I don’t believe that Paul is unique in that. We are all personally uniquely mentored by Christ.
what it sounds like you are suggesting is that there are incomprehensible truths in the Bible that will never be known by anyone.
I don’t think that “incomprehensible is the right word here. We have not yet found all of the gold that God put in this Earth. So it is that scripture has not yet yielded up all of her treasure. It is not that we cannot understand it, but rather that God has given such a bounty that we cannot contain it.
As far as the OT writers, I think they had a belief in the Christ to come.
I agree. When it comes to the Old Testament characters, I will switch side on this issue. I think men like Abraham could have had comparable understanding to Paul, even without access to the scriptures. “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.” I also think we have access to the same level of understanding today.
I see two competing features here. Sin like leaven will continue to spread until the whole is leavened. As the darkness increases, God is adding light so that the contrast remains the same. First God gave types, then scriptures, now he is adding knowledge. As men get older, their eyes don’t see as well. So it is with mankind.
OTOH, you could be right, I admit I am not certain about this.
I certainly agree that we are all individually mentored by Christ. I was thinking of the passage in Galatians:
Gal. 1:11-12, 15-18a : 11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any human source, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. ... 15 But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus. 18 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem ....
I've just always taken this to mean that Paul's "hearing" of the word was different from the rest of us. It seems like he really was locked in a closet alone with God.
We have not yet found all of the gold that God put in this Earth. So it is that scripture has not yet yielded up all of her treasure. It is not that we cannot understand it, but rather that God has given such a bounty that we cannot contain it.
That sounds reasonable to me. I do not think any one person (among us humans during life) probably ever has or probably ever will completely "get it" when it comes to all scripture.
“Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.” I also think we have access to the same level of understanding today.
Good quote. I can't argue with "access" because you and I will know and have the exact understanding of any issue that God wants us to have, up to and including the level of an OT writer or an Apostle. However, and not that you suggested it, I would struggle with the idea of me potentially having a "better" understanding than a writer on "his subject", even if based on other scripture that I have and he didn't. Anyway, I think you cut to the chase. We will know what God wants us to know, regardless.