MYRRH

in Roman times Myra became the chief seaport of Lycia, and was recognized by Theodosius as the capital. It grew especially through the Alexandrian corn-trade with Italy. The Alexandrian ships did not coast round the Levant, but took advantage of the steady west winds to cross direct between Lycia and Egypt. These winds made it easier for a ship sailing from Egypt to make for Myra, but a ship sailing to Egypt would be sailing more before the wind by taking a line from Patara. Doubtless this was the usual custom. In Ac 27' we read that the centurion in charge of St. Paul found at Myra 'a ship of Alexandria saiUng to Italy'; whereas in Ac 21' St. Paul took ship direct from Patara to Tyre (though the Bezan text makes this ship touch at Myra). Myra retained its importance into the Middle Ages. Its bishop in the time of Constantine was St. Nicolas, and he became the patron saint of sailors in the E. Mediterranean, doubtless taking the place of a Lycian god to whom the sailors paid their vows on landing at Myra. ^There are splendid ruins on the site of Myra. A. E. Hillahd.

MYRRH. — 1. mor (Arab, murr), the dried gum of a species of balsam {Baisamodendron myrrha) growing in Arabia and India. It has a pleasant, though faint, smell (Ps 458, Pr 7", Ca l'» 36). It is stiU used in medicine (Mk 15^). It was used in embalming (Jn 19''). According to Schweinfurth, the myrrh of the OT was a liquid product of the Balsamodendron opobalsamum, known as balsam of Mecca. Ex 30^3 and Ca S^- ", where the ' myrrh ' appears to have been liquid, support this view. See also Ointment.

2. IBt, tr. "myrrh' in Gn 37^ 43", is a fragrant resin from the Cistus or 'rock rose,' a common Palestine shrub. In Arab, this is called lOdtmn (Lat. ladanum, so RVm). As a product of Palestine it was a likely substance to send to Egypt.

E. W. G. Masterman

MYRTLE (.Kadas, Is 41" 55is, Zee l*- '", Neh 8"; also as a name Hadassah=' Esther ' [Est 2')). — Myrtus communis is an evergreen shrub much [prized in Palestine. It grows wUd in the mountains, especially on Carmel and in Gilead, but is also widely cultivated. It sometimes reaches a height of ten feet, but is usually much less. Its dark green leaves, pretty white flowers, and dark berries, which are eaten, are all much admired. It is still regularly used by the Jews in the Feast of Tabernacles (Neh 8'^). E. W. G. Masterman.

MYSIA was a district in the N.W. of Asia Minor, S. of the Propontis and Hellespont. It derived its name from the Mysi, a Thracian tribe who probably entered Asia with the Phrygians. At no period were its bound- aries strictly defined. It formed part of the domimons of the Persians and of Alexander. From B.C. 280 it was part of the kingdom of Pergamus, and therefore fell to the Romans in b.c. 133, becoming part of the province of Asia. The only mention of it in the Bible is Ac 16'- *, where St. Paul passed through it on his second missionary journey. A tradition assigned the evangelization of part of Mysia to a certain Onesiphorus, who was martyred at Parium when Adrian was proconsul of Asia, a.d. 109-114. See Assos, Tkoas, Adramyttitjm, aU of which places were reckoned to Mysia. A. E. Hillahd.

MYSTERY.—

The Greek mysterion in Christian Latin became Tny-sterium, and thus passed into modem languages. The kindred mystic and mystofiogite, imported directly from the Greek, point to the primary significance of tins word. In 8 N'T passages the Latin Vulgate replaced mysteriwm by the alien rendering sacramentwm^ (the soldier's oath of allegiance), which has taken on, with modifications, the meaning of the original.

In common parlance, 'mystery' has become synony-mous with 'secret' (a usage peculiar to the LXX in extant Greek: see Sir 22«, 2 Mac 13» etc.), signi-fying a bafSing, recondite secret. Divine doctrines or deaUngs of Providence are said to be 'mysterious' when we fail to reconcile them with accepted prin-

MYSTERY

ciples, though presuming the reconciliation abstractly possible. Primarily, however, the NT mysterion is not something dark and difficult in its nature, but some-thing reserved and hidden of set purpose, — as in Ro 16M 'the mystery held in silence for eternal ages.' It connotes that which 'can only be known on being imparted by some one already in possession of it, not by mere reason and research which are common to all.'

In its familiar classical use the word amounted almost to a proper noun. ' The Mysteries ' were a body of sacred observances connected with the worship of certain Hellenic deities (chiefly those representing the primitive Nature-powers), which were practised in retreat, and which bound their initiates into a religious confraternity. The higher of these Mysteries conveyed, under their symboUc dress, a connected esoteric doctrine — -vague, it may have been, but impressive — bearing on the origin of life, on sin and atonement, and the bliss or woe of man's future state, the basis of which was found in the course of the seasons, in the conflict of Ught and darkness, and the yearly parables of the seed-corn and the vine-Juice. The Eleusinian Mysteries, annually celebrated in Attica, attracted visitors from the whole civilized world, and appear to have exerted a salutary influence on Pagan society. The distinctions of country, rank, or sex were no bar to participation; only slaves and criminals were excluded from the rites. "These were the most famous of a host of Mysteries, many of them of a passionate and even frantic, some of a disgraceful, character, which were rife in the Grseco-Roman world at the Christian era; they formed, says Renan, 'the serious part of Pagan religion.' The Greek Mysteries were already rivalled in popularity by the Egyptian cults of Isis and Serapis, and subse-quently by the Persian Mithraism, which spread in the 3rd cent, to the bounds of the Empire. These associa-tions supplied what was lacking in the civic and family worships of ancient heathendom, — viz. emotion, edifica-tion, and moral fellowship.

The term 'mystery,' with its allied expressions in the NT, must be read in the Ught of these institutions, which preoccupied the ground and were known wherever the Greek language was current. Christianity found its closest points of contact with Paganism, and the com-petition most dangerous to it, in 'the Mysteries'; its phraseology and customs — in the case of the Sacraments, possibly, its doctrinal conceptions as these took shape during -the first five centuries — bear the marks of their influence. This influence betrays itself first in the Apocrypha, when the writer of Wisdom speaks in 2^ of 'mysteries of God' hidden from the imworthy, and, Uke the Apostle Paul, promises to disclose ' the mysteries ' of Divine wisdom (6^2) to his readers; in 14"- ^, the Gentile 'mysteries and initiatory rites' are mentioned with abhorrence. The NT affords 27 or (including the dubious reading of 1 Co 2') 28 examples of the word, — 3 of these in Mt 13" and the Synoptic parallels, 4 in Rev. (1™ 10' 175- '), the other 20 (or 21) in Paul; of the latter, 10 belong to Eph. and Col., 5 (or 6) to 1 Cor.

The N'T usages are distinguished as they are wider or narrower in application: (1) in Rev 10', 'the mystery of God ' covers the entire process of revelation; in 1 Tl 3" 'the mystery of godUness,' and in 1 Co 2' 'the wisdom of God in a mystery,' embrace the whole incarnate manifestation hidden up to this epoch in the womb of time (Ro lO**'), which is summed up by Col 2^ as 'the mystery of God, even Christ.' 'Themystery of lawlessness' (2 Th 2'), culminating in the 'parousia' of Antichrist, presents the counterpart of the Divine mystery in the realm of evil.

Or (2) ' the mystery ' consists in some specific revela-tion, some previously veiled design of God — as in the Eph.-Col. passages, where St. Paul thus describes God's plan for saving the Gentile world. He points out (Ro 112') the shadow attending this great disclosure in 'the mystery' of the 'hardening' that has 'in part

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