when he said seeing and hearing? You may never look at the New Testament the same. This episode is
brought to you by Go and Do Travel and the Wavemakers podcaster cruise coming November 14th to 21st. We'll have
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be sure to put in the promo code quick 5C cwic 5 for a discount. Now for a deep dive with Dave Butler. Here we go.
Welcome to Quick Show. My name is Greg Matson and I am your host. In this episode, we bring back my friend Dave Butler to talk about I'm not quite sure what yet, but so good to have you back.
I'm so excited to be here, Greg. What What What great new digs do you have? This is uh this is kind of fun. I mean,
it's uh we've got the faximiles. We've got the Anubis and the lion couch here with O. I mean, Abraham sitting
I love the the color of that those images.
Oh, those those are original colors, by the way.
Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so this show is an open book. Okay.
And you're going to turn the page for us. Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic.
So I'm going to I'm going to be as the audience here eager to see exactly what it is that we're going to talk about today.
Yeah. As you see my scribbled notes and the the red yarn connecting all the lines. So uh, Greg, I'm working on a book now. I have been for a few months.
Um, it' be done, I think, except that I uh I have to edit other people's books. Turns out to be a lot of work. So, um,
uh, that is meant for an audience that certainly includes LDS readers, but is aimed at a reader of any faith
background or of no particular faith background.
And, uh, that covers some of the some of the ground that that I've covered before. And now, this is a challenge.
Why? Because I've always come at this material, which is sort of looking at themes like the heavenly ascent and temple worship. Uh I I always come at it
through the Book of Mormon in the first instance where I really started is trying to figure out the the mindset of Nephi. What what is the mental furniture
that must be in Nephi's head that makes the most sense out of what he writes. So I'm writing a book about the New Testament and to a significant degree it
turns out to be I think a commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. Okay. So the um
so I want to walk you through sort of what that looks like and uh
on the way point out a few interesting passages things that I have not seen before which are I think pretty provocative actually. Okay.
Okay. So the the journey starts in Matthew 13. This is sort of the um I man there's a lot of smoking guns.
This is sort of the the smokingest gun,
I think. And this is a chapter that is full of the uh uh so-called parables on the kingdom. By the way, fun fact, the
the New Testament is only divided into chapters in the 13th century obviously AD. Okay? I think it's like a saint
etien or somebody, right? So obviously the chapter divisions don't exist when Matthew's written down or for over a
millennium afterward, right? Okay. This will be relevant actually in a in a bit.
But this but this chapter, this section of Matthew was full of parables about the kingdom. Turns out actually a lot of Matthew was full of parables about the kingdom.
And the disciples came in verse 10 and said unto him, why speakest thou unto them in parables?
He answered and said unto them, because it is given unto you, the disciples, right? It's maai, the you learners,
that's the word students. It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not
given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance. But whosoever hath not, from
him shall be taken away, even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables,
because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Now, now we get a quote. Um, this is a little you lay them side by side and you go, is this really a quote? This is quoting Isaiah 6, but but in the Greek.
So, it it seems a little bit the order seems a little bit funny. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. That's Isaiah, which saith, "By hearing ye
shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of
hearing, and their eyes they have closed.
Lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal
them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those
things, bless you, which ye hear hear and have not heard them.
Okay. So the question is how what is this parable stuff? The answer is look you you learners are in a privileged
position because you're following me around and I'm teaching you things.
There are things you have seen and things you have heard. Mhm.
These things are the mysteries uh of the kingdom of heaven. It is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. These are things you have seen
and heard. Because you have seen and heard them. you will understand the parable. Those who have not seen or
heard these things, there's some information they're missing. There's there's there's something that they would have seen and heard presumably
that not having seen and heard it, they don't understand the meaning of the parable.
Now, in in using the terms mysteries or mysterion here, yeah,
in 11, are we talking about temple issues here or are we just simply talking about esoteric knowledge?
Yeah, let's go right to that. So, that's interesting. So uh the standard commentary answer here goes something
like this. Uh yes it is true we should talk about this that uh the fir that Jesus and the first Christians lived during the heyday of the mysteries.
Mysteries meant something really specific. We'll talk about what it meant. Uh but the Christians didn't mean that. What they what they did is they
used the language the word mystery and they and they used the language of the mysteries to sell their religion which
was emphatically not a mystery to mystery worshippers. Right? That's the you'll see this literally um probably
verbatim if you look find the right commentary. But you see that again and again. Um I think frankly this is a failure of two things. I think I think
one mainstream Christianity having either lost its mysteries or
having forgotten what their mysteries were. Mhm.
I recently attended mass, a Catholic mass, and it was striking to me how much the the word mystery came up.
And I think in a correct context,
I'm not sure the participants mostly recognized it, right? And I think also having a lack of imagination.
I think your mainstream exedites look at this and just they they can't understand what mystery uh is being talked about.
So they say well Christianity was not a mystery but it kind of pretended uh it was one for missionary purposes. Now I
have a metaphor actually about this and then we should talk about what mysteries are. Okay.
Okay. Um, if you go into a grocery store, where do you expect to find Coca-Cola?
What aisle is Coca-Cola on? On the drink row.
It's in the drink row. It's there with water. It's there with Gatorade, right?
It might be there with like tea and other stuff. Things you drink. I'm familiar with that row,
right? I'm familiar with this. I was in this very row yesterday. So,
interestingly enough, right, it u that's not the It started in the row the aisle
that that the Coca-Cola started in was uh patent medicines or in less
flattering language snake oil. So Coca-Cola was invented by a veteran of the Civil War named John Peton and he
was wounded in the Civil War. I think he was member of the Georgia National Guard or the some kind of he was he was a Georgia soldier.
He had chronic injuries and originally they were treated with uh morphine and he uh made a his own concoction, his
own medicine to try and wean himself off the morphine. Okay. And that involved cocaine. Yes. Which often helps a lot too.
Which this well this is what methadone is. We're going to give you a different drug to substitute for the drug you're taking. Right. Or nlloxxone or whatever.
So this was this was this is 187. your body says it's not what I really want but fine okay and and you can handle the shakes or whatever right this is what
Coca-Cola was and and also distilled coca leaf uh or or a brewed cocoa leaf tea and by the way I don't know if it's still true but for for many many years
Coca-Cola uh the co Coca-Cola corporation had the only license to legally import coca leaves into this country because even
after they stopped putting cocaine into it they still brewed cocoa leaf tea right now cola is a nut that's just The
flavor, it is a cola nut flavored um cocoa drink. Okay. So, it was it was made and sold as a medicine.
So, Coca Yeah. cola. That's it.
Yeah. That's what it is. Uh so, uh and and of course, Pepsi Cola is also cola nut flavored, right? So, I don't know what the Pepsi is, but whatever. Um so,
so look, most of that category is gone.
By the way, what what did it mean? They were patent medicines. Well, there were no patents. It It meant that they put on the bottle patent pending, which really meant we haven't applied for a patent,
but we want you to think we have, right? Yeah. It It's to sound fancy for the rubes.
Oh, there is science here. There's no science. Someone put stuff in a bottle.
Right. So, this was the original category of Coca-Cola. We don't recognize that category because most of the rest of it's gone.
Mhm.
Uh although like root beer actually originally comes out of the same space,
right? But there's no longer a patent medicine and so they sit next to you know Arizona tea right and water.
Are you saying the temple mysteries were once snake oil?
I am say yes correct. I am saying that that look we don't recognize this. This is the great surviving mystery and we
don't recognize it because the rest of the category is gone and so we so we stuck it instead in with Greek philosophy and other things.
Yes. Right.
Like we did many other things like like Christianity did with so many other things.
Yes. Exactly. And so we no longer recognize the category. And so to some extent the challenge is to sort of introduce people again to the category
and say look this is here's an argument for saying this is the way Jesus taught.
He was not trying to teach philosophical concepts. There were no syllogisms. He brought you an experience. The experience was about entering into the
presence of God and you saw things and you heard things is what Matthew 13 tells us. You know, it's interesting
that, you know, often times uh and I'm sure you've had this experience as well,
but you know, I'll be speaking with someone from a different denomination. Yeah.
And we'll be going through some deep stuff, right? And it's like, well, how would you explain this?
And and and and inevitably the most popular answer is, well, we just leave that that's in the realm of mysteries, right?
And what we're talking about now is I think to myself, you know what? It probably is.
That's correct. That's correct. That's correct. There's there's a there's another there's another side to that,
right? Which is um I don't know that that Jesus the teacher ever taught a comprehensive theology. I don't think
that was his intent. And I think some of these categories that we argue over like the the man Jesus would laugh at. What
are you talking about? Right? Because he didn't he didn't come teaching an argument. A is true, B is also true,
therefore C is true. Right? That wasn't it. He came he came presenting himself in the experience of the kingdom of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
Right? And and therefore Matthew 7 says people were astonished. By the way, the word to know, it's given to you to know
the Greek just like Spanish or or German uh has two words to know. Okay? There's there's there's u there's the one that's
connected to the verb to see. It's to have factual knowledge, to know a fact.
And then there's the one that is to be familiar with to know a person. Experience.
Experience. And and that's the verb here. And the verb is it's an it's an infinitive. It's noni but it's the same word as nosis. Mhm.
Okay. So that's what we're talking about that the knowledge familiarity with the mysteries knowing them like a person having nosis.
So now, by the way, in the same chapter,
so so I'm just going to sort of start tracking through like if I'm presenting this like, hey, to somebody who you're like, what mysteries? Yeah, let me let me start pointing out some stuff. Okay,
so there's right in the same passage in verse uh or the same chapter, verse 43 is um and I should just I
should quote these in English rather than stumbling over the Greek and losing everybody pointlessly.
um verse 43. So this is still in the discussion of uh and if you read chapter 13 it's all the kingdom of heaven is like this the kingdom of heaven is like
that right super interesting because what Jesus is saying is if you know the if you see and hear if you if you know
gnoni the mysteries you have the nosis uh then you'll understand the parables right so verse 43 says this then shall
the righteous shine forth shine is lumps is lumpso to shine eclams uh eclamsus I
think is the Greek they will shine forth as the son in the kingdom in the kingdom of their father and he uses this marker
and this is not um you can't you can't uh um you can't assume that that word that
a passage without this marker is not esoteric but every time you see this marker you ought to go uh yeah uh and
the marker is who hath ears to hear let him hear right this is a pretty obvious hey pay attention to what I'm saying the
righteous will shine and forth uh uh in in the kingdom of God.
Now, why is that interesting? Um, a lot of reasons, but a big reason is that an
obvious place to turn here is to Matthew 17. I I'm just I'm sorry. I'm just reminded of something. I know we're trying to keep this more to a generic
audience, but it's I I can't help but think of when you say that. Yeah.
The washing and anointing on this.
Yeah. Yeah. Who hath ears to hear and let him hear or who has eyes to see, let him see.
Uh 100%. This is a very old back to phionic uh resurrection included like the opening of the mouth,
right? Of the of the dead man or the person standing in for the dead man,
right? And and anointings of the various apertures of the head. So they will all work. Yes. Right. So having eyes that work, being someone who stands
in the center and can see is is initiate language is correct. Yeah. is mysteries
talk. So um so Matthew Matthew uh 17
although actually I think this passage ought to start uh at the end of Matthew 16. Why? There's there's this funny thing. Okay so Matthew 17 this is the
mount of transfiguration and it starts after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James and John and bringeth them up to a high mountain
apart. Okay, but look at the verse before. Matthew 16:28.
Verily, I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.
Oh, interesting. The verse right before Matthew 17 is talking about the kingdom.
Now, by the way, remember when did we get chapter divisions? We got them in the 13th century.
So, oddly enough, if you go to Mark chapter 9, which is the Mark version of the Mount of Transfiguration,
they put the text is basically the same,
and they put the chapter St. Etienne or whoever it was, put the chapter division in a different place. So, oddly enough,
Mark verse one says, "Verily, I say unto you, there be some of them who stand here who shall not taste of death until they have seen the kingdom of God."
And then we get this the mount of transfiguration.
Um again this is not a difference between Matthew and Mark. It's whoever did the chapter divisions in the 13th century divided them differently.
So so okay. So so so question mark are we seeing the kingdom right? The place the place of the mysteries. Well let's
let's read this. I got I don't know 10 verses or something. Sure.
Um and um and man this stuff is fire. And this is back in back in Matthew 17.
Matthew 17. Yeah. After 6 days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart.
By the way, mountain um typologically,
symbolically is a sacred place. It's where creation began. This is old Egyptian stuff. The the first thing that comes out of the flood is is the primeval hill, Egyptians will say,
right? It's it's the the mountain of the Lord in Exodus 15. the Benbenstone. The Benstone, it's the mountain of God.
So, okay. So, this like typologically we should already say, are we in a temple and was transfigured before them and his
face did shine. Oh, Matthew 13:43. The righteous shine in the kingdom of God. I think this is the kingdom of God. And his raignment was white as the light.
And behold, there appear appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.
Then answered Peter and said unto Jesus,"Lord, it is good for us to be here. If thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles." Oh, that's interesting. So this in in Greek, this
is sca, which is a tent, which is, by the way, the same word. You go back at Exodus 25, the tabernacle is a sca,
right? So three tabernacles, three tents. One for thee, one for Moses, one for Elias. Well, well, this is, you know, the the the temple of Solomon as described in the Old Testament is three,
we would call the Masons would call them operative, I think. Three three chambers that are ritually significant. There are the store rooms and stuff, right? Three rooms in a row. Okay, so we got Moses,
Elias, the Lord. Three rooms in a row.
While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice out of the cloud which said, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
Hear ye him." This is this is interesting, right?
Uh there's a there's a certification or a recognition of sunship at a a place
where you hear a voice that you can't see because something is obscuring the voice, right? And and and there's a recognition the one approaching the one who is here is the son.
And the disciples heard it. They fell on their face. They're afraid. Jesus came and touched them and said, "Arise and be
not afraid." Now, ritually this is reenacting death. They they have fallen down. Or in in a in a much more mild version of this, you might close your
eyes, right? And then be told to open your eyes, arise, and stand, right? This is this seems to be that moment. Um and
now everything's gone. When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. And as they came down from the mountain,
Jesus charged them, saying, "Tell the vision to no man." This was secret. this thing was secret that they have done tell the vision to no man until the son
of man be risen from the dead in verse one there it's there's interesting language that sort of just points us
elsewhere um apart okay is kat edion
Idios in Greek is is private secret um and so he he says the English says it
takes them apart he takes them into a private place he takes them into takes them takes them secretly. Takes them privately. Yeah. Sacred. Now, here's the sort of we're going to be in Matthew,
but I'm going to like point a couple times out to the New Testament elsewhere. It's super interesting. This is the same word that when John Jesus in
John 1 shows up, it says he came into tidia into and the English says his own,
but the Greek is he came into the private or the personal or the sacred.
It's neuter plural things places and Hoyoi his own the private personal
sacred people didn't recognize him right which is super interesting I think there's a whole untold story there that I think I think what we're being told is
or it's being alluded to is Jesus comes and there are people who are properly awaiting him expecting him and they're
doing it ritually correctly but they don't recognize the man when he shows up Right? I think that's what that word
means there as it I think it it means here, right? Private, personal, sacred. Um,
all right. So, look, is this the mystery of the kingdom? Well, I mean, it's it seems to be the kingdom of God. It's the place where the righteous shine. We have these ritual gestures. There's a change
of garment. There's there's a well, it's like a death and raising. There's a recognition maybe of of the status of being uh a child of God. And the whole
thing is secret, right? Uh, and it's on a mountain with three chambers. It's on It's on the mountain of God, a three
tents or three a three-chambered tent or a three-chambered building. Now, if you and I could talk about the sermon on the
mount alone for three hours, and we won't,
okay? But I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to point out a little bit, okay?
including one um I'm going to say super interesting, maybe super provocative
passage. Okay, which maybe maybe we'll talk about. Maybe we'll just say it and be like, "Huh?" and and like leave it to think about.
So, um Matthew 56 and 7. And if if people are watching, you know, me here,
probably they go, "Yeah, okay, Dave, we know, right?
Okay. Uh but um let me point out some things.
So first of all, what Jesus says people know is the um is the mystery of the
kingdom. You you youoni, you know the mystery of the kingdom. Therefore, you have seen and heard things.
Is this the mystery of the kingdom? Well, let me point out a couple things. First of all, late in the sermon, there's this interesting verse.
Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and do with them. So we so we have Oh,
interesting. So we have we have three things, right? Because we have see and hear and we have hear and do. So we have see, hear, and do.
Mhm.
Right. So, so if these are the mysteries that seem to be, it seems to be the things that you see, that you hear,
and that you do. Now, this is actually uh super provocative because the mysteries at Elusus, now they're not the
only mysteries are the mysteries of Deer. Eleus is a small village outside of Athens that basically this is the only thing they were famous for, right?
once a year, week long or two weeks long mysteries.
And we never really talked about mysteries. So maybe now's the right time.
Um what are the mysteries? So the great age of the mysteries,
hard to know when to start it. At least by 600 BC, it seems to be in full swing. Okay.
But stuff may be older than that. For example, uh uh Carl Corini thought that the archaeology at Elus is indicated that as far back as 1500 BC.
And you're talking just Greek.
This is just Greek. Now I'm going to that this is excellent point. Yeah.
Yeah. So um the uh at at Ephesus and we'll talk a little more about Ephesus in a few minutes. Um they may they may
have had as late as early as 1100 BC had mysteries of Artemis going. But we know for sure that by 300 they were going
because one of Alexander the Great's generals, Alexander dies, the generals start tearing the empire up. Lysmicus takes the city of Ephesus and one of the
things that in the record is he reorganizes the mystery. So they were already going by 300. Like we know that,
right? Uh and we know they went they went on we we all these all went on beyond the time of Jesus into like the
4th century AD. Have you been to Ephesus?
Yes. We may talk a little about Ephesus because because I want to I want to end with a quote from Ephesians. Okay.
Because that is basically Paul writing the mystery city and talking about mysteries. Yeah. Okay.
So, um some people some the these are like the opinions of classicists, right?
Some people think that that they go back to Cree that to to Masonian Greece. So,
we're talking about like 1200 BC. But again, by 600 BC, they're in full swing.
Now having said that the Greeks themselves said we got this stuff from the Egyptians. Okay. Heroditus says this in
his histories and uh and Yamblas in day mysteries talks about the mysteries we
got from the Egyptians. Okay. So when did this stuff start to among the Egyptians? Well, what what is this
stuff? The mysteries are at the core of them seems that they they are sacred plays. It's a sacred play you
participate in. Different mysteries may have had different objects, but very commonly you you met a divine being,
right? And so it was it was preparing for that. You participated in a sacred story that led you to that meeting. So
you were an actor. your actor on a stage and and you may have had a the version of the story may be a little different from the public version of the story. Okay, we we don't know. Sure,
people are pretty good at keeping the secret about what actually happened in the mystery. So, we have we have guesses. We have literature that seems to allude to it. And then we have late,
we have um shoot, what's it called? I just read it.
It's I think it's called the reputation of all heresies or something. It's by an anonymous writer. I may have the title wrong, my apologies. And it's a big fat
book because he goes to refute all the heresies and like he has chapters, short chapters on all the major Greek philosophers.
Thales was wrong because blah blah blah Aristotle, right? He's all the heresies is going after him. Um, and he goes
after the mysteries and and and some of what he says may be accurate, right? So,
we don't really know what the plays were. We don't really know what people did. What were they getting out of it? Well,
it may have varied by mystery, but but in at least in some cases, we know that they were uh that they were experiencing
like a death and rebirth. And so that they were they regarded their new life as already being divine, as already
being post-resurrection. Or maybe psychologically it was sort of practice for death and rebirth, right? so that
you could go to death fearless because you had experienced the little death like we saw in the mount of transfiguration. They they fall down and
Jesus raises them up, right? Um but some kind of some kind of um change in your sacred status, your onlogical status,
right? You become a you gain titles. So in the mysteries of Eusus there actually there were lesser mysteries at a little
village littleer village nearby and then there was the greater mysteries at Elusus and you went through the first one you became called a museace which
which may literally mean a person who keeps his mouth shut and then um you went through the second one you became
an epopase which means the person who has seen. Now, that's interesting because we're we're going to get back to this sea here. Do right.
So, um how old is this? Did Egypt do similar stuff? Man, it it seems they did. They did.
So, and how old was it? Like fifth dynasty, the pyramid texts, yes, seem to talk about this stuff.
And where did the pyramid text come from? You have to ask yourself that always. It's like, well, that's as far back as we know. But where did they get this?
Right. So, we're talking 2500 BC. And then where did it where was it before that?
Well, you can look at the Shabbaka stone. I mean, the Shbaka stone I want to say what year that is, but it's referring back to a a a papyrus,
right? It claims that the papyrus is found. It's all eaten up by worms. I have renewed it by engraving it in stone. I think the Shabbakos itself is like,200 BC. That sounds about right.
Yes. So, how old is the papyrus?
Exactly. It purports to be the oldest document in the world. That basically, right? So, what do these mysteries?
There's various kinds of mysteries from Egypt and Egyptologists. So, so these the discussion of the mysteries has kind of gotten segregated because because over in classicists, they they really
just want to talk about the Greco Roman ones,
right? They don't want to talk about Egypt. So, they just it's not they don't they don't argue about it. They just don't talk about them. So, they're they're talking about Demeter, Mithris,
uh Artemis, uh you know, Or Orpheus, Dionis, all that stuff, right? What were the Egyptian mysteries? Well,
there's various. So, um, what's in the pyramid text are sort of ritual texts
and and translators will often call them spells for turning Pharaoh into a god.
Spells and magic even.
Yeah. Which is interesting because the Egyptian word that's translated as magic is Heka, but but that's the same word that's described that is used to
describe the god's power to create. So like we run up against our sort of 21st century prejudices where like magic is the bad thing but like is it
it's paganism being the bad thing for for sure for believing scholars paganism is the bad thing
and for non-believing scholars it's just religion is the bad thing. So magic fits both of those.
Yes. Well and here again by the way we're in the um seeing things on different shelves than they were originally on.
Right. Christianity is not like them.
There's a lot of reason to think that it is actually, right? My religion is not like magic. But like from some optics
that actually some of it belongs on the same aisle. Mhm.
All right. So other mysteries uh there's a mystery play of the succession. So uh and and I don't know all these exhaustively but but so uh for example
Henry Frank in his very classic the kingship and the gods. Um, not very many Egyptological books go into like multiple printings and additions because
they but this is one of them. Okay. He talks about when the old king is dead and the new king is uh is on the throne.
There is a mystery play that is performed for the benefit of I we don't know who. Maybe it's nobles attending or
whatever that basically stars the new king and ends in an embrace between the new king and the dead king. Mark or
someone standing in for the dead king maybe showing the transfer of divine power from the dead king to the new king from
Osiris to Horus the father to son right this is a mystery play there's also uh
uh the um uh I read recently there there are mysteries of raw we have texts that
that describe mystery plays that are enacted and they say they're enacted by Pharaoh but like if that's real then he
never slept So they're probably enacted by priests on his behalf, right? People acting as pharaoh.
There are some places where the pharaoh was actually supposed to apparently was actually involved every day.
Yeah. And if you're that guy, he must have learned the sort of micronapping tactics, right? sleep for five minutes,
get up for two hours, sleep for because because the the mysteries of RAW um are that priests would ritually sail
the boat the the Soar boat, the boat of Raw through the night, the 12 hours of the night. Anciently an hour was not a
fixed unit of time. It was 112th of either the day or the night. So it was longer or shorter depending on the season. Mhm. Okay. So during the 12 hours of night,
there was there's a mystery. there's a play that's enacted and priests. Now, of course, another answer could be maybe it wasn't done every day. Maybe it was done
once a year or maybe priest did it 364 days and on a special day the king himself did it. But it was a play where
every hour the king on his boat as raw confronted some uh supernatural barrier some some you know Apoist the serpent
character a character right an actor in the play to defeat them to ensure that the sun would sail out of the gates of
dawn in the morning and rise again or to give the right keyword in some cases.
Yes. Yes. 100%. meaning they it wasn't necessarily the case that the king speared the serpent, right?
The king might we were talking about this this morning in the stick of Joseph in the hymn of the pearl when the protagonist finds the pearl and there's a serpent there. How does the
protagonist get you know you how do you get the pearl? Um he chants three names.
He chants the name of his father and the name of his mother and the name of his brother who is their second. He's the senior son.
Those things put the serpent to sleep.
Then he takes the pearl and is able to return home and be clothed in his royal robes again. Key words.
Yeah. By the way, this is that's straight up mystery stuff, too.
So, so, right. So, so this is the context is is is in the time when Matthew wrote, if you
include Egypt, man, for sure this stuff's been going on in some form in the area for two and a half millennia,
right? If you don't include Egypt, if you take the most conservative estimates, like it's still been going full swing for 600 years, right? This
these ritual dramas in which you participate to meet God and to gain special blessings. Okay? Now,
specifically, I forget who this is, but but it's famous specifically with respect to Elusus, there are said to be three components to the mystery. It's
Tad Droa. Todd just means the Okay, so I'll leave that off. broa which is things that are enacted, things that are performed, things that are done. Okay?
And and people think this means the play.
There's a play. There's lega, which is things that are said, and there is dumina, which is things that are shown.
What's the last one? Dumina. Droma.
Things that are done, things that are said, things that are shown. So super done, said shown. It's super interesting that Matthew about whatever the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are says there are things that you see,
things that you hear, and things that you do.
Right? It's not the same words, but it seems to be the same ideas. Okay. Interesting.
Now, by the way, and and I won't go through and I won't go through and read all of these.
Is is the sermon on the mount the mystery of the kingdom? Well, I will tell you that the kingdom of heaven any
commentator will say this is at least a major theme. It appears in nine different verses.
Okay? And in fact, it is of the of the seven biatitude blessings. You can count the biatitudes different ways. You can get to as many as 10 if you include everything that might be a biatitude.
But there are definitely seven blessings. But one of them is repeated.
And so and the one that is repeated is the kingdom. Theirs is the kingdom. It's the first and it's the last. Right? So,
so the so commenters will say, well,
this is a this is a uh a text about how to be a citizen in the kingdom of God. I
think that's not wrong, right? But I think it's actually specifically about how to enter.
Yes. how to be a citizen, but also how do I enter in the kingdom of God? So,
you know, for example, and and I'm I'm not going to again, we could talk through and sort of say what do I think is the ritual go that's the three-hour conversation. Not going to do that.
Um but uh but as late as the end of there there are three tents on the Mount of Transfiguration. There are three
rooms in Solomon's temple. There are three chapters in the sermon on the mount. So as late as the end of Matthew 6, so in terms of staging, we're winding
up in room two and we get this instruction, seek ye first the kingdom of God. So right, and there have been
like five references, six references before now. We've been promised the kingdom. We've had comments about the kingdom and and still here as we're
finishing up in room two, getting ready to go into room three, we're being told to seek the kingdom of God, right? And then what happens in in room three,
Matthew 7, you uh right, Matthew 6:33,
seek zete, the kingdom. Matthew 7:7, ask it should be given unto you. Seek,
that's zete, same word. You shall find,
it shall be opened unto you. What am I asking, seeking, and knocking to get? I think the answer is the kingdom. That's what you were told to seek. So, you come here and you're seeking the kingdom. Uh,
and by the way, the very last reference is in verse 21, which seems to be at the moment of judgment. Not everyone you get
through the you ask, seek, knock, you get through the straight gate and the narrow way. You see the tree with good fruit. Not everyone that saith to me,
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. This is the decision. Some are entering now. Some are not. He that doeth the will of my father which is in
heaven. Right? And and if you pass, this is your moment of judgment. If you pass,
you enter the kingdom of heaven. If you don't, verse 23, depart from me, ye that work um iniquity.
So So I've said this in much more length elsewhere. I will say it in much more length again, but for this conversation,
uh I think that the sermon on the mount is the mystery. And that's wonderful because it's going to require
imagination, man. Especially for someone who has no experience of a mystery experience themsself
to see what I'm talking about. But you can you can describe it. So, like the book I'm working on is actually like
before I get into the sermon on the mount, I have a chapter that's written like a short story that says here's the experience. This is what I'm