He was already Messiah as he went about Galilee; for he had been
proclaimed the Son of God
at his
Baptism; the demons had recognized him as divine; the disciples had confessed him to be the Messiah, their conviction voiced by their spokesman, Peter;
at the Transfiguration the chosen three «beheld his glory,» to use again the more explicit Johannine idiom, ordinarily hidden but now momentarily revealed; finally even the centurion in charge of the crucifixion had confessed him «a Son of God.»