Matthew 16:20

Then he instructed his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. ¹ 

Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ.

Then he sternly warned them not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

He swore the disciples to secrecy. He made them promise they would tell no one that he was the Messiah.

Then he gave orders to the disciples to give no man word that he was the Christ.

Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.

Then he instructed his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. ¹ 

¹ tc Most mss (א² C W Ï lat bo) have “Jesus, the Christ” (᾿Ιησοῦς ὁ Χριστός, Ihsou" Jo Cristo") here, while D has “Christ Jesus” (ὁ Χριστὸς ᾿Ιησοῦς). On the one hand, this is a much harder reading than the mere Χριστός, because the name Jesus was already well known for the disciples’ master – both to them and to others. Whether he was the Messiah is the real focus of the passage. But this is surely too hard a reading: There are no other texts in which the Lord tells his disciples not to disclose his personal name. Further, it is plainly a motivated reading in that scribes had the proclivity to add ᾿Ιησοῦς to Χριστός or to κύριος (kurio", “Lord”), regardless of whether such was appropriate to the context. In this instance it clearly is not, and it only reveals that scribes sometimes, if not often, did not think about the larger interpretive consequences of their alterations to the text. Further, the shorter reading is well supported by א* B L Δ Θ Ë^1,13 565 700 1424 al it sa.

tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

sn See the note on Christ in 1:16.