Matthew 4:12 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

John was some time after this cast into prison, for his free reproving Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, for taking Herodias his brother Philip's wife, and other evils, Matthew 14:3,4 Mr 6:17 Luke 3:19,20. Jesus heard of this accident, and departed into Galilee. There were many things happened between Christ's temptations and this his motion into Galilee, which are omitted by all the evangelists except John, and by him recorded in his four first Chapter s. Neither by Galilee must we understand the Nether Galilee, which was within the jurisdiction of Herod, but the Upper Galilee, called Galilee of the Gentiles, Matthew 4:15, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, which was in the jurisdiction of Philip, a man of a less bloody disposition. Others make it under Herod's jurisdiction, but where the Pharisees had less to do than in Judea. Our Saviour doth not out of cowardice avoid danger, but he knew his time was not yet come. But some judicious interpreters think that our Saviour first went into the Lower Galilee, and from thence soon after into the Upper Galilee: that which makes this more probable is the next words, And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum; so as it should seem he first went to Nazareth, which was in the Lower Galilee.

Matthew 4:12

12 Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;