MATTHEW 12:16 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“And charged them that they should not make him known:”
And he ordered them not to make him known. The command to secrecy after healing is one of the recurring features of the Matthean narrative that the following verse will explain in terms of Isaiah's Servant. The command not to make him known reflects the strategic timing of Jesus' ministry: the confrontation that will lead to the cross is approaching, and premature public announcement of his identity would accelerate the timeline before the appointed moment.
Church Fathers on Matthew 12:16
The Pharisees are moved with jealousy at what had been done; because beholding the outward body of a man, they did not recognize the God in His works; 'The Pharisees sent out and sought counsel against him, how they ought destroy him.'
He says, 'went out' because their mind was alien from the Lord. They took counsel how they might destroy life, not how themselves might find life.
Knowing, that is, their designs against Him withdrew Himself, that He might remove from the Pharisees all opportunity of sin.
Read all 32 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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