The Messianic Secret

Volumes have been written about the final verse in our pericope of Mark. (Mk 8:30) Why would Yeshua tell his Talmidim to keep silent concerning his being Messiah? The other writers who have offered different levels of perspective on Yeshua’ life have recorded this event as well. However, I believe that we have sufficient information in the p’shat of Mordechai to answer this question. Below I offer some possible answers to the problem. I will offer the opinions of other scholars and then my opinion in conclusion.

It is obvious that Yeshua is in a foreign environment as we have already stated. Perhaps Yeshua does not want his Talmidim broadcasting the revelation of Messiah-ship in this foreign environment. The thought goes that Yeshua did not want this “secret” broadcast because there may be a veiled anti-Semitism in this foreign location. However, in my mind this is not really a good answer. Though plausible, I believe that there is a better answer in the history of his life as recorded by Mordechai.

Others suggest that Yeshua was really trying to tell his Talmidim to tell everyone that he was Messiah in some sort of antithetical way. By telling his Talmidim not to tell, he knew that they would tell everyone. Again, while this may be plausible I do not think this is the real crux of the story.

Other scholars go so far as to suggest that this was never really a part of the original story. It was added later to solve some literary problem. Again, I do not buy this thesis. When scholars start hacking up text at their whim they can make any story they like. They can cut and paste until they have the story they want to tell. Beware of the hackers!

There are other examples in the Mesorah of Mordechai where Yeshua follows the same practice. (see 1:34; 7:36; 8:26) While I believe that Mordecahi and his master T’sfet are far more ingenious than we ever gave them credit for, I believe the answer is really quite simple. Why don’t we let Yeshua simply be who he really is? He is a chakham and tzadik. A real chakham and tzadik does not need to advertize his intelligence and wisdom. If you are a real chakham, you do not have to tell anyone. They know it instinctively when they hear you speak. I have translated the relative verse as follows. “And to show his honor he asked them to tell no one about Him.” The Greek word “epitimao” contains the following dictionary trace from the Liddel Scott, which defines the classic Greek, and the Thayer, which is one of the better lexicons of our day.

[Liddell Scott] evpitima,w

evpi&ti¯ma,w, f. h,sw, to lay a value upon, Lat. aestimare: hence, 1. to shew honour to, tina, Hdt. 2. to raise in price:-Pass. to rise in price, Dem. II. of judges, to lay a penalty on a person, Hdt. 2. c. acc. to censure, Dem.; also c. dat., Id.: absol., Thuc. Hence evpiti,mhsij

[Thayer] evpitima,w

evpitima,w, evpiti,mw; imperfect 3 person singular evpeti,ma, 3 person plural evpeti,mwn; 1 aorist evpeti,mhsa; the Septuagint for r[;G”; in Greek writings 1. to show honor to, to honor: tina, Herodotus 6, 39. 2. to raise the price of: o` si/toj evpetimhqh, Demosthenes 918, 22; others. 3. to adjudge, award (from timh, in the sense of merited penalty): th,n di,khn, Herodotus 4, 43. 4. to tax with fault, rate, chide, rebuke, reprove, censure severely,

Thayer tells us in #4 that there can be a rebuke. However, I do not believe that this even fits the context of the narrative. Unless there is something that we do not see and are not told Yeshua has no need to “rebuke” T’sfet or his talmidim. While the word evpitima,w is paralleled by the Hebrew word r[;G in the Septuagint we must still maintain the context of the narrative.

Because Yeshua is an honorable Tzadik, he does not need his Messiah-ship broadcast. His righteousness will speak for itself. Soon enough everyone will know the true nature of his Messianic character.