Messianic Secret

Healing of the leper at Capernaum (Mark 1:40-45), illustrated by James Tissot, Brooklyn museum: "Careful, tell no one, but go show yourself to the priest"

The "Messianic Secret" is a common expression designating Jesus's repeated request in the Gospels not to disclose that he is the Messiah and Son of God. It originated from the work of a German theologian, William Wrede (1859-1906). His concept became a "major theme of biblical exegesis and Christian theology."

The article in the Osservatore romano commenting on the Indexing of the works of Maria Valtorta reproaches her for not respecting this discretion. It is one of the four "doctrinal" arguments considered reprehensible by the Holy Office.

The "Messianic Secret" in the Gospels

This concept is primarily set forth in the Gospel of Mark. Those of Matthew and Luke, which often reprise the same accounts as Mark (synoptics), are more nuanced. As for the Gospel of John, it stands out in contrast by an open and symbolic proclamation of Jesus's messiahship. This theme of the Messianic Secret rests almost exclusively on the Gospel of Mark.

Commentators explain this difference in approach by the diversity of expectations of the audiences to whom the Evangelists addressed themselves. This exegetical argument is understandable, but it cannot be opposed to the work of Maria Valtorta. Indeed, she does not limit herself to a partial exegesis of the Gospels but proposes a unified narration of Jesus's life, integrating both discreet and public dimensions of his messiahship. This explains why her work escapes the rigid categories of 'secret' or 'proclamation' as they appear in the segmented analyses of the evangelists. She exposes what the Evangelists will "report" later, not what each retains individually. In other words, if Jesus sometimes requests discretion about his messiahship and proclaims it elsewhere, there is a global coherence that partial analyses cannot demonstrate.

The Gospel of Mark and the Synoptics

Even though Jesus was publicly proclaimed Son of God by Heaven itself at the very beginning of his public life, Jesus requests the "secret" about his identity:

• After the expulsion of "many" demons, Mark 1:34 notes that Jesus "forbade the demons to speak, because they knew who he was." Indeed, they proclaimed him "Son of God". Luke 4:41 says the same.
• After healing a leper near Capernaum (Mark 1:44), Jesus asks him not to spread the miracle ("tell no one") but to announce his healing through ordinary channels: "Go, show yourself to the priest, and offer what Moses commanded for your purification as a testimony to them." However, the healed man hurriedly proclaimed his healing, resulting in "Jesus could no longer openly enter a town but stayed outside in deserted places." Luke 5:14 repeats the request for secrecy and its effect on Jesus’s popularity, but without attributing it to the leper. Matthew 8:3-4 reprises Jesus’s warning but without mentioning the consequences.
• After several exorcisms of possessed people mentioned collectively, Jesus "sternly ordered the unclean spirits not to make him known" (Mark 3:11-12). Indeed, they repeat: "You are the Son of God." This passage in Mark has no true counterpart in the synoptics.
• At their expulsion into a herd of pigs, the demons called "Legion" repeat their proclamation ("Son of the Most High God"), but unlike the leper of Capernaum, Jesus orders the healed man to make the event public "in the region of the Decapolis" (Mark 5:1-20). Matthew 8:28-34 reports essentially the same facts except for the public announcement. Luke 8:26-39 offers some detail variants but remains faithful to Mark’s framework, including the public announcement "to the whole town."
• After the resurrection of Jairus’s daughter, Jesus, seemingly addressing all present, "strictly charged them to tell no one" (Mark 5:43). Matthew Matthew 9:25 doesn’t mention this but in the following verses describes how Jesus healed blind men to whom he requested secrecy, which they did not observe (Matthew 9:27-31). In Luke Luke 8:56, Jesus restricts the request "to tell no one what had happened" to the parents of the resurrected girl.
• After Peter’s confession ("You are the Christ") leading to his primacy, Jesus strongly orders the Apostles "not to speak to anyone about him" (Mark 8:30). Matthew 16:16-19 is more precise about the prohibition: "Tell no one that he is the Christ." Luke does not record this episode.
• After the The Transfiguration of the Lord, Jesus orders the three Disciples present "not to tell anyone what they had seen before the Son of Man was raised from the dead" (Mark 9:2-10). Mark notes that the three Apostles firmly adhered to this instruction. Matthew 17:1-18 reports essentially the same account. Luke 9:28-42 does too, but seems to imply that their silence was self-imposed.

The Public Announcement in the Gospel

• Mark does not escape Jesus's public proclamation: From the start of his ministry Jesus proclaims himself equal to God by forgiving sins of the paralytic (Mark 2:1-12). The scribes murmured: "He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
• Seven times in Matthew, Jesus is called "Son of David." This title refers to the messianic promise made to David. Among those who honor him thus are supplicants ("Have mercy on us, Son of David!") whom he gratifies. Jesus goes further: in Matthew 22:41-46 (and parallels Mark 12:35-37 and Luke 20:41-44), he questions the Pharisees on this subject: "What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?" He relies on Psalm 109(110):1, a messianic text where David calls the Messiah "my Lord." How can the Messiah be both son of David (his descendant) and his Lord (his superior)? This question aims to reveal that the Messiah is not only a human king, but possesses a divine nature and authority that transcends the Davidic line.

• Luke 1:32 reports, from the Annunciation, the truth about Jesus’s divine and messianic origin: "He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High; the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David." However, this announcement is not public. It is otherwise with Zechariah’s canticle (Luke 1:76-77) where John the Baptist is prophesied as the precursor of the Redeemer: "You will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins." This is publicly confirmed by Heaven during Jesus’s Baptism (Luke 3:16). Beforehand, Simeon, who should not die before having seen the Christ, the Lord’s Messiah, proclaims him at the courtyard, for the young Jesus who came for His presentation at the Temple (Luke 2:26-32). But especially, Jesus himself announces it from the beginning in the synagogue of Nazareth. He quotes a very evocative passage from Isaiah and concludes: "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21).

• While the synoptics, especially Mark, emphasize Jesus's discretion, the Gospel of John takes a radically different approach, where open public proclamation of messiahship becomes central. In John’s Gospel, Jesus uses the formula "I am" multiple times to reveal himself and express his divine nature or Mission explicitly, sometimes symbolically. At the start of his public life, he manifests his power at the Wedding at Cana (John 2:11). To the Samaritan woman questioning about the Messiah, the Christ, Jesus answers clearly: "I am he, the one speaking to you" (John 4:25-26), which the Samaritan hastens to publicize (John 4:29). In his discourses, he does not hesitate to affirm his messiahship, sometimes using very strong terms: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." (John 6:35) - "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but have the light of life." (John 8:12) - "I am the door of the sheep." (John 10:7) - "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." (John 10:11) - "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live." (John 11:25) - "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) - "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser." (John 15:1). But above all, Jesus does not hesitate to claim divinity by publicly attributing to himself the divine name given to Moses, which motivated his condemnation: "If you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins." (John 8:24) - "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me." (John 8:28) - "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." (John 8:58).

Comments

These observations invite reconsideration of the scope of the 'Messianic Secret' and its interpretation by the Holy Office. Jesus does not hide his messiahship (nor his divinity), he limits its disclosure. It is Jesus himself who announces it and defines its extent. His announcement is preceded by that of the angel, prophets, God the Father at Jesus’s Baptism, who later inspire his Apostles, including Peter. These announcements qualify and validate the messiahship, but they do not define its full scope.

The Messianic Secret then appears as a protective measure for this announcement. It intervenes in a context of humanly extraordinary events (exorcisms, miraculous healings, resurrection, ...). It concerns witnesses, whether beneficiaries, demons, or Disciples.

Joachim Jeremias (1900-1979), a compatriot of William Wrede whom he criticizes, gives the 'Messianic Secret' a more historical nuance. He converges in this regard with the work of Maria Valtorta. Like her, he is concerned with going beyond the texts toward the historical figure of Jesus, in whom the believer discovers God himself. Indeed, in first-century Judaism under Roman occupation, the term "Messiah" was laden with political and national connotations (a military liberator). Jesus, by avoiding this title, leads to redefining messiahship in spiritual and suffering terms.

For Benedict XVI: "The ‘Messianic Secret’ is not a stratagem but an education to true faith, which does not rely on signs but on the Word and the cross." These two complementary viewpoints (historical and theological) form the framework within which one can discover what Maria Valtorta says about it.

The "Messianic Secret" in Maria Valtorta

Here are some examples:

With the beneficiaries of miracles

• Samuel, the leper healed near Capernaum, is brought to Jesus by his friend Abel, himself miraculously healed. The latter urges him to Believe: "This, Rabbi, is the Messiah, do you understand? The Messiah! He is the Son of God. He heals all who have faith.". Samuel believes but doubts he is worthy of such a favor. Once healed, Jesus asks him to keep silent about what was done to him but offers no explanation. This must doubtless be linked not to the 'Messianic Secret', but to the ritual impurity contracted by Jesus when touching the leper, which the Evangelists indicate as does Maria Valtorta. Jesus, through this contact, was excluded from worship during the time of formal purification. If the healed man hastens to proclaim his healing afterward, it is not out of disobedience but evangelical zeal: "It was easy for me to speak there [mountains of Nephtali]," says Jesus, "because someone had already made me known and brought others to Believe in me."
• At the resurrection of Miryam, Jairus’s daughter, Jesus says: "Do not tell anyone what happened. You know what happened to her, you believed and deserved the miracle. The others did not have faith; it is useless to try to persuade them. To those who deny the miracle, God does not manifest himself." He conditions faith on the miracle, which is evangelical teaching. In another episode, he explains: "One does not ask for miracles to believe. One asks for faith to believe and thus obtain the miracle." This is echoed, in other words, in the Letter to the Hebrews: "Without faith it is impossible to please God; for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." (Hebrews 11:6). "Go; your faith has saved you," Jesus repeats in the canonical Gospel.

Despite Satan’s opposition

• The announcement by the demons whom Jesus expels is a truth he nevertheless proclaims himself. But this announcement comes from an impure source to serve what will be the cause of his death. Jesus punishes it. Its meaning is found in the episode of the sin Against The Spirit, which Maria Valtorta unifies in a global approach. If the demons’ announcement had unsettled the people, here Jesus’s opponents turn it against him: He casts out demons "by Beelzebub". This leads to the dialogue on the sin Against The Spirit reported in the Gospel. They protest asking for a sign. This is itself a demonstration of sin Against The Spirit because these signs have already been given and they have not believed. Only one remains to come: the sign of Jonah, the Cross.

Entrusted to his Disciples

• The confession of Peter and his primacy does not found the messianic announcement as the comparison of the four gospels shows. This was the stance of Alberto Vaccari in his report which strongly influenced the Holy Office. The "doctrinal" primacy is not the consequence of priority of the announcement but of the quality of faith able to bind and Loose Doctrine. The "pastoral" primacy will be given to him after the resurrection when Jesus entrusts him with his flock: "Be shepherd of my sheep". The 'Messianic Secret' thus takes on another meaning in Maria Valtorta: "Peter spoke the truth, says Jesus. Many have an intuition of it, you know it. But for now, say to no one what the Christ is, 'in the full truth known to you.' Let God speak in hearts as he does in yours. Truly I tell you that those who, to my statements and yours, bring perfect faith and perfect love, come to understand the true meaning of the words: 'Jesus, the Christ, the Word, the Son of Man and of God'." This episode establishes the Church and the universal proclamation linked to it. It is entrusted collectively, ordered to a primacy.
• The The Transfiguration of the Lord follows a few days after Peter’s slip, newly designated, who is called "Satan." Only three see Jesus’s Glory, who tells them: "But do not speak now of what you have seen to anyone, not even to your companions. When the Son of man is raised from the dead and returned in the glory of his Father, then you will speak. Because then belief will be necessary to share in my Kingdom." In a handwritten note, Maria Valtorta explains: "Prudence, perfect in Christ, prompted him to give this order to avoid any premature fanaticism of veneration as well as hatred, both harmful." It suffices to read about the upheavals caused by the Passion and Resurrection to understand the soundness of this warning.

Ultimately, Maria Valtorta's work highlights the pedagogical depth of the ‘Messianic Secret.’ Indeed, as the Gospels show, Jesus adapts his revelation: discreet before crowds or opponents (Mark), open with believers (John). Maria Valtorta, unifying these traditions, offers a coherent narrative where the miracles are neither hidden nor flaunted but ordered to faith. She actualizes the central message of the Gospel: God manifests Himself to those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6) but remains veiled to those who refuse to Believe (John 12:37). This dynamic is overlooked by a literal and partial reading of the 'secret', and as the Church Fathers, as well as the sovereign pontiffs have always emphasized: Christ is both Hidden and revealed, according to the Heart of those who approach Him."

Christ is indeed the author of the essential corpus of faith (Kerygma) that he came fundamentally to proclaim, including by "miracles, wonders, and signs" "The ‘Messianic Secret’ finds its culmination on the Cross, where the veil is torn. Maria Valtorta, by unifying evangelical traditions, shows that Jesus’s miracles – like his divinity – can only be fully understood in the light of Easter. It is there that the mystery ends and the universal proclamation begins."

Notes and references

Note: Quotations from the work of Maria Valtorta on this page currently use machine-translated text and will gradually be replaced by the official English translation. Until then, the official translation may be consulted through the reference link provided with each quotation.

Analysis of the historical, cultural, and literary context of Biblical texts to better understand what they meant at the time they were written and how they can be interpreted today.

In a Christian sense, study concerning God and divine things in the light of Revelation.

In the Catholic context, usually refers to the first three Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) because of their common framework. Broader definition: those offering a general overview of a whole. (Example: a synoptic table).

Analysis of the historical, cultural, and literary context of Biblical texts to better understand what they meant at the time they were written and how they can be interpreted today.

Analysis of the historical, cultural, and literary context of Biblical texts to better understand what they meant at the time they were written and how they can be interpreted today.

In-depth research on God, faith, religious Doctrine.

In a Christian sense, study concerning God and divine things in the light of Revelation.

Second part of the Bible, from the coming of Jesus Christ until the Apocalypse.