Protective Anonymity
14th October 2022
In the coming weeks, I hope to write about the raising of Lazarus, described in John 11v1-46. First, however, I'd like to consider the fact that, although this is one of the most remarkable miracles Jesus performed, Matthew, Mark and Luke don't include it in their Gospel accounts. Of course, all the four Gospels are different, and include different material, but some stories are in more than one, and some are in all four. Why would Matthew, Mark and Luke omit this one?
The probable answer is known as "protective anonymity". That is, they didn't mention Lazarus because they wanted to protect him from persecution. Lazarus, left free to testify to his own resurrection from the dead, would have had a powerful evangelistic effect. What a wonderful story he had to tell! We see evidence of that, and that the authorities wanted him dead, in:
John 12v9-13
Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only
because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well,
for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in
him.
It's generally believed that John wrote his Gospel some years after Matthew, Mark and Luke had published theirs. The Church historian Eusebius (around 260 – 340 AD) quotes Clement of Alexandria (150 – 215 AD) as saying in a lost book called "Hypotyposes" that "John, the last of all, seeing that what was corporeal was set forth in the Gospels, on the entreaty of his intimate friends, and inspired by the Spirit, composed a spiritual Gospel."
It may be that Lazarus died, for the second and final time, in the interval between the time when the other Gospels were first published and when John wrote his. Thus he would no longer need to be protected, and so John was free to include his story.
The Bible contains other examples of probable protective anonymity. For example, Matthew, Mark and John all record the story of a woman anointing Jesus's feet a few days before the Crucifixion but only John tells us that Mary was the woman who did it. Perhaps she, too, died after their Gospels were published but before John's.
Again, Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us that, when Jesus was being arrested, one of His companions cut off a soldier's ear, but only John tells us that it was Peter. Perhaps Peter died before John's gospel was published.
A number of other people in the gospels remain unnamed, including the owner of the house where Jesus ate the last Supper, and the young man who ran away naked (Mark 14v51-52). Perhaps they, too, were in danger of persecution.
Another example of protective anonymity comes in 2 Corinthians 8v18, in which Paul writes about "the brother who is praised by all the churches for his service to the gospel". Why did Paul not give this person's name? Surely is was to protect him (whoever he was).
It's also possible, but by no means certain, that the writer of the letter to the Hebrews stayed anonymous to protect himself from persecution. That letter urges Christians to stay strong under persecution, but we should be wise as well as brave.
I hope these thoughts will enrich our Bible studies. They will certainly underline our understanding of the persecution suffered by the early church.