sentences:  He suggested that this was a literary and apologetic device by which early Christians could explain away the absence of any clear claim to be the Messiah.According to Wrede, the solution devised by the author of the Mark Gospel was to imply that Jesus kept his messiahship secret to his inner group of supporters.He also wrote a crucial study of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, which argued for its inauthenticity.