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All KJV Words

Archaic KJV Word

Mystery

Modern equivalent: unsolved puzzle

What Was Lost

The revealed-ness. A biblical mystery was not 'something nobody can figure out' but 'something God has now unveiled.' Paul's 'mystery of Christ' was that God's plan -- hidden for ages -- was now disclosed: Gentiles and Jews united in one body through Christ. The mystery was solved, not unsolvable.

Closest Survivor in Modern English

mystery (still used but heard as 'we can't understand it' rather than 'God has now revealed it')

Peak Usage (1611)

KJV Ephesians 3:3-4 -- 'He made known unto me the mystery...the mystery of Christ'; 1 Corinthians 2:7 -- 'The wisdom of God in a mystery'

Died still used but detective-ified (~1800)

Greek mysterion ('revealed secret/divine plan now disclosed/truth previously hidden in God but now made known through Christ') detective-ified into 'unsolved puzzle.' The revealed-secret dimension inverted into the unsolvable-riddle dimension.

What Replaced It

puzzle

Something to solve; a mysterion was something God solved by revealing it

secret

Hidden information; a mystery was specifically a secret NOW REVEALED

unknown

Unknowable; a mystery was previously unknown but now made known through Christ

Related KJV Words