Mt 4:12-23

Gospel

Jerome Biblical Commentary

(d) THE FIRST PROCLAMATION IN GALILEE (4:12-17). The complete account of the

imprisonment of John the Baptist is given in 14:1-12. The three Syn (and Jn in its own

way) agree that Jesus did not begin his own proclamation until John had been

imprisoned by Herod Antipas (→ History of Israel, 75:144). The associations of Jesus

and John are too obscurely known for us to determine what is implied in this situation.

The Syn, as we have seen, do not relate any confession of John the Baptist in any way

similar to the version we find in the Fourth Gospel. We may conjecture that the

preaching of John had aroused a climate of interest into which Jesus could move with

his own proclamation. All three Syn also agree that Jesus returned to Galilee, his own

country, to proclaim the reign. 13. in Capernaum by the sea: Jesus moved from his own

village of Nazareth to the larger city of Capernaum (identified with the ruins Tell Hum

near the northern end of the western shore of the Sea of Galilee). In NT times the

western shore of the lake was occupied by many busy and prosperous small cities and

towns; and we must assume that Jesus wished to reach a wider audience. in the

territory of Zebulun and Naphtali: Matthew notes that Capernaum lay in the old tribal

territory of Zebulun and Naphtali; this enables him to adduce Is 8:23-9:1 (LXX 9:1-2). In

the Isaian passage deliverance of 9:2-6 is first announced to the territory of Galilee,

which was detached from the kingdom of Israel by Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria in 734 BC

and erected into an Assyrian province. The first part of Israel to experience the

destroying wrath of Yahweh shall be the first to hear of his salvation. The quotation

follows neither the LXX nor the MT. 17. kingdom of heaven: Mt compresses Mk’s

summary of the proclamation of Jesus, using the phrase Mk uses to summarize the

preaching of John (3:2) without Mk’s allusion to the “time” (kairos) and Mk’s call to faith.

The typical Matthaean phrase, “kingdom of heaven,” appears here instead of Mk’s

“kingdom of God”; the circumlocution of “heavens” for “God” was a common Jewish

manner of speech. Jews of this period avoided the use of the divine name or what were

regarded as peculiarly divine titles. The word usually translated “kingdom” is more

accurately rendered “reign”; this is the word employed in this commentary, except in a

few passages. The word does not designate an area in which power is exercised, but

the exercise of the power (→ Aspects NT Thought, 78:102-105). What “approaches” (or

“is arriving”) is the manifestation of the supreme power of God, the assertion of his

sovereignty. The first response to this is repentance; for sin is a refusal to accept the

reign of God.

Syn Synoptic Gospels or Synoptic writers

NT New Testament

LXX Septuagint (Greek translation of the OT)

MT Masoretic Text (of the Hebrew Bible)

28 (e) THE CALL OF THE FIRST DISCIPLES (4:18-22). Matthew here depends on Mk,

which he has slightly rewritten. Luke, perhaps employing a peculiar source, has

rewritten the story more extensively and added the miraculous catch of fish. Jn 1:35-42

has a quite different account: Andrew and another disciple (not named, but presumably

John himself) were disciples of John the Baptist, who introduced them to Jesus; and

Andrew introduced his brother Simon. The point of the story in Mt and Mk is that the

four followed Jesus immediately even though they did not know him; they “dropped”

their fishing nets, left their families, and became disciples. There is no implication that

they returned to their homes and their livelihood. Three of this first four—Peter, James,

and John—formed an inner three who witnessed incidents not seen by the other

disciples (17:1; 26:37, Mk 5:37). A similar urgency is expressed in the call of Levi (9:9).

The promise to make them “fishers of men” is an intimation of the apostolic office.

29 (f) A JOURNEY IN GALILEE (4:23-25). This brief passage is compiled by Matthew as

an introduction to the first of his major discourses, the Sermon on the Mount. The

summary is described in commonplaces: teaching in the synagogues (mentioned

several times), proclaiming the good news of the reign, healing diseases, exorcising

demons. As a result of these activities Jesus became known “in all Syria” (4:24). The

Roman province of Syria was bounded by the Taurus mountains, the Syrian desert, the

Nabataean kingdom, and the Mediterranean. Matthew means those parts of the

province mentioned in 4:25; Galilee, the Decapolis (N and E of Galilee), Judea and

Perea (E of the Jordan). These are regions which Jesus traversed. The region of Tyre

and Sidon (Mk 3:8; Lk 6:17) is not mentioned, very probably because Matthew thought

that this territory was already included in his enumeration; see 15:21.

Haydock’s Catholic Commentary

Ver. 10. Jesus Christ does not here cite the words, but the substance of the text.

(Deuteronomy v. 7. and 9; vi. 13; x. 20.) --- It is remarkable that our Lord bore with the

pride and insolence of the devil, till he assumed to himself the honour due to God alone.

(St. Chrysostom)

Ver. 11. Then the devil having exhausted all his artifices, left him for a time, as St. Luke

remarks; whence we are to learn, that after we have resisted with success, we are not

to think ourselves secure, but avail ourselves of the truce to return thanks to God for the

victory, and to prepare for fresh combats, especially by fortifying ourselves with the

bread of angels in the holy communion. The temptations of Jesus Christ are to us a

subject both of consolation and instruction. By example he has taught us how to fight

and to conquer. The struggle may be painful; but angels, as well as God, witness our

struggle, ready to crown our victory. (Haydock)

Ver. 12. Jesus then left the wilderness, and passed a few day on the banks of the

Jordan, affording his holy precursor an opportunity of bearing repeated testimony of him

and of his divine mission, as we read in the first chap. of St. John, and then retired into

Upper Galilee to avoid the fury of the Jews. There were two Galilees, that of the Jews

and that of the Gentiles; this latter was given by the king of Tyre to king Solomon. (St.

Jerome) This conduct of Jesus Christ, shews that on some occasions it is not only

lawful, but advisable, to flee from persecution. (St. Chrysostom) --- Jesus Christ enters

more publicly on his mission, and about to occupy the place of his precursor, the

baptist, he chooses Galilee for the first theatre of his ministry, the place assigned by the

ancient prophets. The Pharisees had prevailed upon Herod to arrest the baptist, nor

could their hatred be less to Jesus Christ, who drew a still greater concourse of

disciples after him.

Ver. 13. Nazareth was situated in Lower Galilee; and Capharnaum, a maritime town, in

Higher Galilee. According to the historian, Josephus, it did not belong to Herod, the

tetrarch, who sent the baptist to confinement, but to Philip, the tetrarch, his brother.

(Calmet) --- He leaves Nazareth for good and all, and retires to Capharnaum, a very

flourishing and much frequented emporium, both for the Jews and Gentiles. Here he

makes his chief residence, a place well calculated for his preaching, being on the limits

of both Galilees, although he made frequent excursions through Galilee to disseminate

his doctrines. (Syn. crit.)

Ver. 15. St. Matthew has omitted in this place part of the prophecy, (Isaias ix.) because

it was not to his purpose. He has likewise given us the mystical, though still true,

interpretation of the prophecy, which was written in the first instance to foretell the

deliverance of Jerusalem from Senacherib, in the time of Ezechias. (1 Kings, xix.)

(Jansenius)

Ver. 16. And a light is risen, &c. This light, foretold by the prophet Isaias, (chap. ix, ver.

1,) was our Saviour Christ, the light of the world, who now enlightened them by his

instructions, and by his grace. (Witham) --- Thus when the morning star has gone by

and disappeared, the sun rises and diffuses its light to mortals, who rejoice that the

darkness of night is removed from the earth. (Jansenius)

Ver. 17. Jesus began not to preach till St. John had announced his coming to the world,

that the dignity of his sacred person might thus be manifested, and the incredulous

Jews be without excuse. If after the preaching of St. John, and his express testimony of

the divinity of our Redeemer, they could still say: thou givest testimony of thyself; thy

testimony is not true: what would they not have said, if, without any precursor, he had,

all on a sudden, appeared amongst them. He did not begin to preach till St. John was

cast into prison, that the people might not be divided. On this account also St. John

wrought no miracle, that the people might be struck with the miracles of our Saviour,

and yield their assent to him. (St. Chrysostom, hom. 14.) --- It may here be remarked,

how different were the motives of the prophets from those which the baptist and Christ

made use of to exhort to repentance. The former menaced evil, and held out a promise

of good, but the good or evil was temporal. St. John begins his exhortations with the

threat of eternal punishments---but Christ sweetens the hardships of penance by

reminding us of the reward. "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Jansenius)

Ver. 18. Jesus wished not only to prove that the establishment of his religion was

heavenly, but also to humble the pride of man; and therefore he did not choose orators

and philosophers, but fishermen, says St. Jerome. Cyprian, the eloquent orator, was

called to the priesthood; but before him was Peter, the fisherman. (St. Chrysostom) ---

Jesus saw two brothers, &c. If we compare what is related by the evangelists, as to the

time that St. Peter and St. Andrew became Christ's disciples, we shall find Andrew, who

had been a disciple of St. John Baptist, to have brought to Christ his brother Simon.

(John i, ver. 40.) But at that time they staid not with him, so as to become his disciples,

and to remain with him as they afterwards did, by quitting their boat, their nets, their

fishing, and all they had in the world, which is here related; and by St. Mark, (chap. i,)

and by St. Luke, chap. v. (Witham)

Ver. 19. Jesus Christ here makes an allusion to the prior occupation of his apostles.

David, in his Psalms, makes similar allusions to his former occupation of shepherd: "He

took him from the flocks of sheep, he brought him from following the ewes big with

young, to feed Jacob, his servant, and Israel, his inheritance." (Psalm lxxvii. ver. 70.)

(Menochius)

Ver. 21. It was objected by the ancient enemies of Christianity, Porphyrius, Julian the

apostate, and others, that Christ chose for his apostles simple and ignorant men, easy

to be imposed upon, and not such as would have been on their guard against

deception; thus converting that into an argument against the doctrine of Jesus Christ,

which of all other circumstances most solidly and forcibly establishes its divinity and

authority. (Salmeron. trac. 25.) --- If Christ had persuaded the ignorant apostles only,

there might be some room for such an argument. But if these 12 ignorant men

triumphed over the learning, the eloquence, the sophisms of the philosophers

themselves, over the strong arm of power in the hands of tyrants, and finally over the

devils and passions of men, which were the last to give up the combat against a

doctrine that established itself on their ruin, then we may conclude, with St. Paul, that it

was wisdom in God to choose the weak things of this world to confound the strong---the

foolish and the things that are not, to confound those which are. (Haydock)

Ver. 23. The synagogues were religious assemblies with the Jews, wherein they met on

the sabbath and festival days, to pray, to read and hear expounded the word of God,

and to exercise the other practices of their law. (Calmet)

Daily Bible Study Series (non-Catholic)

THERE is one thing which we must carefully note right at the beginning of our study of

the temptations of Jesus, and that is the meaning of the word to tempt. The Greek word

is peirazein. In English the word tempt has a uniformly and consistently bad meaning. It

always means to entice a man to do wrong, to seek to seduce him into sin, to try to

persuade him to take the wrong way. But peirazein has a quite different element in its

meaning. It means to test far more than it means to tempt in our sense of the word.

One of the great Old Testament stories is the story of how narrowly Abraham

escaped sacrificing his only son Isaac. Now that story begins like this in the Authorized

Version” And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham” (Genesis

22:1). Quite clearly the word to tempt cannot there mean to seek to seduce into evil. It is

unthinkable that God should try to make any man a wrong-doer. But the thing is quite

clear when we understand that it means: “After these things God tested Abraham.” The

time had come for a supreme test of the loyalty of Abraham. Just as metal has to be

tested far beyond any stress and strain that it will ever be called upon to bear, before it

can be put to any useful purpose, so a man has to be tested before God can use him for

his purposes. The Jews had a saying, “The Holy One, blessed be his name, does not

elevate a man to dignity till he has first tried and searched him; and if he stands in

temptation, then he raises him to dignity.”

Now here is a great and uplifting truth. What we call temptation is not meant to make

us sin; it is meant to enable us to conquer sin. It is not meant to make us bad, it is

meant to make us good. It is not meant to weaken us, it is meant to make us emerge

stronger and finer, and purer from the ordeal. Temptation is not the penalty of being a

man, temptation is the glory of being a man. It is the test which comes to a man whom

God wishes to use. So, then, we must think of this whole incident, not so much the

tempting, as the testing of Jesus.

We have to note further where this test took place. It took place in the wilderness.

Between Jerusalem, on the central plateau which is the backbone of Palestine, and the

Dead Sea there stretches the wilderness. The Old Testament calls it Jeshimmon, which

means The Devastation, and it is a fitting name. It stretches over an area of thirty-five by

fifteen miles.

Sir George Adam Smith, who traveled over it, describes it. It is an area of yellow

sand, of crumbling limestone, and of scattered shingle. It is an area of contorted strata,

where the ridges run in all directions as if they were warped and twisted. The hills are

like dust heaps; the limestone is blistered and peeling; rocks are bare and jagged; often

the very ground sounds hollow when a foot or a horse’s hoof falls upon it. It glows and

shimmers with heat like some vast furnace. It runs right out to the Dead Sea, and then

there comes a drop of twelve hundred feet, a drop of limestone, flint, and marl, through

crags and corries and precipices down to the Dead Sea.

In that wilderness Jesus could be more alone than anywhere else in Palestine.

Jesus went into the wilderness to be alone. His task had come to him; God had spoken

to him; he must think how he was to attempt the task which God had given him to do; he

had to get things straightened out before he started; and he had to be alone.

It may well be that we often go wrong simply because we never try to be alone.

There are certain things which a man has to work out alone. There are times when no

one else’s advice is any good to him. There are times when a man has to stop acting

and start thinking. It may be that we make many a mistake because we do not give

ourselves a chance to be alone with God.

THE SACRED STORY

Matthew 4:1–11 ( continued)

THERE are certain further things we must note before we proceed to detailed study of

the story of the temptations.

(i) All three gospel writers seem to stress the immediacy with which the temptations

followed the baptism of Jesus. As Mark has it: “The Spirit immediately drove him out

into the wilderness” (Mark 1:12).

It is one of the truths of life that after every great moment there comes a moment of

reaction—and again and again it is in the reaction that the danger lies. That is what

happened to Elijah. With magnificent courage Elijah in all his loneliness faced and

defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:17–40). That was Elijah’s

greatest moment of courage and of witness. But the slaughter of the prophets of Baal

provoked the wicked Jezebel to wrath, and she threatened Elijah’s life. “Then he was

afraid, and he arose and went for his life and came to Beer-sheba” (I Kings 19:3) The

man who had stood fearlessly against all comers is now fleeing for his life with terror at

his heels. The moment of reaction had come.

It seems to be the law of life that just after our resistance power has been highest it

nose-dives until it is at its lowest. The tempter carefully, subtly, and skillfully chose his

time to attack Jesus—but Jesus conquered him. We will do well to be specially on our

guard after every time life has brought us to the heights, for it is just then that we are in

gravest danger of the depths.

(ii) We must not regard this experience of Jesus as an outward experience. It was a

struggle that went on in his own heart and mind and soul. The proof is that there is no

possible mountain from which all the kingdoms of the earth could be seen. This is an

inner struggle.

It is through our inmost thoughts and desires that the tempter comes to us. His

attack is launched in our own minds. It is true that that attack can be so real that we

almost see the devil. To this day you can see the ink-stain on the wall of Luther’s room

in the Castle of the Wartburg in Germany; Luther caused that ink-stain by throwing his

ink-pot at the devil as he tempted him. But the very power of the devil lies in the fact that

he breaches our defenses and attacks us from within. He finds his allies and his

weapons in our own inmost thoughts and desires.

(iii) We must not think that in one campaign Jesus conquered the tempter for ever

and that the tempter never came to him again. The temper spoke again to Jesus at

Caesarea Philippi when Peter tried to dissuade him from taking the way to the Cross,

and when he had to say to Peter the very same words he had said to the tempter in the

wilderness. “Begone Satan” (Matthew 16:23). At the end of the day Jesus could say to

his disciples, “You are those who have continued with me in my trials” (Luke 22:28).

And never in all history was there such a fight with temptation as Jesus waged in

Gethsemane when the tempter sought to deflect him from the Cross (Luke 22:42–44).

“Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.” In the Christian warfare there is no

release. Sometimes people grow worried because they think that they should reach a

stage when they are beyond temptation, a stage at which the power of the tempter is for

ever broken. Jesus never reached that stage. From the beginning to the end of the day

he had to fight his battle: that is why he can help us to fight ours.

(iv) One thing stands out about this story—the temptations are such as could only

come to a person who had very special powers and who knew that he had them.

Sanday described the temptations as “the problem of what to do with supernatural

powers.” The temptations which came to Jesus could only have come to one who knew

that there were amazing things which he could do.

We must always remember that again and again we are tempted through our gifts.

The person who is gifted with charm will be tempted to use that charm “to get away with

anything.” The person who is gifted with the power of words will be tempted to use his

command of words to produce glib excuses to justify his own conduct. The person with

a vivid and sensitive imagination will undergo agonies of temptation that a more stolid

person will never experience. The person with great gifts of mind will be tempted to use

these gifts for himself and not for others, to become the master and not the servant of

men. It is the grim fact of temptation that it is just where we are strongest that we must

be for ever on the watch.

(v) No one can ever read this story without remembering that its source must have

been Jesus himself. In the wilderness he was alone. No one was with him when this

struggle was being fought out. And we know about it only because Jesus himself must

have told his men about it. It is Jesus telling us his own spiritual autobiography.

We must always approach this story with a unique and special reverence, for in it

Jesus is laying bare his inmost heart and soul. He is telling men what he went through.

It is the most sacred of all stories, for in it Jesus is saying to us that he can help others

who are tempted because he himself was tempted. He draws the veil from his own

struggles to help us in our struggle.

THE ATTACK OF THE TEMPTER

Matthew 4:1–11 ( continued)

THE tempter launched his attack against Jesus along three lines, and in every one of

them there was a certain inevitability.

(i) There was the temptation to turn the stones into bread. The desert was littered

with little round pieces of limestone rock which were exactly like little loaves; even they

would suggest this temptation to Jesus.

This was a double temptation. It was a temptation to Jesus to use his powers

selfishly and for his own use, and that is precisely what Jesus always refused to do.

There is always the temptation to use selfishly whatever powers God has given to us.

God has given every man a gift, and every man can ask one of two questions. He

can ask, “What can I make for myself out of this gift?” or, “What can I do for others with

this gift?” This kind of temptation can come out in the simplest thing. A person may

possess, for instance, a voice which is good to hear; he may thereupon “cash in on it”,

and refuse to use it unless he is paid. There is no reason why he should not use it for

pay, but there is every reason why he should not use if only for pay. There is no man

who will not be tempted to use selfishly the gift which God has given to him.

But there was another side to this temptation. Jesus was God’s Messiah, and he

knew it. In the wilderness he was facing the choice of a method whereby he could win

men to God. What method was he to use for the task which God had given him to do?

How was he to turn the vision into actuality, and the dream into fact?

One sure way to persuade men to follow him was to give them bread, to give them

material things. Did not history justify that? Had not God given his people manna in the

wilderness? Had God not said, “I will rain bread from heaven for you”? Did not the

visions of the future golden age include that very dream? Had not Isaiah said, “They

shall not hunger or thirst”? (Isaiah 49:10). Was the Messianic Banquet not a settled

feature in the dreams of the kingdom between the Testaments? If Jesus had wished to

give men bread, he could have produced justification enough for it.

But to give men bread would have been a double mistake. First, it would have been

to bribe men to follow him. It would have been to persuade men to follow him for the

sake of what they could get out of it, whereas the reward Jesus had to offer was a

Cross. He called men to a life of giving, not of getting. To bribe men with material things

would have been the denial of all he came to say and would have been ultimately to

defeat his own ends.

Second, it would have been to remove the symptoms without dealing with the

disease. Men are hungry. But the question is, why are they hungry? Is it because of

their own foolishness, and their own shiftlessness and their own carelessness? Is it

because there are some who selfishly possess too much while others possess too little?

The real way to cure hunger is to remove the causes—and these causes are in men’s

souls. And above all there is a hunger of the heart which it is not in material things to

satisfy.

So Jesus answered the tempter in the very words which express the lesson which

God had sought to teach his people in the wilderness: “Man does not live by bread

alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord”

(Deuteronomy 8:3). The only way to true satisfaction is the way which has learned

complete dependence on God.

(ii) So the tempter renewed his attack from another angle. In a vision he took Jesus

to the pinnacle of the Temple. That may mean one of two things.

The Temple was built on the top of Mount Sion. The top of the mountain was leveled

out into a plateau, and on that plateau the whole area of the Temple buildings stood.

There was one corner at which Solomon’s porch and the Royal porch met, and at that

corner there was a sheer drop of four hundred and fifty feet into the valley of the Kedron

below. Why should not Jesus stand on that pinnacle, and leap down, and land

unharmed in the valley beneath? Men would be startled into following a man who could

do a thing like that.

On the top of the roof of the Temple itself there was a stance where every morning a

priest stood with a trumpet in his hands, waiting for the first flush of the dawn across the

hills of Hebron. At the first dawn light he sounded the trumpet to tell men that the hour of

morning sacrifice had come. Why should not Jesus stand there, and leap down right

into the Temple court, and amaze men into following him? Had not Malachi said, “the

Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his Temple”? (Malachi 3:1). Was there not a

promise that the angels would bear God’s man upon their hands lest any harm should

come to him? (Psalm 91:11, 12).

This was the very method that the false Messiahs who were continually arising

promised. Theudas had led the people out, and had promised with a word to split the

waters of Jordan in two. The famous Egyptian pretender (Acts 21:38) had promised that

with a word he would lay flat the walls of Jerusalem. Simon Magus, so it is said, had

promised to fly through the air, and had perished in the attempt. These pretenders had

offered sensations which they could not perform. Jesus could perform anything he

promised. Why should he not do it?

There were two good reasons why Jesus should not adopt that course of action.

First, he who seeks to attract men to him by providing them with sensations has

adopted a way in which there is literally no future. The reason is simple. To retain his

power he must produce ever greater and greater sensations. Wonders are apt to be

nine day wonders. This year’s sensation is next year’s commonplace. A gospel founded

on sensation-mongering is foredoomed to failure. Second, that is not the way to use the

power of God.” You shall not put the Lord your God to the test,” said Jesus

(Deuteronomy 6:16). He meant this; there is no good in putting yourself deliberately into

a threatening situation, and doing it quite recklessly and needlessly, and then expecting

God to rescue you from it.

God expects a man to take risks in order to be true to him, but he does not expect

him to take risks to enhance his own prestige. The very faith which is dependent on

signs and wonder is not faith. If faith cannot believe without sensations it is not really

faith., it is doubt looking for proof and looking in the wrong place. God’s rescuing power

is not something to be played and experimented with, it is something to be quietly

trusted in the life of every day.

Jesus refused the way of sensations because he knew that it was the way to

failure—it still is—and because to long for sensations is not to trust, but to distrust, God.

(iii) So the tempter tried his third avenue of attack. It was the world that Jesus came

to save, and into his mind there came a picture of the world. The tempting voice said:

“Fall down and worship me, and I will give you all the kingdoms of this world.” Had not

God himself said to his chosen one, “Ask of me and I will make the nations your

heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession”? (Psalm 2:8).

What the tempter was saying was, “Compromise! Come to terms with me! Don’t

pitch your demands quite so high! Wink just a little at evil and questionable things—and

then people will follow you in their hordes.” This was the temptation to come to terms

with the world, instead of uncompromisingly presenting God’s demands to it. It was the

temptation to try to advance by retreating, to try to change the world by becoming like

the world.

Back came Jesus’ answer: “You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve him

and swear by his name” (Deuteronomy 6:13). Jesus was quite certain that we can never

defeat evil by compromising with evil. He laid down the uncompromisingness of the

Christian faith. Christianity cannot stoop to the level of the world; it must life the world to

its own level. Nothing less will do.

So Jesus made his decision. He decided that he must never bribe men into following

him; he decided that the way of sensations was not for him; he decided that there could

be no compromise in the message he preached and in the faith he demanded. That

choice inevitably meant the Cross—but the Cross just as inevitably meant the final

victory.

THE SON OF GOD GOES FORTH

Matthew 4:12–17

When Jesus heard that John had been delivered into the hands of the authorities, he

withdrew into Galilee. He left Galilee and came and made his home in Capernaum,

which is on the lake-side, in the districts of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was done that

there might be fulfilled that which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, when he

said, “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, by the way of sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee

of the Gentles—the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and a light

has risen for those who sat in the land and in the shadow of death.” From that time

Jesus began to proclaim his message and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of the

heavens has come near!”

BEFORE very long disaster came to John. He was arrested and imprisoned in the

dungeons of the Castle of Machaerus by Herod the king. His crime was that he had

publicly denounced Herod for seducing his brother’s wife, and making her his own wife,

after he had put away the wife he had. It is never safe to rebuke an eastern despot, and

John’s courage brought him first imprisonment and then death. We shall come later to

the details of that story which Matthew does not tell until Matthew 14:3–12.

For Jesus the time had come when he must go forth to his task.

Let us note what he did first of all. He left Nazareth and he took up residence in the

town of Capernaum. There was a kind of symbolic finality in that move. In that moment

Jesus left his home never again to return to live in it. It is as if he shut the door that lay

behind him before he opened the door that stood in front of him. It was the clean cut

between the old and the new. One chapter was ended and another had begun. Into life

there come these moments of decision. It is always better to meet them with an even

surgical cut than to vacillate undecided between two courses of action.

Let us note where Jesus went. He went into Galilee. When Jesus went into Galilee

to begin his mission and his ministry, he knew what he was doing. Galilee was the most

northerly district of Palestine. It stretched from the Litany River in the north to the Plain

of Esdraelon in the south. On the west it did not reach the sea coast of the

Mediterranean, because the coastal strip was in the possession of the Phoenicians. On

the north-east it was bounded by Syria, and its eastern limit was the waters of the Sea

of Galilee. Galilee was not large; it was only fifty miles from north to south, and twenty-

five miles from east to west.

But, small as it was, Galilee was densely populated. It was by far the most fertile

region of Palestine; its fertility was indeed phenomenal and proverbial. There was a

saying that it was easier to raise a legion of olives in Galilee than it was to bring up one

child in Judea. Josephus, who was at one time governor of the province, says, “It is

throughout rich in soil and pasturage, producing every variety of tree, and inviting by its

productiveness even those who have the least inclination for agriculture; it is

everywhere tilled; no part is allowed to lie idle, and everywhere it is productive.” The

result of this was that for its size Galilee had an enormous population. Josephus tells us

that in it there were two hundred and four villages, none with a population of fewer than

fifteen thousand people. So, then, Jesus began his mission in that part of Palestine

where there were most people to hear him; he began his work in an area teeming with

men to whom the gospel proclamation might be made.

But not only was Galilee a populous district; its people were people of a certain kind.

Of all parts of Palestine Galilee was most open to new ideas. Josephus says of the

Galileans, “They were ever fond of innovations, and by nature disposed to changes, and

delighted in seditions.” They were ever ready to follow a leader and to begin an

insurrection They were notoriously quick in temper and given to quarreling. Yet withal

they were the most chivalrous of men. “the Galileans,” said Josephus, “have never been

destitute of courage.” “Cowardice was never a characteristic of the Galileans.” “They

were ever more anxious for honor than for gain.” The inborn characteristics of the

Galileans were such as to make them most fertile ground for a new gospel to be

preached to them.

This openness to new ideas was due to certain facts.

(i) The name Galilee comes from the Hebrew word galil which means a circle. The

full name of the area was Galilee of the Gentiles. Plummer wishes to take that to mean

“heathenish Galilee.” But the phrase came from the fact that Galilee was literally

surrounded by Gentiles. On the west, the Phoenicians were its neighbors. To the north

and the east, there were the Syrians. And even to the south, there lay the territory of the

Samaritans. Galilee was in fact the one part of Palestine that was inevitably in touch

with non-Jewish influences and ideas. Galilee was bound to be open to new ideas in a

way that no other part of Palestine was.

(ii) The great roads of the world passed through Galilee, as we saw when we were

thinking of the town of Nazareth. The Way of the Sea led from Damascus through

Galilee right down to Egypt and to Africa. The Road to the East led through Galilee

away out to the frontiers. The traffic of the world passed through Galilee. Away in the

south Judea is tucked into a corner, isolated and secluded. As it has been well said,

“Judea is on the way to nowhere: Galilee is on the way to everywhere.” Judea could

erect a fence and keep all foreign influence and all new ideas out; Galilee could never

do that. Into Galilee the new ideas were bound to come.

(iii) Galilee’s geographical position had affected its history. Again and again it had

been invaded and conquered, and the tides of the foreigners had often flowed over it

and had sometimes engulfed it.

Originally it had been assigned to the tribes of Asher, Naphtali and Zebulun when

the Israelites first came into the land (Joshua 9) but these tribes had never been

completely successful in expelling the native Canaanite inhabitants, and from the

beginning the population of Galilee was mixed. More than once foreign invasions from

the north and east had swept down on it from Syria, and in the eighth century B.C. the

Assyrians had engulfed it completely, the greater part of its population had been taken

away into exile, and strangers had been settled in the land. Inevitably this brought a

very large injection of foreign blood into Galilee.

From the eighth until the second century B.C. it had been largely in Gentile hands.

When the Jews returned from exile under Nehemiah and Ezra, many of the Galileans

came south to live in Jerusalem. In 164 B.C. Simon Maccabaeus chased the Syrians

north from Galilee back to their own territory; and on his way back he took with him to

Jerusalem the remnants of the Galileans who were left.

The most amazing thing of all is that in 104 B.C. Aristobulus reconquered Galilee for

the Jewish nation, and proceeded forcibly to circumcise the inhabitants of Galilee, and

thus to make them Jews whether they liked it or not. History had compelled Galilee to

open its doors to new strains of blood and to new ideas and to new influences.

The natural characteristics of the Galileans, and the preparation of history had made

Galilee the one place in all Palestine where a new teacher with a new message had any

real chance of being heard, and it was there that Jesus began his mission and first

announced his message.

THE HERALD OF GOD

Matthew 4:12–17 ( continued)

BEFORE we leave this passage there are certain other things which we must note.

It was to the town of Capernaum that Jesus went. The correct form of the name is

Capharnaum. The form Capernaum does not occur at all until the fifth century A.D., but

it is so fixed in our minds and memories that it would not be wise to try to change it.

There has been much argument about the site of Capernaum. Two places have

been suggested. The commonest, and the likeliest identification is that Capernaum is

Tell Hum, which is on the west side of the extreme north of the Sea of Galilee; the

alternative, and the less likely, identification is that Capernaum is Khan Minyeh, which is

about two and a half miles to the south-west of Tell Hum. In any event, there is now

nothing but ruins left to show where Capernaum once stood.

It was Matthew’s habit to find in the Old Testament something which he could use as

a prophecy about every event in Jesus’ life. He finds such a prophecy in Isaiah 9:1, 2. In

fact that is another of the prophecies which Matthew tears violently from its context and

uses in his own extraordinary way. It is a prophecy which dates back to the reign of

Pekah. In those days the northern parts of Palestine, including Galilee, had been

despoiled by the invading armies of the Assyrians; and this was originally a prophecy of

the deliverance which would some day come to these conquered territories. Matthew

finds in it a prophecy which foretold of the light that Jesus was to bring.

Finally, Matthew gives us a brief one-sentence summary of the message which

Jesus brought. The Authorized Version and Revised Standard Version both say that

Jesus began to preach. The word preach has come down in the world; it is all too

unfortunately connected in the minds of many people with boredom. The word in Greek

is kērussein, which is the word for a herald’s proclamation from a king. Kērux is the

Greek word for herald, and the herald was the man who brought a message direct from

the king.

This word tells us of certain characteristics of the preaching of Jesus and these are

characteristics which should be in all preaching.

(i) The herald had in his voice a note of certainty. There was no doubt about his

message; he did not come with perhapses and maybes and probably’s; he came with a

definite message. Goethe had it: “Tell me of your certainties: I have doubts enough of

my own.” Preaching is the proclamation of certainties, and a man cannot make others

sure of that about which he himself is in doubt.

(ii) The herald had in his voice the note of authority. He was speaking for the king;

he was laying down and announcing the king’s law, the king’s command, and the king’s

decision. As was said of a great preacher, “he did not cloudily guess; he knew.”

Preaching, as it has been put, is the application of prophetic authority to the present

situation.

(iii) The herald’s message came from a source beyond himself; it came from the

king. Preaching speaks from a source beyond the preacher. It is not the expression of

one man’s personal opinions; it is the voice of God that Jesus spoke to men.

The message of Jesus consisted of a command which was the consequence of a

new situation. “Repent!” he said. “Turn from your own ways, and turn to God. Lift your

eyes from earth and look to heaven. Reverse your direction, and stop walking away

from God and begin walking towards God.” That command had become urgently

necessary because the reign of God was about to begin. Eternity had invaded time;

God had invaded earth in Jesus Christ, and therefore it was of paramount importance

that a man should choose the right side and the right direction.

CHRIST CALLS THE FISHERMEN

Matthew 4:18–22

While he was walking beside the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is

called Peter, and Andrew, his brother casting their net into the sea, for they were

fishmen. He said to them “Follow me, and I will make you fishers on men.” They

immediately left their nets and followed him. He went on from there and saw another

two brothers, James, Zebedee’s son, and John, his brother. They were in the boat

with Zebedee their father getting ready their nets for use. So he called them. They

immediately left their boat and their father, and followed him.

ALL Galilee centered round the Sea of Galilee. It is thirteen miles long from north to

south, and eight miles across from east to west. The Sea of Galilee is therefore small,

and it is interesting to note that Luke, the Gentile, who had seen so much more of the

world, never calls it the sea ( thalassa), but always the lake ( limnē). It is the shape of an

oval, wider at the top than at the bottom. It lies in that great rift in the earth’s surface in

which the Jordan valley runs, and the surface of the Sea of Galilee is six hundred and

eighty feet below sea level. The fact that it lies in this dip in the earth’s surface gives it a

very warm climate, and makes the surrounding countryside phenomenally fertile. It is

one of the loveliest lakes in the world. W. M. Thomson describes it: “Seen from any

point of the surrounding heights it is a fine sheet of water—a burnished mirror set in a

framework of rounded hills and rugged mountains, which rise and roll backward and

upward to where Hermon hangs the picture against the blue vault of heaven.”

In the days of Josephus there were no fewer than nine populous cities on its shore.

In the 1930’s, when H. V. Morton saw it, only Tiberias was left and it was little more than

a village. Today it is the largest town in Galilee and steadily growing.

In the time of Jesus the Sea of Galilee was thick with fishing boats. Josephus on a

certain expedition had no difficulty in assembling two hundred and forty fishing boats to

set out from Tarichaea; but nowadays the fishermen are few and far between.

There were three methods of fishing. There was fishing by line.

There was fishing with the casting net. The casting net was circular, and might be as

much as nine feet across. It was skillfully cast into the water from the land, or from the

shallow water at the edge of the lake. It was weighted with pellets of lead round the

circumference. It sank into the sea and surrounded the fishes; it was then drawn

through the water as if the top of a bell tent were being drawn to land, and in it the fish

were caught. That was the kind of net that Peter and Andrew, and James and John,

were handling when Jesus saw them. Its name was the amphiblēstron.

The drag net was used from a boat, or better from two boats. It was cast into the

water with ropes at each of the four corners. It was weighted at the foot so that, as it

were, it stood upright in the water. When the boats were rowed along with the net

behind them, the effect was that the net became a great cone, and in the cone the

fishes were caught and brought into the boat. This kind of net is the net in the parable of

the dragnet; and is called the sagene.

So Jesus was walking by the lakeside; and as he walked he called Peter and

Andrew, James and John. It is not to be thought that this was the first time that he had

seen them, or they him. As John tells the story, at least some of them were already

disciples of John the Baptist (John 1:35). No doubt they had already talked with Jesus

and had already listened to him, but in this moment there came to them the challenge

once and for all to throw in their lot with him.

The Greeks used to tell how Xenophon first met Socrates. Socrates met him in a

narrow lane and barred his path with his stick. First of al Socrates asked him if he knew

where he could buy this and that, and if he knew where this and that were made.

Xenophon gave the required information. Then Socrates asked him, “Do you know

where men are made good and virtuous?” “No,” said the young Xenophon. “Then,” said

Socrates, “follow me and learn!”

Jesus, too, called on these fishermen to follow him. It is interesting to note what kind

of men they were. They were not men of great scholarship, or influence, or wealth, or

social background. They were not poor, they were simple working people with no great

background, and certainly, anyone would have said, with no great future.

It was these ordinary men whom Jesus chose. Once there came to Socrates a very

ordinary man called Aeschines. “I am a poor man,” said Aeschines. “I have nothing else,

but I give you myself.” “Do you not see,” said Socrates, “that you are giving me the most

precious thing of all?” What Jesus needs is ordinary folk who will give him themselves.

He can do anything with people like that.

Further these men were fishermen. It has been pointed out by many scholars that

the good fisherman must possess these very qualities which will turn him into the good

fishers of men.

(i) He must have patience. He must learn to wait patiently until the fish will take the

bait. If he is restless and quick to move he will never make a fisherman. The good fisher

of men will have need of patience. It is but rarely in preaching or in teaching that we will

see quick results. We must learn to wait.

(ii) He must have perseverance. He must learn never to be discouraged, but always

to try again. The good preacher and teacher must not be discouraged when nothing

seems to happen. He must always be ready to try again.

(iii) He must have courage. As the old Greek said when he prayed for the protection

of the gods: “My boat is so small and the sea is so large.” He must be ready to risk and

to face the fury of the sea and of the gale. The good preacher and teacher must be well

aware that there is always a danger in telling men the truth. The man who tells the truth,

more often than not takes his reputation and his life in his hands.

(iv) he must have an eye for the right moment. The wise fisherman knows well that

there are times when it is hopeless to fish. He knows when to cast and when not to cast.

The good preacher and teacher chooses his moment. There are times when men will

welcome the truth, and times when they will resent the truth. There are times when the

truth will move them, and times when the truth will harden them in their opposition to the

truth. The wise preacher and teacher knows that there is a time to speak and a time to

be silent.

(v) He must fit the bait to the fish. One fish will rise to one bait and another to

another. Paul said that he became all things to all men if by any chance he might win

some. The wise preacher and teacher knows that the same approach will not win all

men. He may even have to know and recognize his own limitations. He may have to

discover that there are certain spheres in which he himself can work, and others in

which he cannot.

(v) The wise fisherman must keep himself out of sight. If he obtrudes his own

presence, even his own shadow, the fish will certainly not bite. The wise preacher and

teacher will always seek to present men, not with himself, but with Jesus Christ. his aim

is to fix men’s eyes, not on himself, but on that figure beyond.

THE METHODS OF THE MASTER

Matthew 4:23–25

Jesus made a circular tour of Galilee, teaching in the Synagogues, proclaiming the

good news of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of deseases and ailments among

the people: and the report of his activities went out all over Syria. So they brought to

him all those who were ill, those who were in the grip of the most varied diseases

and pains, those who were paralysed; and he healed them. And great crowds

followed him from Galilee, and from the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from

Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.

JESUS had chosen to begin his mission in Galilee, and we have seen how well-prepared

Galilee was to receive the seed. Within Galilee Jesus chose to launch his campaign in

the synagogues.

The synagogue was the most important institution in the life of any Jew. There was a

difference between the synagogues and the Temple. There was only one Temple, the

Temple in Jerusalem, but wherever there was the smallest colony of Jews there was a

synagogue. The Temple existed solely for the offering of sacrifice; in it there was no

preaching or teaching. The synagogue was essentially a teaching institution. The

synagogues have been defined as “the popular religious universities of their day.” If a

man had any religious teaching or religious ideas to disseminate, the synagogue was

unquestionably the place to start.

Further, the synagogue service was such that it gave the new teacher his chance. In

the synagogue service there were three parts. The first part consisted of prayers. The

second part consisted of readings from the Law and from the Prophets, readings in

which members of the congregation took part. The third part was the address. The

important fact is that there was no one person to give the address. There was no such

thing as a professional ministry. The president of the synagogue presided over the

arrangements for the service. Any distinguished stranger could be asked to give the

address, and anyone with a message to give might volunteer to give it; and, if the ruler

or president of the synagogue judged him to be a fit person to speak, he was allowed to

speak. Thus, at the beginning, the door of the synagogue and the pulpit of the

synagogue were open to Jesus. He began in the synagogue because it was there he

would find the most sincerely religious people of his day, and the way to speak to them

was open to him. After the address there came a time for talk, and questions, and

discussion. The synagogue was the ideal place in which to get a new teaching across to

the people.

But not only did Jesus preach; he also healed the sick. It was little wonder that

reports of what he was doing went out and people came crowding to hear him, and to

see him, and to benefit from his pity.

They came from Syria. Syria was the great province of which Palestine was only a

part. It stretched away to the north and the north-east with the great city of Damascus

as its center. It so happens that one of the loveliest legends passed down to us by

Eusebius ( Ecclesiastical History 1:13) goes back to this time. The story goes that there

was a king called Abgar, in Edessa, and he was ill. So, it is said, he wrote to Jesus:

“Abgar, ruler of Edessa, to Jesus, the most excellent Savior, who has appeared in the

country of Jerusalem—greeting. I have heard of you and of your cures, performed

without medicine and without herb; for, it is said, you make the blind to see and the

lame to walk, you cleanse the lepers, you cast out evil spirits and demons, you heal

those afflicted with lingering diseases, and you raise the dead. Now, as I have heard all

this about you, I have concluded that one of two things must be true; either, you are

God, and having descended from heaven you do these things, or else, you are a son of

God by what you do. I write to you, therefore, to ask you to come and cure the disease

from which I am suffering. For I have heard that the Jews murmur against you, and

devise evil things against you. Now, I have a very small but an excellent city which is

large enough for both of us.” Jesus was said to have written back: “Blessed are you for

having believed in me without seeing me. For it is written concerning me that those who

have seen me will not believe in me, while they who have not seen me will believe and

be saved. But, as to your request that I should come to you, I must fulfill all things here

for which I have been sent, and, after fulfilling them, be taken up again to him who sent

me. Yet, after I am taken up, I will send you one of my disciples to cure your disease,

and to give life to you and to yours.” So, the legend goes on, Thaddeus went to Edessa

and cured Abgar. It is only a legend, but it does show how men believed that even in

distant Syria men had heard of Jesus and longed with all their hearts for the help and

the healing which he alone could give.

Very naturally they came from Galilee, and the word about Jesus had spread south

to Jerusalem and Judea also, and they came from there. They came from the land

across the Jordan, which was known as Peraea, and which stretched from Pella in the

North to Arabia Petra in the south. They came from the Decapolis. The Decapolis was a

federation of ten independent Greek cities, all of which, except Scythopolis, were on the

far side of the Jordan.

This list is symbolic, for in it we see not only the Jews but the Gentiles also coming

to Jesus Christ for what he alone could give them. Already the ends of the earth are

gathering to him.

THE ACTIVITIES OF JESUS

Matthew 4:23–25 ( continued)

THIS passage is of great importance because it gives us in brief summary the three

great activities of Jesus’ life.

(i) He came proclaiming the gospel, or, as the A. V. and RSV have it, he came

preaching. Now, as we have already seen, preaching is the proclamation of certainties.

Therefore, Jesus came to defeat men’s ignorance. He came to tell them the truth about

God, to tell them that which by themselves they could never have found out. He came to

put an end to guessing and to groping, and to show men what God is like.

(ii) He came teaching in the synagogues. What is the difference between teaching

and preaching? Preaching is the uncompromising proclamation of certainties; teaching

is the explanation of the meaning and the significance of them. Therefore, Jesus came

to defeat men’s misunderstandings. There are times when men know the truth and

misinterpret it They know the truth and draw the wrong conclusions from it. Jesus came

to tell men the meaning of true religion.

(iii) He came healing all those who had need of healing. That is to say, Jesus came

to defeat men’s pain. The important thing about Jesus is that he was not satisfied with

simply telling men the truth in words; he came to turn that truth into deeds. Florence

Allshorn, the great missionary teacher, said, “an ideal is never yours until it comes out of

your finger tips.” The ideal is not yours until it is realized in action. Jesus realized his

own teaching in deeds of help and healing.

Jesus came preaching that he might defeat all ignorance, he came teaching that he

might defeat all misunderstandings. He came healing that he might defeat all pain. We,

too, must proclaim our certainties; we, too, must be ready to explain our faith; we, too,

must turn the ideal into action and into deeds.