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Bible chapter guide
Matthew 4
Jesus is led into the wilderness and tempted by the devil for forty days, answering each temptation with Scripture. He settles in Capernaum by the sea, begins to preach 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near,' calls the fishermen Peter, Andrew, James and John, and heals throughout Galilee.
Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.
See it in the Labs
- Places of JesusPlaces of JesusOpen
- CapernaumCapernaumOpen
- The Bible Time MapMinistry in Galilee · The Bible Time MapOpen
- The Temple MountThe Pinnacle of the Temple · The Temple MountOpen
- The Temple MountThe Temple Mount: view from The Pinnacle of the TempleOpen
Also in this chapter
How sure can we be?
- Strongly supported
Capernaum is Tell Hum on the north-west shore of the Sea of Galilee.
Tell Hum preserves Kefar Nahum ('village of Nahum'); Josephus names a spring 'Capharnaum' on this shore, and the pilgrim Egeria (c. 383) visited the house-church and synagogue here.
- Plausible
Read as the Messiah. Matthew sees the “great light” of Isaiah 9:2 dawn in Jesus' preaching in Galilee (Matthew 4:13–16), and from the early church on, Christians have read the child of 9:6–7 as Jesus, whose kingdom has no end.
Rests on the New Testament's own use of Isaiah 9, and on the titles of 9:6, which go beyond any king of Judah.
- Speculative
Jesus taught in this synagogue.
He preached 'in their synagogues throughout all Galilee' and travelled along this shore, so it is possible, but no text names Magdala's synagogue.