Jesus Begins His Ministry

Bible Study Series: Matthew 4:12-17. His message was simple and clear.

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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!

Matthew 4

In this post, links are provided for further study.

Let’s begin.

Scripture: Matthew 4:12-17

¹² When Jesus heard that John was handed over, he departed for Galilee. ¹³ And leaving Nazareth behind, he went and settled in Capernaum on the lake in the vicinity of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴ in order that what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah would be fulfilled, saying,

¹⁵ The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, path of the lake, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles:
¹⁶ The people sitting in darkness have seen a great light.
And to those sitting in the land even of shadowy death,
A light dawns on them. [Is. 9:1-2]

¹⁷ From then on, Jesus began to proclaim and say, “Repent! For the kingdom of heaven has drawn close!” (Matt. 4:12-17)

Comments

12:

John was arrested and put in prison for preaching against Herod Antipas, who had married his brother Philip’s wife Herodias. Jump ahead to Matt. 14:1-12 to find out the sordid story of the unjust plot against John. He will be beheaded.

13:

After Jesus was baptized, he apparently went back to Nazareth to say his good-byes. He left his hometown behind. I like to picture Jesus as a tidy man, as he worked in the carpentry shop or atelier. He put away his tools where they belonged, took off his work apron, and folded it up, and walked out the door and left, never to return to his old profession. His bothers could run the family business. Then he settled in a town by the lake of Galilee. It was larger than Nazareth. He set up his base there, but he won’t stay long.

You can google where Zebulun and Naphtali on a map of first-century Israel.

Professional NT scholars estimate that Capernaum ranged in population from 1000 to 10,000. A centurion lived there (Matt. 8:5) and a custom post was stationed there (9:9), so it was an administrative center. So it was probably closer to 10,000 than to 1000. (Keener says it was closer to 1,000-2,000, p. 145, note 210.) It was traditionally a Jewish town, unlike other towns in Galilee, which had been Hellenized (Greek) or Romanized (Roman). Jesus at first ministered only to his fellow Jews, but Matthew repeatedly stresses the mission to Gentiles, either implicitly (Matt. 1:3, 5-6; 2:1; 5:47; 6:32; 15:28; 22:9) or by open teaching (8:10-12; 21:43; 24:14; 28:19). Galilee represents Jews and Gentiles. So of course the Jerusalem establishment, extra-pure Jews, looked down on them. Some of the extra-pious saw them as foreigners, and they will oppose Jesus the Galilean, not just for geographical reasons, but for his confrontational style and his opposition to the temple complex.

Zebedee and his two sons James and John had their fishing business in Capernaum.

Were Jesus, James and John First Cousins? Was Clopas Jesus’ Uncle?

Turner notes that politically Israel’s prospects were dark when Jesus arrived on the scene and were “symptomatic of her need for the redemption from sin available through Jesus the Messiah” (comment on 4:14-16).

14:

Once again Matthew has a high regard for Scripture. He quotes it devoutly, though specialist scholars say he approximated the quotation in these two verses from Is. 9:1-2. But Scripture is Matthew’s foundation. His writings and the rest of the NT and the OT, properly interpreted, should also be our foundation.

It is not only about quoting Scripture to demonstrate how Jesus fulfills it. He also fulfills it by its patterns and themes and principles. Example: the kingdom is greater than the temple; his crucifixion is a ransom for many, thus abrogating (canceling) the old sacrificial system.

Messianic Prophecies (a long table of quoted verses)

15:

I really like this verse and its poetry. It calls those two regions “path of the lake.” Apparently that phrase means that the lake is within those two regions. For centuries, more Gentiles (non-Jews) lived in Galilee (north) than in Judea (south and contained Jerusalem), which is in the south and the province containing Jerusalem. Judeans were therefore suspicious of the mixture both racial and cultural of Galileans.

16:

Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12). Light chases way darkness. The poetry of this verse is rich: people sit in darkness, even the shadowlands. This means people are easily confused. They need more light.

Here’s a literal translation to catch the poetry:

The people sitting in darkness have seen a great light;
On those sitting in darkness in the region and shadow of death,
A light has dawned on them. (Matt. 4:16)

People “sitting” means they were residing or living in darkness. Maybe the heavy Gentile mixture proved to bring darkness on people. Yes, the pronoun “them” at the end is repeated in Greek, even though the phrase “on those sitting” could handle the verb “has dawned.”

17:

Okay! Now his ministry begins in earnest. He is launched. We should pause to reflect. He just left Nazareth and settled in Capernaum. Surely he said goodbye to his mother, possibly his father, if he was still alive, and his brothers and sisters. Did they wonder what he was doing? Why was he leaving? He has a good business going here, a growing concern. The town of Tiberias was nearby, and surely the people there bought some of his products and used his services. But he left it all behind.

What was his message, the main theme in his “song” or ministry? “Repent! The kingdom of God has come close!”

“Repent!” it is the verb metanoeō (pronounced meh-tah-noh-eh-oh), and “to repent” literally means “to change (your) mind.” And it goes deeper than mental assent or agreement. Another word for repent is the Greek stem streph– (including the prefixes ana-, epi-, and hupo-), which means physically “to turn” (see Luke 2:20, 43, 45). That reality-concept is all about new life. One turns around 180 degrees, going from the direction of death to the new direction of life. In discipleship, it is the turning of one’s whole being towards God.

What Is Repentance?

“kingdom of heaven”: Matthew substitutes “heaven” (literally heavens or plural) nearly every time (except for 12:28; 19:24; 21:31, 43, where he uses kingdom of God). Why? Four possible reasons: (1) Maybe some extra-pious Jews preferred the circumlocution or the roundabout way of speaking, but this answer is not always the right one, for Matthew does use the phrase “kingdom of God” four times; (2) the phrase “kingdom of heaven” points to Christ’s post-resurrection authority; God’s sovereignty in heaven and earth (beginning with Jesus’s ministry) is now mediated through Jesus (28:18); (3) “kingdom of God” makes God the king (26:29) and leaves less room to ascribe the kingdom to Jesus (16:28; 25:31, 34, 40; 27:42), but the phrase “kingdom of heaven” leaves more room to say Jesus is the king Messiah. (4) It may be a stylistic variation that has no deeper reasoning behind it (France). In my view the third option shows the close connection to the doctrine of the Trinity; the Father and Son share authority, after the Father gives it to him during his Son’s incarnation. The kingdom of heaven is both the kingdom of the Father and the kingdom of the Messiah (Carson). And, since I like streamlined interpretations, the fourth one also appeals to me.

Now let’s go for a general consideration of the kingdom of heaven / God. As noted in other verses that mention the kingdom in this commentary, the kingdom is God’s power, authority, rule, reign and sovereignty. He exerts all those things over all the universe but more specifically over the lives of people. It is his invisible realm, and throughout the Gospels Jesus is explaining and demonstrating what it looks like before their very eyes and ears. It is gradually being manifested from the realm of faith to the visible realm, but it is not political in the human sense. It is a secret kingdom because it does not enter humanity with trumpets blaring and full power and glory. This grand display will happen when Jesus comes back. In his first coming, it woos people to surrender to it. We can enter God’s kingdom by being born again (John 3:3, 5), by repenting (Matt. 4:17; Mark 1:5), by having the faith of children (Matt. 18:4; Mark 10:14-15), by being transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son whom God loves (Col. 1:13), and by seeing their own poverty and need for the kingdom (Matt. 5:3; Luke 6:20; Jas. 2:5). The kingdom has already come in part at his First Coming, but not yet with full manifestation and glory and power until his Second Coming.

Bible Basics about the Kingdom of God

Questions and Answers about Kingdom of God

Basic Definition of Kingdom of God

1 Introducing the Kingdom of God (begin a ten-part series)

GrowApp for Matt. 4:12-17

1. Jesus had to leave behind his old and comfortable way of life in Nazareth. Have you had to leave your old life behind? What’s your story?

2. How has the light of Jesus dawning on you changed your life?

9. Authoritative Testimony in Matthew’s Gospel

1. Church Fathers and Matthew’s Gospel

2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels

1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series

SOURCES