Matthew 4:12-17 Beginning of Jesus' Galilean Ministry

         1.   Matthew & Mark seem to indicate that Jesus began His
    Galilean ministry after John the Baptist was arrested.

         2.   Matthew 4:15-16 is a paraphrase of Isaiah 9:1-2.  Isaiah
    is written in the future tense as a prophesy to be fulfilled.  
    Matthew paraphrases Isaiah into the past tense as fulfilled.

         3.   Verse 17 is the first indication in Matthew of Jesus
    preaching.  Word for word, Jesus' first preaching matches that of
    John the Baptist in Matthew 3:2.

         4.   Luke adds in 4:14 that Jesus returned in the power of
    the Spirit, His anointing to preach the Gospel.  Luke 4:1 shows
    Jesus full of the Holy Spirit prior to His temptation in the
    wilderness.  In Luke 4:18-19 Jesus is seen as reading from Isaiah
    on the Sabbath, as was His custom and He was doing this in
    Nazareth where He had been brought up.  Luke paraphrases Isaiah
    61:1-2.

         5.   Matthew 14:3-4 shows that John the Baptist was arrested
    because he told Herod that it was not lawful for him to have his
    brother's wife Herodias.




                               Bibliography

              Bible (New American Standard).  Nashville, Tennessee:
    Holman Bible Publishers, 1977.
              The NIV Study Bible (New International Version). Grand
    Rapids, Michigan:  Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1985.