You are dodging the question why Jesus would tell them to not tell others of miracles or that he is the Messiah.
But, I might also be out of this discussion. There's literally zero common ground between you and me, bosk. You're already starting your "you say there's something in the text that isn't" routine.
rumborak
Well, you certainly do not have to continue discussing if you don't want to, but I think it is both a legitimate point you brought up, and a legitimate counterpoint that I raised. You are right that Jesus' command to tell no one when her performed certain miracles would seem suspicious in isolation. However, put that in context of a few other points:
1. By my count (and please correct me if I am missing some), there are a total of nine times recorded in the gospels where Jesus tells his disciples or the subject of certain miracles to keep silent about something. When you compare, some of those are duplicate descriptions of the same event in different gospels. It appears there are
only four or five separate events where he did this (at least, as far as we have recorded--he may very well have said it plenty of other times as well).
2. Of those five times, it is recorded in connection with at least two if those five that people went out and proclaimed what he had said despite his instrutions.
3. There are FAR more than five events recorded where he either (1) specifically told people to go out and tell others what Jesus had done (e.g. Mark 5:19), or (2) did not say either way, but people went and told, or (3) did what he did in very public settings in front of large crowds.
So what I am saying is that while you are correct that there are a handful of instances where Jesus told people to remain silent, that only happened in a small minority of instances, so it is incorrect to argue that Jesus always (or even mostly) told people not to tell about what he was doing. It was only a few isolated instances where, whatever his motivation to not have people go and talk about it, it was limited to specific circumstances.