Matthew Chapter 4

From The Open Bible Project

4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

• (1) Christ is tempted in all manner of ways, and still overcomes, that we also through his virtue may overcome.

4:2 When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.

• (a) A full forty days.

4:3 The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."

4:4 But he answered, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'"[13]

4:5 Then the devil took him into the holy city. He set him on the pinnacle of the temple,

• (b) The battlement which encompassed the flat roof of the Temple so that no man might fall down: as was appointed by the law; (Deuteronomy 22:8).

4:6 and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, 'He will put his angels in charge of you.' and, 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you don't dash your foot against a stone.'"[14]

4:7 Jesus said to him, "Again, it is written, 'You shall not test the Lord, your God.'"[15]

• (c) Literally, "Thou shalt not go on still in tempting."

4:8 Again, the devil took him to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory.

4:9 He said to him, "I will give you all of these things, if you will fall down and worship me."

4:10 Then Jesus said to him, "[16>]Get behind me,[<16] Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.'"[17]

4:11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and served him.

4:12 Now when Jesus heard that John was delivered up, he withdrew into Galilee.

• (2) When the Herald’s mouth is stopped, the Lord reveals himself and brings full light into the darkness of this world, preaching free forgiveness of sins for those that repent.

4:13 Leaving Nazareth, he came and lived in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,

• (d) Which was a town a great deal more famous than Nazareth was.

4:14 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying,

4:15 "The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, toward the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles,

• (e) Of Tiberias, or because that country went toward Tyre, which borders the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
• (f) So called because it bordered upon Tyre and Sidon, and because Solomon gave the king of Tyre twenty cities in that quarter; (1 Kings 9:11).

4:16 the people who sat in darkness saw a great light, to those who sat in the region and shadow of death, to them light has dawned."[18]

4:17 From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, "Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."

• (g) Is come to you.

4:18 Walking by the sea of Galilee, [19>]he[<19] saw two brothers: Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.

• (3) Christ, thinking that he would eventually depart from us, even at the beginning of his preaching gets himself disciples of a heavenly sort, poor and unlearned, and therefore such as might be left as honest witnesses of the truth of those things which they heard and saw.

4:19 He said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men."

4:20 They immediately left their nets and followed him.

4:21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them.

4:22 They immediately left the boat and their father, and followed him.

4:23 Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people.

• (4) Christ assures the hearts of the believers of his spiritual and saving virtue, by healing the diseases of the body.
• (h) Their, that is, the Galilaeans.
• (i) Synagogues, that is, the Churches of the Jews.
• (k) Of the Messiah.
• (l) Diseases of all kinds, but not every disease: that is, as we say, some of every kind.
• (m) The word properly signifies the weakness of the stomach: but here it is taken for those diseases which make those that have them faint and wear away.

4:24 The report about him went out into all Syria. They brought to him all who were sick, afflicted with various diseases and torments, possessed with demons, epileptics, and paralytics; and he healed them.

• (n) The word signifies properly the stone with which gold is tried: and by a borrowed kind of speech, is applied to all kinds of examinations by torture, when as by rough dealing and torments, we draw out the truths from men who otherwise would not confess: in this place it is taken for those diseases, which put sick men to great woe.
• (o) Who at every full moon or the change of the moon, are troubled and diseased.
• (p) Weak and feeble men, who have the parts of their body loosed and so weakened, that they are neither able to gather them up together, nor do with them as they wish.

4:25 Great multitudes from Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and from beyond the Jordan followed him.