Mark 8:30

ἐπιτίμησεν. Cf. Mark 1:25; Mark 3:12. The beginning and end of this narrative afford evidence of its historical character. A writer of fiction would hardly have taken Christ into heathen territory, and that without representing Him as preaching to the heathen; nor would he have said of Him that He extracted a confession of His Messiahship from His disciples and at once forbade them to publish the fact. The Gospel narrative as a whole shows the reason for both facts.