“That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,”
So that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. The fulfillment formula applied to Jesus' choice of Galilee as his ministry base. Isaiah 9:1–2 is the text being fulfilled — one of the great messianic texts of the Hebrew prophets, promising light to the regions most associated with Gentile influence and spiritual darkness. Matthew's consistent use of the fulfillment formula communicates that the events of Jesus' life are not accidents or coincidences but the unfolding of a plan that Isaiah and the other prophets were announcing in advance. The text and the event interpret each other: the event shows what the prophecy was pointing toward, and the prophecy shows what the event means.
Church Fathers on Matthew 4:14
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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