HolyStudy
Bible IndexRead BibleNotesChurchesMissionPrivacyTermsContact
© 2026 HolyStudy
HomeRead BibleBible NotesChurchesSign in
HolyStudy
HomeRead BibleBible NotesChurches
Sign in

Matthew 4

1

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

2

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

3

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

4

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

5

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,

6

And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

7

Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

8

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

9

And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

10

Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

11

Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

1
12

Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;

13

And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:

14

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,

15

The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;

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.

1
17

From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

18

And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.

19

And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

20

And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

21

And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.

22

And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.

23

And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

24

And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.

25

And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan.

1
← Previous ChapterNext Chapter →

Matthew 4

Immediately after the baptismal declaration, the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tested by the devil — forty days and nights of fasting that echo Israel's forty years in the wilderness. The three temptations follow a pattern: the devil targets the very things the Father declared at the baptism (Son, beloved, pleasing) with offers that would accomplish the messianic mission by non-messianic means. Stones into bread (using the Son's power for self-provision), the spectacular temple jump (testing the Father's word), and the kingdoms shortcut (ruling all nations without the cross) are all refused with Deuteronomy texts that Jesus speaks as the obedient Israelite Israel failed to be. After the testing, Jesus begins his Galilean ministry — announcing the same message as John (repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near) but immediately calling disciples, healing every disease, and drawing crowds from all of Syria, Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan. The chapter establishes the ministry's geography (Galilee, fulfilling Isaiah 9), its announcement (the kingdom is near), and its personnel (the first four disciples, called from their fishing nets with the promise: I will make you fishers of people).

Matthew 4:1

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The Spirit who descended on Jesus at the baptism now leads him into the wilderness to face the devil's testing. Then and by the Spirit communicate that the temptation is not accidental or the result of spiritual failure but is divinely arranged — the forty days in the wilderness are part of the plan, not a detour from it. The wilderness is the place where Israel was tested for forty years (Deuteronomy 8:2–3) and where they repeatedly failed. Jesus enters the same wilderness as Israel's representative, facing the same fundamental temptations in concentrated form. Hebrews 4:15 says Jesus was tempted in every way, just as we are — yet without sin. The sinlessness is not the absence of genuine temptation but the faithfulness that actual temptation did not produce.

Matthew 4:2

And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The forty days and forty nights explicitly echoes Moses on the mountain (Exodus 34:28) and Elijah's journey to Horeb (1 Kings 19:8) — the great figures of the law and the prophets who sustained extended fasts in moments of divine encounter. Jesus' forty-day fast identifies him with both while pointing beyond both. He was hungry — Matthew does not minimize the physical reality. The incarnation is not a pretend humanity; Jesus experiences genuine physical need, genuine vulnerability, genuine temptability. The hunger that follows forty days without food is the condition in which the first temptation arrives: use your power to address your need. The vulnerability that makes the temptation real is the same vulnerability that makes his ultimate intercession credible.

Matthew 4:3

And the tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. The tempter opens with an if that is not uncertainty but challenge: the baptism voice declared you are my Son — prove it by using that identity to meet your needs. The temptation is not merely to produce food but to define what the Son of God does with divine power: uses it for himself, turns stones to bread, satisfies physical hunger by miracle. The stones-to-bread temptation is the temptation to use power for self-provision in ways that bypass trust and dependence. Adam and Eve in the garden were tempted through food (Genesis 3:6); Israel in the wilderness craved the food of Egypt (Exodus 16:3); Jesus in the wilderness refuses to let hunger determine the direction of his messianic mission.

Matthew 4:4

But he answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Jesus' response to every temptation in this account is a citation from Deuteronomy — specifically from the chapters that draw lessons from Israel's wilderness experience. Deuteronomy 8:3 says the manna was given so that Israel would learn that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. The lesson of the manna was trust: God provides when human resources are exhausted. Jesus resists the temptation to provide for himself precisely by affirming the sufficiency of divine provision. The word that comes from the mouth of God is what sustains life, not the power to turn stones to bread. He will feed thousands with a few loaves in chapter 14, but only through the Father's provision, not his own independent miracle.

Matthew 4:5

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. The geography of the temptations moves from the wilderness (where Israel wandered) to the holy city and the temple pinnacle (the center of Israel's religious life). The devil can take Jesus to the holy city; the holy city is not a place of spiritual safety from which the enemy is excluded. The pinnacle of the temple — probably the southeast corner of the temple complex overlooking the Kidron Valley, a dizzying height — is the setting for the second temptation. The move from wilderness to city, from stone to temple, is the move from physical need to religious display. The temptation shifts register but its underlying logic remains the same: use your identity as Son of God in a way that bypasses the Father's way.

Matthew 4:6

And said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. The devil now quotes scripture — Psalm 91:11–12, a psalm of trust in God's protection. The citation is accurate but wrenched from its context: Psalm 91 is a song of trust in God's protection during ordinary life, not a license to engineer spectacular demonstrations of divine rescue. The temptation is to misuse scripture in the service of self-display: if God has promised to protect you, force the situation that requires the protection and thereby prove your status publicly. The misuse of scripture by twisting its intent while preserving its words is one of the most subtle and powerful tools of the temptation.

Matthew 4:7

Jesus said to him, Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Jesus refuses the misquoted psalm with a more fundamental principle: Deuteronomy 6:16, do not put the Lord your God to the test. The verse refers to Massah (Exodus 17:1–7), where Israel demanded water and thereby tested God — required him to prove his presence and provision by meeting an engineered crisis. Throwing himself from the temple would be the same: manufacturing a crisis to demand a divine rescue that demonstrates his status. The Son of God does not test the Father; the Son of God trusts the Father. Jesus' refusal is the refusal to live by signs engineered for self-validation rather than by faith in the Father's existing provision. The counter-citation also corrects the devil's misuse of scripture by recalling the intent behind the text.

Matthew 4:8

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. The third temptation escalates to the largest possible scale: all the kingdoms of the world and their glory displayed from the summit of a very high mountain. The image recalls Moses on Pisgah viewing the promised land (Deuteronomy 34:1–4) but expands it to include every kingdom. The Messiah is supposed to inherit the nations (Psalm 2:8 — ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage); the question is the path to that inheritance. The devil offers the destination without the cross; Jesus will receive the nations, but only through suffering, death, and resurrection. The vision from the mountain is real — the kingdoms are real, the glory is real — but the offer is fraudulent because they are not the devil's to give.

Matthew 4:9

And he said to him, All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. The temptation's terms are explicit: bypass the cross, receive the nations, simply bow down to the one who is offering them. The devil does not ask Jesus to deny God — only to expand his loyalties to include one more object of worship. This is the temptation of idolatry in its starkest form: exchange the path of obedience and suffering for the path of power and glory at the cost of a compromised allegiance. The kingdoms the devil offers are real kingdoms; the shortcut he proposes is a real shortcut to visible power. Jesus refuses it because the path of the cross is not merely a means to the same end — the manner of the kingdom's coming is as important as the kingdom's arrival.

Matthew 4:10

Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. The third response is the only one accompanied by a direct dismissal: Be gone, Satan! The Deuteronomy 6:13 citation — you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve — is the Shema's application to the exclusive claims of covenant loyalty. No divided worship, no additional allegiances, no matter what is offered. Jesus has passed through the three areas where Israel failed in the wilderness — provision (the manna test), protection (the Massah test), and exclusive loyalty (the golden calf test) — and succeeded where Israel failed. He is the true Israel, the faithful son, the one who emerges from the wilderness qualified to begin the ministry the Father has prepared.

Matthew 4:11

Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. The angels who minister to Jesus after the temptation recall the angel who ministered to Elijah after his own wilderness collapse (1 Kings 19:5–8), but Jesus receives them from a position of victory rather than exhaustion. The devil departed — the same word used for the dismissal — and the ministry of the angels is the Father's provision of the sustenance that Jesus refused to manufacture for himself during the temptation. He did not turn stones to bread, and the Father provided bread through angels. The principle of Deuteronomy 8:3 is enacted: the one who trusts the Father's word receives the Father's provision. The wilderness is behind him; the ministry begins.

Matthew 4:12

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.

Matthew 4:13

And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. Jesus moves from Nazareth — where he had grown up and would be rejected (Luke 4:28–30) — to Capernaum on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum becomes his base of ministry, the city Matthew 9:1 will call his own city. The geographical specificity — the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali — matches the fulfillment citation of verses 14–16: Isaiah had named these exact territories as the ones who would first see the light. Matthew is showing that Jesus' residential choice is itself a fulfillment of prophecy, that even the details of his domestic geography are part of the pattern of the coming kingdom.

Matthew 4:14

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.

Matthew 4:15

The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The citation is from Isaiah 9:1 in a form that blends the Hebrew and Greek texts. Zebulun and Naphtali were the northern tribes first conquered by Assyria (2 Kings 15:29), the regions most associated in Jewish consciousness with Gentile contamination and spiritual degradation. Galilee of the Gentiles was not a compliment in the first century. That Jesus begins his ministry precisely in this territory communicates the direction the whole gospel will move: toward those considered least likely, least pure, least central to the religious establishment. Matthew 15:24 will show Jesus extending his ministry to Gentiles even during his primarily Jewish mission.

Matthew 4:16

The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned. The Isaiah 9:2 citation interprets the darkness of Galilee's situation as the context for the arrival of light. The people dwelling in darkness — under foreign occupation, spiritually marginalized, geographically distant from Jerusalem's religious center — are precisely the people on whom the great light dawns first. The shadow of death is both metaphorical (spiritual darkness) and political (the death that empire brings). John 1:5 declares the same truth: the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Jesus arrives in the darkest corner of the Jewish world and turns it into the epicenter of his ministry.

Matthew 4:17

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus begins his public preaching with the exact message John preached (3:2): repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The continuity is deliberate — Jesus does not announce a new message but continues and embodies the one John prepared. The from that time marks a narrative turning point: from this moment, the public ministry is underway. The kingdom that John announced as approaching is now being proclaimed by the king himself. Luke 4:18–21 records Jesus' fuller inaugural address citing Isaiah 61; Matthew's summary is tighter: the kingdom requires repentance, and the kingdom is here.

Matthew 4:18

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. The first disciples are called while Jesus walks by the Sea of Galilee — a detail that communicates the ordinariness of the setting. No temple court, no synagogue, no place of public religious significance: the disciples are found at work, casting nets. Simon and Andrew are not aspirants to discipleship; they are fishermen doing their job. Elisha was plowing when Elijah called him (1 Kings 19:19–21); the disciples are fishing when Jesus calls them. The call to follow comes into the middle of ordinary life rather than in the space of religious withdrawal.

Matthew 4:19

And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. The call is a promise as much as a command: I will make you. The disciples are not recruited for their existing skills or spiritual attainments but for what Jesus will form them into. Fishers of men is not a job description but an image of mission — the gathering in of people, the expansive net of the kingdom's reach. Ezekiel 47:9–10 uses fishermen as a metaphor for the abundance of life in the coming kingdom. Jeremiah 16:16 speaks of God sending for many fishermen to gather Israel. The image of fishing is already loaded with eschatological significance; Jesus is applying it to human beings gathered into the coming kingdom.

Matthew 4:20

Immediately they left their nets and followed him. The immediacy of the disciples' response — they left their nets immediately — is one of the striking features of the synoptic calling narratives. There is no recorded deliberation, no family meeting, no transition plan. The nets represent their livelihood, their economic security, their social identity. They left all of it immediately. John 1:35–42 records an earlier meeting between Jesus and these disciples that may account for the immediacy — they had encountered him before this moment. Luke 5:1–11 provides additional context about a miraculous catch. But Matthew focuses on the immediacy as a model of response: the call of Jesus requires a decision that cannot be endlessly deferred.

Matthew 4:21

And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. The second pair of brothers is found also at work, but doing the less dramatic work of net repair rather than active fishing. Their situation is slightly different: they are in the boat with their father Zebedee, which adds the dimension of family loyalty to what they are about to leave. Calling brothers in pairs creates the first community of disciples — no one is called alone; the kingdom is from the beginning a communal enterprise. Mark 10:35–45 will show James and John at the center of the earliest discipleship struggles, suggesting that their immediate response did not produce immediate spiritual maturity.

Matthew 4:22

Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. The second pair's departure adds father to the list of what is left: the boat (livelihood), Zebedee (family), and the nets (occupation) are all left immediately. Luke 14:26 records Jesus' demand that disciples love him more than father and mother, son and daughter; James and John enact this before the demand is spoken. The father who is left behind is not abandoned to destitution — he is still in the boat with hired servants (Mark 1:20) — but the priority has been established. Following Jesus means allowing the relationship with the teacher to reorder all other relationships without destroying them.

Matthew 4:23

And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. The summary of Jesus' Galilean ministry: teaching, proclaiming, healing. All three are expressions of the same kingdom. The synagogues were the centers of Jewish communal life in every town — Jesus enters the institutions of his own people first. The gospel of the kingdom is the good news that the reign of God has arrived in his person. The healing of every disease and every affliction is the sign that the kingdom brings restoration: where the king reigns, the enemy's work is undone. Isaiah 35:5–6 promised that when God came to save, the blind would see, the deaf hear, the lame leap — Jesus' healing ministry is the fulfillment of the kingdom's promised restoration.

Matthew 4:24

So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. The fame of Jesus spreads beyond Galilee into Syria — the Gentile territory to the north — and the crowds that come to him already transcend the borders of Jewish Palestine. The list of conditions he heals is comprehensive: various diseases, pains, demonic oppression, seizures, paralysis. The comprehensiveness communicates that there is no category of human affliction outside the scope of the kingdom's restoration. Psalm 103:3 praises the God who heals all your diseases — Jesus enacts what the psalm celebrates. Syria is also the territory from which the Assyrian oppression came; the healing of Syrians enacts the reversal of judgment into blessing.

Matthew 4:25

And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. The summary of Jesus' following anticipates what the gospel will develop: crowds from every direction, from every territory — Galilee, the ten Gentile cities of the Decapolis, Jerusalem and Judea, and Transjordan. The gathering from all these regions corresponds to the Isaiah 9 text Matthew cited: the light that dawned on Galilee of the Gentiles is drawing people from every corner of the Jewish world and beyond. What begins as a walk by the Sea of Galilee and the calling of four fishermen has already produced a following that spans the territory. The kingdom has arrived; the question posed by chapters 5–7 is what kind of community the kingdom creates.