Mark 8 · a question people ask
Why did Jesus command them to "tell no one about him" (8:30)?
Peter answered, "You are the Christ" (8:29), and "He commanded them that they should tell no one about him" (8:30). Mark gives no reason in this verse, and it isn't the first such command. To a man he made clean Jesus said, "See that you say nothing to anybody" (1:44). "He sternly warned them that they should not make him known" (3:12), of the unclean spirits. When the girl rose up (5:42), "He strictly ordered them that no one should know this" (5:43). With the deaf man who could now hear and speak (7:32-35), "He commanded them that they should tell no one" (7:36). In this chapter he sends the blind man home: "Don’t enter into the village, nor tell anyone in the village" (8:26). Some told anyway: the man made clean "began to proclaim it much" (1:45), and in chapter 7, "the more he commanded them, so much the more widely they proclaimed it" (7:36). Once Mark gives a reason: "He didn’t allow the demons to speak, because they knew him" (1:34). Christians who share the same beliefs read why Jesus said it in more than one way, and these are the main readings. Many hold both together, in differing measure. All agree on what Mark tells: the commands were real, some told anyway, and Peter's answer stands: "You are the Christ" (8:29).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Understood through his suffering and rising
Those who hold this view start from 9:9: coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded three of his disciples "that they should tell no one what things they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead" (9:9). Right after Peter's answer, "He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things" (8:31), and when "He spoke to them openly" (8:32), "Peter took him and began to rebuke him" (8:32). Only at his trial, when the high priest asks, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?", does Jesus answer, "I am" (14:61-62). They read the silence as keeping who he is until it could be understood through his suffering and rising.
Mark 9:9 · Mark 8:31-33 · Mark 14:61-62
So the work could go on
Those who hold this view start from what happened when the man made clean told it anyway: he began "to spread about the matter, so that Jesus could no more openly enter into a city, but was outside in desert places" (1:45). In chapter 3, "The Pharisees went out, and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him" (3:6). Then Jesus told his disciples that a little boat should stay near him "because of the crowd, so that they wouldn’t press on him" (3:9), for "as many as had diseases pressed on him that they might touch him" (3:10). Later "He entered into a house and didn’t want anyone to know it, but he couldn’t escape notice" (7:24). And Jesus had said why he came out: "that I may preach there also, because I came out for this reason" (1:38). They read the silence as keeping the crowds and the plotting from stopping the work he had come to do.
Mark 1:45 · Mark 3:6 · Mark 3:9-10 · Mark 7:24 · Mark 1:38
The verses
“He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ.” He commanded them that they should tell no one about him.”
“and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anybody, but go show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing the things which Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.” But he went out, and began to proclaim it much, and to spread about the matter, so that Jesus could no more openly enter into a city, but was outside in desert places. People came to him from everywhere.”
“The unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, fell down before him and cried, “You are the Son of God!” He sternly warned them that they should not make him known.”
“Immediately the girl rose up and walked, for she was twelve years old. They were amazed with great amazement. He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and commanded that something should be given to her to eat.”