Mark 1:44-45

1:44 He told him, ¹  “See that you do not say anything to anyone, ²  but go, show yourself to a priest, and bring the offering that Moses commanded ³  for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” ⁴  1:45 But as the man ⁵  went out he began to announce it publicly and spread the story widely, so that Jesus ⁶  was no longer able to enter any town openly but stayed outside in remote places. Still ⁷  they kept coming ⁸  to him from everywhere.

Mark 3:12

3:12 But ⁹  he sternly ordered them not to make him known. ¹⁰ 

Mark 5:43

5:43 He strictly ordered that no one should know about this, ¹¹  and told them to give her something to eat.

Mark 8:26

8:26 Jesus ¹²  sent him home, saying, “Do not even go into the village.” ¹³ 

¹ tn Grk “And after warning him, he immediately sent him away and told him.”

² sn The silence ordered by Jesus was probably meant to last only until the cleansing took place with the priests and sought to prevent Jesus’ healings from becoming the central focus of the people’s reaction to him. See also 1:34; 3:12; 5:43; 7:36; 8:26, 30; and 9:9 for other cases where Jesus asks for silence concerning him and his ministry.

³ sn On the phrase bring the offering that Moses commanded see Lev 14:1-32.

⁴ tn Or “as an indictment against them”; or “as proof to the people.” This phrase could be taken as referring to a positive witness to the priests, a negative testimony against them, or as a testimony to the community that the man had indeed been cured. In any case, the testimony shows that Jesus is healing and ministering to those in need.

⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the man who was healed) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Grk “and”; καί (kai) often has a mildly contrastive force, as here.

⁸ tn The imperfect verb has been translated iteratively.

⁹ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

¹⁰ sn Jesus did not permit the demons to make him known because the time for such disclosure was not yet at hand, and such a revelation would have certainly been misunderstood by the people. In all likelihood, if the people had understood him early on to be the Son of God, or Messiah, they would have reduced his mission to one of political deliverance from Roman oppression (cf. John 6:15). Jesus wanted to avoid, as much as possible, any premature misunderstanding about who he was and what he was doing. However, at the end of his ministry, he did not deny such a title when the high priest asked him (14:61-62).

¹¹ sn That no one should know about this. See the note on the phrase who he was in 3:12.

¹² tn Grk “He”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹³ tc Codex Bezae (D) replaces “Do not even go into the village” with “Go to your house, and do not tell anyone, not even in the village.” Other mss with some minor variations (Θ Ë¹³ 28 565 2542 pc) expand on this prohibition to read “Go to your house, and if you go into the village, do not tell anyone.” There are several other variants here as well. While these expansions are not part of Mark’s original text, they do accurately reflect the sense of Jesus’ prohibition.