Matthew 4:12 Commentary and Bible Study

The previous verse has ended with the devil departing from Christ after failing to defeat him in temptation, and we now find Christ departing for Galilee. There is however a gap in time between Matthew 4:11 and 4:12. We know this by comparing Matthew with the other Gospels. From them we learn that after the temptation Christ returned to John the Baptist who was now at Bethabara (John 1:28); he made the journey to Cana for the wedding where the first miracle was performed (John 2:1); he went with his family to Capernaum (John 2:12); he went up to Jerusalem for the first Passover during his ministry, when he spoke with Nicodemus (John 2:13); he spent some time in Judea with his early disciples (John 3:22); and finally he left Judea for Galilee again (Matthew 4:12; John 4:3), going via Samaria (John 4:4), and visiting Nazareth where the inhabitants attempted to murder him (Luke 4:16), and Cana for the second time (John 4:46), and making his base in Capernaum (Matthew 4:13). It is this departure from Judea for Galilee that Matthew picks up on here. This marked the start of Christ’s first Galilean ministry.The trigger for this return to Galilee was that Christ heard that John had been arrested by Herod and thrown into prison. Matthew gives more details about this in chapter 14:3 where he looks back on John’s arrest while explaining Herod’s false assessment that Jesus was in fact John the Baptist, raised from the dead. John had come to prepare the way for Christ, but when the Lord came to him for baptism, John knew that his own ministry was about to end and he started to direct his disciples to go to Christ. In humility he refused to show any jealousy over the Lord Jesus’ increasing popularity, and said that he must decrease and Christ increase (John 3:26-30). His arrest was the indication in God’s providence that the public ministry of Jesus Christ was about to begin, for now that Christ had appeared, John’s work was done.