Mark 3:12

And he straitly charged them that they should not make him known.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:6-12 All our sicknesses and calamities spring from the anger of God against our sins. Their removal, or the making them blessings to us, was purchased to us by the blood of Christ. But the plagues and diseases of our souls, of our hearts, are chiefly to be dreaded; and He can heal them also by a word. May more and more press to Christ to be healed of these plagues, and to be delivered from the enemies of their souls.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Unclean spirits - Persons who were possessed of evil spirits.

Thou art the Son of God - The Son of God, by way of eminence. In this place it is equivalent to the Messiah, who was, among the Jews, called the Son of God. Hence, they were charged not to make him known, because he was not desirous that it should be blazoned abroad that he claimed to be the Messiah. He had not yet done what he wished in order to establish his claims to the Messiahship. He was poor and unhonored, and the claim would be treated as that of an impostor. "For the present," therefore, he did not wish that it should be proclaimed abroad that he was the Messiah. The circumstance here referred to demonstrates the existence of evil spirits. If these were merely diseased or deranged persons, then it is strange that they should be endowed with knowledge so much superior to those in health. If they were under the influence of an order of spirits superior to man - whose appropriate habitation was in another world - then it is not strange that they should know him, even in the midst of his poverty, to be the Messiah, the Son of God.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 3

Mr 3:1-12. The Healing of a Withered Hand on the Sabbath Day, and Retirement of Jesus to Avoid Danger. ( = Mt 12:9-21; Lu 6:6-11).

See on [1411]Mt 12:9-21.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 12. See Poole on "Mark 3:6"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he straitly charged them,.... Or vehemently rebuked them, as the Syriac and Arabic versions render it; or threatened them much and vehemently, as the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic. The Persic version renders it, "threatened many"; both the devils that confessed him, and the many that were healed of their diseases: he gave them a strict and severe charge,

that they should not make him known; or "his work", as the Arabic, his miracles: he sought not vain glory and popular applause, nor did he need the testimony of men or devils; and especially did not choose the latter, lest his enemies should traduce him, as having familiarity with them, as they did.

Geneva Study Bible

And he straitly charged them that they should not make him known.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Mark 3:12. This sentence is reproduced in Matthew 12:16, but without special reference to demoniacs, whereby it loses much of its point.

Bengel's Gnomen

Mark 3:12. Ἵνα μὴ φανερὸν, that not manifest) It was not yet the time, nor were they the proper heralds.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - (See notes on Mark 1:44.) Mark 3:12

Vincent's Word Studies

He charged (ἐπετίμα)

The word is commonly rendered rebuke in the New Testament. In classical Greek its predominant sense is that of severe, strenuous reproach for unworthy deeds or acts. It is several times used in the New Testament, as here, in the sense of charge. In this sense the word carries, at bottom, a suggestion of a charge under penalty (τιμὴ).

That (ἵνα)

According to the A. V. and Rev. the that indicates the substance of Christ's charge. Properly, however, it indicates the intent of his charge. He charged them in order that they should not make him known.