Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 4:17

"From that time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." — Matthew 4:17 (ASV)

From that time Jesus began to preach — In these words, St. Matthew records the beginning of our Lord’s Galilean ministry. It is important to remember that this was preceded by a ministry of some months in Judea.

That earlier ministry was outwardly like that of the Baptist (John 4:1). Jesus withdrew from it when John was imprisoned, knowing that His own growing fame had attracted the notice of the Pharisees.

Based on the data in John 2:13; John 2:23; John 5:1; and John 6:4, we can date His first appearance as a prophet in His own country to the autumn or winter between the Passovers of AD 26 and AD 27.

Luke 4:17–21 provides a representative example of our Lord’s usual method of preaching in the synagogue. His approach was to read the prophetic lesson for the day, make it His text, proclaim the necessity of repentance and the good news of forgiveness that follows, and bear witness that the “kingdom of heaven” was not in the distant future but was near at hand, in their midst.

We must believe that this was, at this time, as always, the substance of His teaching and preaching (see the notes on Matthew 4:23).