Not willingly, nor of themselves, but at the word and command of Christ, who ordered them to depart, crying out and saying; as they left the bodies, of men, and not with any goodwill to Christ: thou art Christ; the true Messiah, that was of old promised and prophesied of, and has been long expected to come: the Son of God; the only begotten Son of God, possessed of the same perfections with God his Father; and particularly of almighty power, of which they were convinced by his dispossessing them; and he rebuking them, suffered them not to speak; for he needed not their testimony, nor did he choose to be made known by them: for they knew that he was Christ, or "that they knew that he was Christ"; so the Syriac version: they certainly did know that he was the Messiah, partly by the voice from heaven at his baptism, and partly by his power over them: but Christ would not suffer them to say that he was the Messiah, or that they knew him to be so; either because the time was not come for such a declaration to be made, or they were not the proper persons to make it; and lest such a publication, by them, should be made a handle of by the Scribes and Pharisees, to say that he had society with devils, and by them cast them out.