Lk. 3:19 But Herod the tetrarch, being rebuked by him concerning Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done,
We are told in this segment that Yeshua now leaves Judea for Galilee, and He leaves for two reasons. The first is the fact that Yochanan haMatbil has been arrested. The Herod mentioned here is Herod Antipas, one of the sons of Herod the Great. Herod Antipas married his brother’s wife, Herodias, while he was still alive, and this was a violation of Mosaic Law. The brother was Herod Philip. Yochanan’s denunciation eventually caused his imprisonment. As hard as it may be to believe, the entire Herod family, including Herod the Great, claimed to be Jewish.
Mt. 4:12a Now when Yeshua heard that Yochanan had been put in prison,
Mk. 1:14a Now after Yochanan was put into prison,
Lk. 3:20 Also added this, above all, that he shut Yochanan up in prison.
Jn. 4:1 Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Yeshua made and baptized more disciples than Yochanan,
Jn. 4:2 (Though Yeshua Himself did not baptize, but His disciples.)
The second reason for Yeshua leaving Judea was the attraction of the Pharisees to His activities. They begin to see that Yeshua is winning more disciples than Yochanan ever did.
Please see the commentary on verse 3:22 concerning verse 4:2.
Mt. 4:12b He departed to Galilee.
Mk. 1:14b Yeshua came to Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
Lk. 4:14 Then Yeshua returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.
Jn. 4:3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.
In English the definition for Gospels is “good news.” In Hebrew the word is besorah, while in Greek it is euaggelion. Our English word evangelism comes from it.
More important than establishing the geographical setting of Yeshua’s public ministry is defining the relationship between Yochanan haMatbil and Yeshua after the baptism. Only after correcting some common misconceptions can we portray Yeshua in His true significance. The root of the distortion lies in the chronology of salvation history found in Mark. Because, in the Christian view, Yochanan haMatbil was justifiably regarded as the forerunner of Yeshua, and because Yeshua’s entry on the scene did follow that of Yochanan, Mark makes Yochanan the precursor of Yeshua in the literal sense. Thus, according to Mark, Yeshua could appear publicly only after Yochanan had been arrested.
Matthew goes a step further. He followed Mark’s chronological framework (Mt. 4:12, 13) that assumed that Yochanan had been seized before the first appearance of Yeshua. Accordingly, only after Yochanan had been imprisoned was Matthew able to portray Yochanan sending messengers to Yeshua to ask Him if He was the “One who was coming?” Matthew’s version “corrected” the original chronology under the influence of Mark. Thus, Luke 4:1 is right, while Mt. 11:2 is wrong. Moreover, Matthew displays a tendency to conflate Yochanan’s words with elements of Yeshua’s speech (and vice versa). He thus puts Yeshua’s preaching, word for word, in Yochanan’s mouth (Mt. 3:2; cf. 4:17).
Jn. 4:4 But He needed to go through Samaria.
On His departure from Judea, moving towards Galilee, Yeshua chooses to go through Samaria. Now Jews and Samaritans are rather antagonistic towards each other. Jews did not like Samaritans, and the feelings of the Samaritans were mutual. The reason for this antagonism was because of what the Samaritans did. The Samaritans set up a rival religious system. As far as the Scriptures were concerned, they accepted the Mosaic Law only. They were anti-Jerusalem and they were against worshiping in Jerusalem. In contrast to the Temple in Jerusalem, built their own on Mount Gerizim overlooking the ancient city of Shechem. A suburb of Shechem, Sychar was their holy place where they worshiped and sacrificed. Also, because of their anti-Jerusalem spirit, they went through the Mosaic Law and deleted any possible references to Jerusalem and replaced it with Mount Gerizim. The well that would come into play here is Jacob’s Well.
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