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AnswerRead literally, there is no evident reason Jesus would not want his miracles to be known. After all, if people came to know of the miracles that Jesus performed, they would learn to follow him and be saved. For almost two thousand years, the Church has used the evidence of Jesus' miracles to attract followers, yet Mark's Gospel says that Jesus told people not to tell others about him or the miracles he performed.

Dennis R. MacDonald has studied Mark's Gospel and found surprising parallels between this account and the Homeric epics of The Iliad and The Odyssey, which he documents and analyses in The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark. He says that just as Odysseus can reveal his identity to those who are his allies but must keep it a secret from those who oppose him until the time is right, so also Jesus reveals his identity to his allies but must keep it a secret from those who oppose him until the time is right.

MacDonald's analysis may seem strained in isolation from the fuller analysis, but there should be no disputing that Mark, the original New Testament gospel and principal source for the gospels that followed, is not entirely historical. The chiastic structure of Mark is, by itself, undeniable evidence of this. And if the gospel is not entirely historical, it is possible that the author was indeed influenced by the Greek classics.

A more mundane possibility is that when Mark's Gospel was written, approximately 70 CE, a reader could wonder why few had ever heard of Jesus and the great miracles he performed. This could have been preempted by portraying Jesus as telling the people not to tell others about him.

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