The Light Begins To Shine Throughout All Galilee, And Even Beyond (4:23-25).
From now on a great work of the Spirit commences throughout all Galilee, as Jesus goes about teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Good News of the Kingly Rule of Heaven, and healing all manner of diseases and sicknesses, so much so that people flock to Him, not only from all over Galilee, but also from Decapolis, Jerusalem and Judaea, in order to hear Him. These were no doubt mainly Jews. Decapolis was an area on the other side of the Sea of Galilee ruled over by ten towns, and largely contained Gentiles, but many Jews lived there as well. Jerusalem as always is mentioned separately. It looked on itself as being distinct from Judaea.
The continuity of Matthew's Gospel comes out in the way that what regularly appears to close off a section, also becomes the opening to the next section. For Matthew 4:23-25 can be seen as not only closing off the previous section but also as opening up an inclusio. This commences with Matthew 4:23 ‘And Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the good news of the Kingly Rule, and healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness among the people', and can be seen as closing with Matthew 9:35, ‘and Jesus went about all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the good news of the Kingly Rule, and healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness'.
In between those two parallel statements we find first an example of Jesus' teaching (Matthew 5:3 to Matthew 7:12), summed up in proclamation concerning the Kingly Rule of Heaven (Matthew 7:13-27), which is then followed by examples of His healing of ‘all manner of disease and all manner of sickness' (Matthew 8:2 to Matthew 9:34), put in the context of a quotation from Isaiah 53 (Matthew 8:17).
Furthermore within this section we have two halves. It opens up with the ‘great crowds' (Matthew 4:25), who are deliberately left behind so that Jesus can speak to His disciples up in the mountain (Matthew 5:1). Some of the crowds meanwhile filter up into the mountain to hear what Jesus is saying, which helps to explain the severity of Jesus ending to His words (Matthew 7:13-27), of whom there are so many that they can be spoken of as ‘crowds' (Matthew 7:28), but not ‘great crowds' (Matthew 8:1). Then He comes down from the mountain and is once again involved with the ‘great crowds' (Matthew 8:1). with which He continues to be involved (Matthew 8:18), until this time He escapes across the sea (Matthew 8:18; Matthew 8:23; Matthew 8:28).
The Setting of the Sermon on The Mount.
‘And Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the good news of the Kingly Rule, and healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness among the people. And the report of him went forth into all Syria, and they brought unto him all who were sick, bound with many kinds of diseases and afflictions, possessed with devils, and epileptic, and palsied, and he healed them.'
25 ‘And there followed him great crowds from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judaea and from beyond Jordan, and seeing the crowds, he went up into the mountain, and when he had sat down, his disciples came to him.'
In these words we have a summary of Jesus preaching, which is partly repeated in Matthew 9:35, which draws attention to its overall nature, and to the great crowds that He attracted (for commentary on these words see part 1). This work clearly went on for some time, until at length Jesus recognised that it was time for Him to get those who had become committed alone so that He could give them deeper teaching, and show them what would be required of disciples. But even here He was circumvented by some of the crowds arriving to listen in on what He was saying.