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We've just had another question about the 'Messianic Secret': To whom or what Jesus was hiding (afraid of) in the given cases during his ministry?

We've had several other ones before, but they're never quite broad enough to be made duplicate targets: 1, 2, 3

I think it would help if we had one general overview question, covering all the gospels, which can become the duplicate target for all these questions. I considered whether any of these existing ones could be edited to become that overview question, but none of them have any really outstanding answers which I think would have to be kept on overview question. (The Messianic Secret is a major topic and is usually given lots of detail in commentaries, and even the best answers on these questions haven't been very academic so far.)

Thoughts?

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    This should definitely happen.
    – Mr. Bultitude
    Aug 18, 2015 at 2:10

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I agree that the four questions are closely related. I also agree that there is no existing really good version of the question and especially that there is no really good answer. As such, it would seem to be the best thing to do would be to create a new question along the lines of:

In many places in the Gospel accounts, Jesus tells people he healed not to tell anyone about the healing.

... (examples)

Likewise, he explicitly tells his disciples not to share that He is the Messiah

... (examples)

What is an overview of the different explanations offered to explain Jesus' secretiveness?

I would leave the demon question open because that presumably could have a different reason and close the rest as duplicates of the new question. In the three Qs that stand to be closed, the asker wasn't really interested in the passage in question in isolation. However, if in the future someone was (i.e. because they didn't feel the passage fit into the general pattern), that would be allowed as a new question.

Follow up: The question exists now.

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  • Incidentally, I volunteer to implement my solution if it is deemed the best course of action.
    – ThaddeusB
    Aug 17, 2015 at 15:52
  • I was planning to make it myself, but you're welcome to if you get there first! We will also need at least one answer before the others can be marked as duplicates.
    – curiousdannii Mod
    Aug 17, 2015 at 21:27
  • @curiousdannii The important question is, are you planning on answering? Writing the question is no big deal, but a good answer is hard work. :)
    – ThaddeusB
    Aug 17, 2015 at 22:37
  • Community wiki. But then there's no rep reward for the work. @curiousdannii
    – user3961
    Aug 17, 2015 at 23:44
  • I'd suggest we write a quick answer now, and longer better answers can come later.
    – curiousdannii Mod
    Aug 18, 2015 at 0:54
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Since the Messianic Secret is a major topic, I propose that we have a tag for Messianic Secret.

Just shoehorning all questions into just one question would not do justice to what we all agree to be a major topic. For example, the question, "To whom or what Jesus was hiding (afraid of) in the given cases during his ministry?" is never really going to be a duplicate of "What explanations have been offered for the “messianic secret” passages?" no matter how hard we try.

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    I think a tag is a good idea! And I agree that not everything can be covered in an overview topic. But I think it can still be helpful to mark some of the questions as duplicates so that the authors will be made aware of it and then be able to ask more detailed questions. "The answers to the overview addressed issues X, Y and Z. I have a follow-on question about part of issue Y..."
    – curiousdannii Mod
    Aug 19, 2015 at 7:18
  • Looking again at the question why-was-he-hiding question, and I think it will be okay to mark it as a duplicate. The text does not say that he was hiding or afraid, that's just the OP's presumption. Were another text to indicate that Jesus was hiding that would be more grounds to say that it shouldn't be a duplicate. But for all these questions we will have to wait to see how the others vote in the close queues!
    – curiousdannii Mod
    Aug 19, 2015 at 7:24

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