Bible Synapse
Did Jesus teach anything in secret?
Hard question · The life of Jesus · raised by 2 of the lists sceptics circulate
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Questioned by the high priest, Jesus says he taught openly in synagogue and temple and said nothing in secret: ask those who heard him.
The high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples, and of his doctrine. Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing. Why askest thou me? ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I said.
Alone with the Twelve, Jesus says the mystery of the kingdom is given to them, but to outsiders everything comes in parables.
And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable. And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:
He taught the crowds in parables and, when alone, explained everything to his disciples.
And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.
Asked why he speaks in parables, Jesus says the mysteries of the kingdom are given to the disciples to know.
And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
The objection
At his trial Jesus told the high priest, “I spake openly to the world,” and “in secret have I said nothing.” But the Gospels say that he taught the crowds in parables, and “when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples”. So he did teach some things privately.
The answer
Jesus was answering a charge, not describing every conversation he had ever had. The high priest asked about his disciples and his doctrine (John 18:19), probably looking for a secret movement with a hidden and dangerous teaching, the kind of thing the law condemned in anyone who would “entice thee secretly” to other gods (Deuteronomy 13:6). Jesus replies that there was no such hidden doctrine: he had taught in synagogues and in the temple, where anyone could hear, and the high priest could ask those who heard him (18:20–21).
What he told the Twelve in private was not a different teaching but the explanation of what he had said in public, the meaning of the parables (Mark 4:10–11, 33–34). Nor was it meant to stay private: “What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light” (Matthew 10:27). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown sum it up: he said nothing in secret ‘of any different nature’, for his private words were ‘explanations and developments of His public teaching’.
From the classic commentators
nothing—that is, nothing of any different nature; all His private communications with the Twelve being but explanations and developments of His public teaching.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary on John 18:20 (1871)
though he often preached in private houses, and on mountains, and by the sea-side … yet what he preached in private was the very same with what he delivered publicly.Matthew Henry, Commentary on John 18:19–24 (1706–1721)
Sources
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary on John 18, at Bible Hub
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: John 18, at Bible Hub
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on John 18, at HelloAO