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12 When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he returned to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and settled in Capernaum by the sea, in what had been the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali.

14 This was to fulfil what had been spoked through the Prophet Isaiah when he said, 15 ‘Land of Zebulun and Land of Naphtali, the road to the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles! 16 A people sitting in darkness have a great light! A great light has dawned upon those sitting in the land and shadow of death!’ 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near!”

18 As Jesus walked along the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (also called Peter) and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 They immediately left their nets and followed him. 21 He moved on from there and saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John, sitting in a boat with their father Zebedee mending their nets. Jesus called them. 22 They immediately left their boat and their father and followed him.

Comments

Jesus begins his ministry by returning to Galilee and moving from the small village of Nazareth to the larger, sea-side town of Capernaum. Galilee corresponds roughly with what would have been the tribal territories of Zebulun and Naphtali in pre-exilic days. Mt paraphrases Is 8.23-9.1, in which the prophet promises eventual consolation to these tribes, defeated and deported by the Assyrian Empire in the 8th cent. BC. Isaiah’s name for the region, Galilee of the Gentiles, literally means District of the Nations. Galilee, in Isaiah’s time and in Jesus’, was much more diverse than the more homogenous Judah.

Jesus begins his ministry by preaching the same words used by John the Baptist in Mt 3.2. He immediately begins gathering disciples, calling four local fishermen to become “fishers of men.” (The Greek actually says “fishers of human beings,” but the traditional English wordplay is too good to resist.) It may seem bizarre that these four men so readily abandoned their livelihoods and families to follow Jesus. Jn 1 indicates that some of Jesus’ disciples began as disciples of John the Baptist, and so already knew Jesus through John, in which case the story becomes more understandable.