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Mat_4:12. Fritzsche gives the sense and connection of Mat_4:12-16 thus: “Post conditi in carcerem Johannis famam discessit Jesus in Galilaeam, et relicta Nazaretha Capharnaumi quidem consedit, ut, quemadmodum apud prophetam est, magnis, amisso Johanne, tenebris oppressi Galilaei splendida Messiae luce fruerentur.” But it appears, from the words in Mat_4:12, that Jesus, upon learning that the Baptist had been delivered over to Herod, deemed it dangerous to appear in the same district where the latter had baptized and excited so much attention, and that therefore He withdrew into the more remote Galilee (comp. Mat_12:15, Mat_14:13). This belonged, indeed, to the dominion of Herod Antipas, who had caused the Baptist to be apprehended (Mat_14:3); but it removed Jesus more from his attention and that of the hierarchical party, and gave Him the natural retirement of home. According to Joh_3:24, John had not yet been apprehended, and the journey to Galilee was occasioned by the marriage at Cana (Mat_2:1). In Luk_4:14 no external reason is stated for the journey, which is a later avoidance of the inaccurajcy of the earlier tradition (retained in Mark and Matthew) (in answer to Schneckenburger). The contradiction, however, between Matthew and John is to be recognised, and to the latter is to be assigned the preference in point of accuracy.[392] Comp. on Joh_3:24. A longer intervening period between the temptation and the return to Galilee is not hinted at by Matthew (nor even by Mark), and is excluded by Luke.
[392] We cannot say that it is the journey to Galilee, Joh_6:1, which is intended in our passage (Wieseler, chronol. Synopse, p. 161 f., and Beitr. z. Würdig. d. Eu. p. 174 ff.), for that Matthew conceived the journey recorded by him as the first after the sojourn in the wilderness, is shown not only by the whole context, but also by ver. 13 ff., where the settling down at Capernaum is related, and the reason assigned for it; and by ver. 17, where Jesus first actually begins His office as teacher. This holds good against the frequent assumption that the journey to Galilee, Mat_4:12, coincides with Joh_4:3; Joh_4:43-45 (Kuhn, Ebrard, Lange, Märcker, Uebereinst. d. Matth. u. Joh., 1868, p. 9). Exegetically, the discrepancy must remain a blank, which is also recognised by Bleek and Keim; by the latter, however, in such a way that he denies to John’s account a strictly historical character.