And charged them that they should not make him known:
Read Chapter 12
Hilary of Poitiers
AD 368
He ordered those whom he healed to be silent. Was it silence about the healing that he ordered? Not at all. For the salvation that was given to each one was its own testimony. But by ordering it to be kept secret Jesus also shunned boasting about himself. It was better that knowledge of him remains in himself. So he admonished them to remain silent about him. The observance of silence springs from that about which one must keep silent.
But do thou observe, I pray you, how He neither desists from His tender care over the infirm, and yet allays their envy. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all; and He charged them that were healed, that they should make Him known to no man. Because, while the multitudes everywhere both admire and follow Him, they desist not from their wickedness.
Then, lest you should be confounded at what is going on, and at their strange frenzy, He introduces the prophet also, foretelling all this. For so great was the accuracy of the prophets, that they omit not even these things, but foretell His very journeyings, and changes of place, and the intent with which He acted therein; that you might learn, how they spoke all by the Spirit. For if the secrets of men cannot by any art be known, much more were it impossible to learn Christ's purpose, except the Spirit revealed it. 1 Corinthians 2:11
