Matthew 4:14-16

Jesus’ move to Capernaum fulfilled Isaiah 9:1, part of a section of Isaiah’s prophecy that describes Immanuel’s coming. Matthew’s quotation of this passage was a free one. Its point was that light had dawned in a dark part of Palestine. By New Testament times the old tribal divisions had little actual relevance. [Note: France, The Gospel . . ., p. 141.] When Isaiah prophesied, Galilee was under the oppressive threat of the Assyrians. He predicted that Messiah would liberate the people living there. When Matthew wrote, Galilee was under Roman oppression. The darkness was also symbolic of the absence of religious, political, and cultural advantages available to Jews who lived in Jerusalem. "Dawned" (Gr. aneteilen) suggests that the light of Messiah’s ministry would first shine brightly in Galilee (cf. John 1:9; John 12:46). [Note: Barnabas Lindars, New Testament Apologetic, p. 198.]

". . . From of old the Messiah was promised to ’Galilee of the Gentiles’ (ton ethnon), a foreshadowing of the commission to ’all nations’ (panta ta ethne, Matthew 28:19). Moreover, if the messianic light dawns on the darkest places, then Messiah’s salvation can only be a bestowal of grace-namely, that Jesus came to call, not the righteous, but sinners (Matthew 9:13)." [Note: Carson, "Matthew," p. 117. See Gene R. Smillie, "’Even the Dogs’: Gentiles in the Gospel of Matthew," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 45:1 (March 2002):73-97.]

Whereas Galilee was a dark place in one sense, in another sense Jerusalem was even darker. There hostility to Jesus was much greater, but in Galilee the people heard Jesus gladly.

"Matthew’s story of Jesus’ life and ministry possesses a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end and hence falls into three parts: (I) The Presentation of Jesus (Matthew 1:1 to Matthew 4:16); (II) The Ministry of Jesus to Israel and Israel’s Repudiation of Jesus (Matthew 4:17 to Matthew 16:20); and (III) The Journey of Jesus to Jerusalem and His Suffering, Death, and Resurrection (Matthew 16:21 to Matthew 28:20). In the first part, Matthew presents Jesus as the Davidic Messiah-King, the royal Son of God (Matthew 1:1 to Matthew 4:16). To show that Jesus is preeminently the Son of God, Matthew depicts God as announcing within the world of the story that Jesus is his Son (Matthew 3:17). As the Son of God, Jesus stands forth as the supreme agent of God who authoritatively espouses God’s evaluative point of view." [Note: Kingsbury, p. 161.]

The divisions of the Gospel that I have used in these notes are theological more than narrative.