Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Matthew 11:1 - 11:1
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
He departed thence to teach and preach (metebē ekeithen tou didaskein kai kērussein). In five instances (Mat 7:28; Mat 11:1; Mat 13:53; Mat 19:1; Mat 26:1) after great discourses by Jesus “the transition to what follows is made with the formula, ‘And it came to pass when Jesus had ended’”(McNeile). This is a wrong chapter division, for Mat 11:1 belongs with the preceding section.
“Commanding” (diatassōn, complementary participle with etelesen), means giving orders in detail (diȧ) for each of them. Note both “teach and preach” as in Mat 4:23. Where did Jesus go? Did he follow behind the twelve as he did with the seventy “whither he himself was about to come” (Luk 10:1)? Bruce holds with Chrysostom that Jesus avoided the places where they were, giving them room and time to do their work. But, if Jesus himself went to the chief cities of Galilee on this tour, he would be compelled to touch many of the same points. Jesus would naturally follow behind at some distance. At the end of the tour the apostles come together in Capernaum and tell Jesus all that they had done and that they had taught (Mar 6:30). Matthew follows the general outline of Mark, but the events are not grouped in chronological order here.