John 2:12

After this Jesus went down, &c. After the marriage Jesus returned with His Mother and friends to their house at Nazareth. Nazareth was situated upon higher ground, so that He would descend from it to Capharnaum, which was on ground sloping down to the Sea of Galilee. The reason why He went was because He did not wish to make Nazareth, a poor and ignoble town, and by whose inhabitants He was despised as a carpenter, and the son of a carpenter, the headquarters of His preaching. For this He destined Capharnaum, which was by the sea-side, and famous for its commerce and concourse of people, so that He might have more fruit of His ministry.

Now this journey of Christ took place before the imprisonment of John the Baptist, as may be clearly gathered from Joh 3:24 and

John 4:1. It was different therefore from that of which S. Matthew speaks (iv. 13). For that took place after John was put in prison, when Christ actually transferred His place of abode to Capharnaum, and there opened a public school of His doctrine and teaching. The present occasion was only preparatory. This visit was only by the way, as it were in transitu, intending to proceed from hence to Jerusalem to keep the Passover, which was now nigh at hand. So Jansen.

And His brethren, i.e., His cousins, James the Less, Joseph, Simon, and Judas (Mat 13:55). Also John and James the Greater.

And the Passover, &c. This was the first Passover after Christ's baptism. Vers. 14, 15, 16. And He found in the Temple, &c. I have explained all these things in S. Matthew 21:12. Observe, however, that this was a different driving out of the buyers and sellers from that recorded in the 21st of S. Matthew, which occurred very shortly before Christ's passion. But this took place at the very beginning of His ministry.