Romans 11:25 : For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. In the New Testament the word mystery usually refers to things not before revealed, but not always. (See 1 Timothy 3:9; 1 Timothy 3:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:7).Things too great for finite minds to comprehend are mysteries. The mystery of this verse 25 is, that "a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." That statement itself is somewhat of a mystery, for Paul does not reveal to us what the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles is. What Paul does not say, some commentators and other writers fill in with their own assumptions. It is assumed by some that "the fulness of the Gentiles" means that all Gentiles will be finally converted to Christ, and that will be followed by the conversion of the whole Jewish race. Some future kingdom advocates interpret "the fulness of the Gentiles" as the full count of the Gentiles that is, when the Lord gathered out of the Gentiles the full number he wants for rulers in the supposed future kingdom, then evangelism among them will cease, and the Jews will then turn to Christ. These are baseless assumptions. It is assumed that the preposition "until" shows that this hardening of a part of the Jews would continue only "until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in," then the whole Jewish race would turn to Christ. But the preposition "until" does not tell what will follow the event or events mentioned in the phrase it introduces, or governs. Consider a few examples. "And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month" (Genesis 8:5). That does not indicate any change after the tenth month the record shows that the waters continued to decrease for some time. "Thy servants have been keepers of cattle from our youth even until now" (Genesis 46:34). This does not mean that they would quit the cattle business at that time, and turn to something else; but it was to be the basis of a plea to Pharaoh that they be allowed to continue in the same business. "And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death" (1 Samuel 15:35). That implies nothing as to what Samuel did after the death of Saul. "My Father worketh even until now" (John 5:17). And of course he kept on working as he had always done. "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together until now" (Romans 8:22). And Paul did not mean that any change would follow the writing of that letter. The whole creation continues to groan and travail even now as they did before Paul penned those words. And so, what change took place, or whether any change occurred, after the things mentioned in the "until" phrase, cannot be determined by that phrase, nor by the other part of the sentence. Now, if we must deal in suppositions, and must draw conclusions about "un-til," why not suppose things that are in harmony with what actually occurred? As the church became more and more made up of Gentile members, hardness among the Jews increased until the church became almost, if not entirely, Gentile in membership--until the fulness of the Gentiles came in; then the hardness among the Jews apparently became complete. If this is not what Paul meant, it is, at least, what really occurred. And aside from inspired interpretations, are not developments the best commentary on a prophecy?