“Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;”
Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. The arrest of John the Baptist signals to Jesus that the time for his own ministry has arrived: John's public role is finished; Jesus' public role begins. The withdrawal to Galilee is not retreat from danger but strategic advance into the territory Isaiah had promised would first see the great light (Isaiah 9:1–2, cited in verse 16). Matthew regularly shows Jesus responding to opposition and setback not by confronting head-on but by redirecting to new territory — what looks like withdrawal is often advance in a different direction. John's arrest is the closing of one chapter of God's redemptive plan and the opening of the next.
Church Fathers on Matthew 4:12
Matthew having related the forty days' fast, the temptation of Christ, and the ministry of Angels, proceeds, 'Jesus having heard that John was cast into prison.'
By God without doubt, for none can effect any thing against a holy man, unless God deliver him up. 'He withdrew into Galilee,' that is, out of Judaea; both that He might reserve His passion to the fit time, and that He might set us an example of flying from danger.
It is not blameworthy not to throw one’s self into peril, but when one has fallen into it, not to endure manfully. He departed from Judaea both to soften Jewish animosity, and to fulfil a prophecy, seeking moreover to fish for those masters of the world who dwelt in Galilee.
Read all 16 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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