Matthew 4:23

Matthew 4:23. And he went about in all Galilee. The sphere of His ministry is thus marked; its character is thus described. ‘Galilee' here probably includes the whole fertile and well peopled district thus named, not upper Galilee alone. The people of Judea looked down on the Galileans partly because of their contact with the heathen, partly because of their dialect (comp. chap. Matthew 26:73). The inhabitants of a sacred capital city would have unusual contempt for provincials.

Teaching. The people recognized Him as a Rabbi (see below).

In their synagogues. ‘During the Babylonish exile, when the Jews were shut out from the Holy Land, and from the appointed sanctuary, the want of places for religious meetings, in which the worship of God, without sacrifices, could celebrated, must have been painfully felt. The synagogues may have originated at that ominous period. When the Jews returned from Babylon, synagogues were planted throughout the country for the purpose of affording opportunities for publicly reading the law, independently of the regular sacrificial services of the temple (Nehemiah 8:1, etc.). At the time of Jesus there was at least one synagogue in every moderately sized town of Palestine (such as Nazareth, Capernaum, etc.), and in the cities of Syria, Asia Minor, and Greece, in which Jews resided (Acts 9:2, sqq.). Larger towns possessed several synagogues; and it is said that there were no fewer than 460, or even 480, of them in Jerusalem itself.' Winer. The service was simple, and our Lord availed himself of the opportunity of making remarks usually given (comp. Luke 4:16-27; Acts 13:15). Neither Christ nor His Apostles attempted to subvert the established order of worship. They attended the synagogue service, with which, however, Christian worship has more in common than with that of the temple. The influence that revolutionized the world was not revolutionary. When the tree is made good, it grows according to its God-given form, hacking from without only mars it. A hint for politicians and would-be reformers.

Preaching (heralding), teaching and proclaiming, the gospel of the kingdom. The glad tidings about ‘the kingdom of heaven,' or which introduced this kingdom. On the word ‘gospel,' see Introd. p. 14. The good-tidings of the kingdom consist of facts about the King (comp. Romans 1:1-4). As our Lord was a wise Teacher, He did not publicly proclaim Himself the Messiah. His preaching was preparatory; the full gospel could not be preached until after the occurrence of the facts it presents (comp. note on the Sermon on the Mount). As a Rabbi, the Galileans would hear Him; they looked for a less lowly King.

To confirm this preaching, of a new and startling character, our Lord wrought miracles: Healing every disease and every sickness, etc. His ‘doing good' in this lower form had a higher purpose, to prove a Saviour in a higher sense. On the miracles of our Lord, see chap. 8. The two words, ‘disease' and ‘sickness' include all forms of bodily affliction. The first word occurs again in Matthew 4:24, hence we render it ‘disease' here.