Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Matthew 4:12-25, Capernaum, fishermen and crowds
Jesus moves to Capernaum, Galilee of the Gentiles, announces the kingdom of heaven, calls four fishermen, and draws crowds from Galilee, the Ten Towns, Jerusalem and beyond the Jordan.
Matthew 4:12-25, in every translation this tool compares.
With John in prison, Jesus moves his base from Nazareth to Capernaum on the lake, and Matthew sees in this Isaiah's promise of light for Galilee. His message is that God's reign is close at hand. He calls two pairs of fishing brothers away from their nets and their father, and news of his teaching and healing pulls in people from across the region. In a land run by Rome's appointed rulers, talk of God's kingdom was loaded language.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/judeans-and-galileans\/","n":"Galilee and the Galileans","s":"Small farming and fishing villages, ringed by Greek cities, with two new royal towns that the Gospels never say Jesus entered. Most of Jesus' story happens in places of a few hundred to a few thousand people.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/gentile-lands\/","n":"Gentile territory","s":"Across the lake and to the north lay Greek-run cities with pagan temples and pig herds. Jesus crossed into them more than once.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/kingdom-of-god\/","n":"God's kingdom","s":"Kingdom meant God's reign, God becoming king in fact. It was the good news Isaiah promised, and in Jesus' day it was also a slogan.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-sea\/","n":"The sea","s":"To ancient Israel the sea stood for chaos and danger that only God could command. The Gospel stories on the lake of Galilee lean on that old picture.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/following-a-teacher\/","n":"Following a teacher","s":"A disciple walked behind his teacher, lived with him, learned his ways and carried his reputation. Jesus chose his own, which only radical teachers did.","r":""}
Keener notes that disciples normally chose their teachers, and that teachers rarely called disciples. Fishermen were better off than most peasants, and leaving a father and a family business risked dishonor. Crowds at hot springs such as those near Tiberias show how many people sought cures (Keener). Wright reminds readers that Rome had set up Herod and then his sons as its puppets, so talk of God's kingdom meant revolution. The cultural backgrounds article on the kingdom adds that the word meant reign, and that many took Daniel's fourth and final kingdom to be Rome, the empire God's own kingdom was to overthrow. Wilkins puts Galilee at about 45 by 25 miles with some 300,000 people in two hundred or more villages, and Capernaum at about a thousand, with a waterfront of piers. Its customs post sat on the International Route because Philip's territory lay just across the Jordan (the Zondervan Atlas).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 4:12-13, 4:14-16, 4:18, 4:19-20, 4:21-22 and 4:24
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 4:13, 4:15-16, 4:18, 4:19, 4:22 and 4:24-25
- N. T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part One, comment on Matthew 4:12-17
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article Kingdom
- Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Matthew 4:13 and 4:23
- Carl G. Rasmussen, Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, The Life of Christ
