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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Matthew 4:14 - 4:16
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The evangelist locates the city only sufficiently exactly to pave the way for another prophetic reference:
v. 14. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,
v. 15. The land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;
v. 16. the people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
What Isaiah had written, Isa_8:22; Isa_9:1-2, found its fulfillment in the ministry of Jesus in this region. Here the tribes Zebulon and Naphtali had formerly had their homes; their country lay towards or alongside of the sea; it was a place where races mix, a border population, mainly on this side, the west side of the Jordan, according to Hebrew usage of the word, or beyond Jordan, according to the Greek usage, containing a reference to Perea, which was also a scene of Christ's activity. Of this mixed population of Jews and Gentiles, in whose midst the Greek rulers had founded new cities with heathen customs and institutions, the evangelist says, in applying the words of the prophet, that they sat in darkness. The spiritual condition of the people was such as to represent an increase in religious blindness even over the time of Isaiah, nearly 700 years before. And the evangelist repeats the verb "sat. " Theirs was an indifferent, sluggish attitude. The shadow of spiritual death had enveloped them. It effectually shut out the light of life streaming from the Old Testament prophecies. But now "Jesus Christ, the true Light, shone forth in the beauty of holiness and truth. Christ began His ministry in Galilee and frequented this uncultivated place more than He did Jerusalem and other parts of Judea. Here His preaching was peculiarly needful, and by this was the prophecy fulfilled."