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unwillingness to reveal his divine identity. Although Jesus is the Son of God,
he purposely tells disciples not to reveal his wondrous works to others, with
the consequence, however, that only the demons are the only ones who
divulges his identity. This was proposed by the German scholar W. Wrede in
occurrence in the Gospel of Mark and has been among one the enigmatic
features in dealing with the said Gospel, albeit few parallel stories are found
Jesus himself, on certain occasions, did not wish to divulge His being the
OBSERVABLE DATA
the demons that he drove out (1:34; 3:12), upon those whom He cured (1:44;
5:43; 7:36; 8:26), upon the disciples (8:30; 9:9). In the Gospel of Matthew,
only these last two verses runs parallel to the story, otherwise there are no
other instances. Moreover, in Luke only some few examples like the incident
of casting away the demons in Lk 4:35, 41 and to those who received His
1
Raymond Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament (NY: Doubleday, 1997), 153.
2
A. Robert and A. Feuillet, Introduction to the New Testament (NY: Desclee Company: 1965), 209-210.
Other details in Mark’s Gospel display this same aspiration of Jesus,
especially in the many instances when he cured sick people, which were
done away from a relatively large crowd. What’s the purpose why He had to
do this away from them? One can somehow conclude the implicit message
that Jesus desired not to show this act of curing, which might somehow give
the people some clues of His being the Messiah. Moreover, in these healings,
it is obvious that the disciples were not able to completely comprehend such
miraculous actions of their Teacher. Somehow they felt that these events
were beyond their simple minds (Mk 4:41; 10:35, 41 ff.). Finally, the reason
given for the preaching of the parables was the desire to hide the mystery
Very compelling was when, in the middle part of the Gospel, Peter
recognizes that Jesus is God’s messiah and is immediately told not to tell
and healer but commands people to remain silent when they would conclude
his disciples that his being a Messiah is to suffer and die ((Mk 8:31-33) and is
Testament and was still being believed in the Jewish traditions during his
time. This meant that Jesus was trying to correct his disciples’ mentality as
regards his messianic duty as someone invested by God with special political
functions and powers.5 On the contrary, Jesus tells them that He is destined
3
Pheme Perkins, Reading the New Testament (Makati City: St. Pauls Philippines,1994), 205.
4
Perkins, Reading the New Testament, 205.
5
Gerard O’ Collins, Interpreting Jesus (NJ: Paulist Press, 1983), 65.
to die on the cross. This runs parallel with the idea that Jesus Christ
“consistently behaved like one who identified himself as the Servant”, which
has been mentioned four times in the book of the prophet Isaiah, specifically
INTERPRETATIONS
prompted his disciples to keep his messianic identity. Some scholars believe
primitive Christian community that was anxious to proclaim and explain the
humble nature of Jesus’ life. Then there are those who believe that this is
merely a literary style. But there are also those who think that this was Jesus’
carnal way and that Jesus did not want his contemporaries to be distracted
by revealing too openly his divinity, otherwise they would not be able stand
it. Succinctly, scholars are divided as to what really is the main reason of
One thing is certain: Jesus did not directly proclaim his identity as
messiah to the point that in reading the Gospels, we cannot read explicit
6
O’ Collins, Interpreting Jesus, 61.
7
A. Robert and A. Feuillet, Introduction to the New Testament, 211.
reveal openly his being a Messiah, but only as a suffering figure. As what O’
Collins mentions, Jesus could have been “aware that it was only through his
messianic deliverer.”8
CONCLUSION
It is clear that in Mark, Jesus could not say openly who He was until He
had shown the meaning of His titles by His death. It is fair to say that in
Mark, the desire of Jesus to keep the Messianic secret has been
of the Passion is even being toned down. Luke does a similar thing as that of
Matthew.
in Mark. This reality tells us that one cannot fully comprehend only by means
of human faculties. To understand Jesus, one must have faith. The readers of
the Gospel of Mark are actually invited to look deeper into the person of
Christ, beyond that which seems to be merely human, but truly is the Son of
God, the divine being, the one true Messiah, sent by God the Father to the
world.
8
O’ Collins, Interpreting Jesus, 67.
9
A. Robert and A. Feuillet, Introduction to the New Testament, 210.