Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.
Ver. 20. That they should tell no man] viz. Till the due time. Everything is beautiful in its season, saith Solomon, Ecclesiastes 3:11. Silence in some cases is a virtue, as here. The disciples might preach that Christ the Son of David was come to save the world; though they might not particularly point him out as the Son of the living God: which when Pilate himself heard he was afraid, saith the text, and sought to deliver him.