In Galilee Jesus taught in parables and on hillsides, healed the sick, welcomed outcasts, calmed a storm, fed thousands, and raised the dead. His authority drew crowds and provoked opposition from religious leaders, and He asked His disciples the question that still stands: who do you say I am?
1Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: 3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 8“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 13“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. 14“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. 17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 21“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. 23So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. 27“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. 31“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. 33“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil. 38“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. 43“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. 1“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 2“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 5“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name. 10Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us this day our daily bread, 12and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. 14For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 16“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 19“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. 25“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. 1“Judge not, that you be not judged. 2For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. 6“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. 7“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! 12“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. 13“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. 15“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. 21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ 24“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” 28And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. This is the longest stretch of the Gospels and the hardest to summarize. Jesus taught about the Kingdom in stories a child can follow and a scholar cannot exhaust. He touched lepers, ate with tax collectors, forgave sins, and commanded wind and waves.
The signs pointed to something. When John the Baptist sent from prison to ask whether Jesus was the one, Jesus answered with Isaiah's words: the blind see, the lame walk, the poor hear good news.
Conflict grew alongside the crowds. By the end of this chapter Peter has confessed Jesus as the Christ, and Jesus has begun to tell His disciples that He must suffer, die, and rise.
Events in this chapter
- Event
The Sermon on the Mount
On a mountainside in Galilee Jesus taught His disciples and the crowds: the Beatitudes, the call to be salt and light, a righteousness that goes deeper than the law's letter, the Lord's Prayer, trust in the Father, and the two ways ending in the wise and foolish builders. The crowds were astonished at His authority.
Open record - Event
The healing of the paralytic
In Capernaum four men lowered a paralyzed friend through the roof to reach Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus first forgave the man's sins, and when the scribes objected that only God can forgive, He healed the man so that they would know the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.
Open record - Event
The parables of the Kingdom
Teaching from a boat beside the Sea of Galilee, Jesus described the Kingdom in parables: seed on four kinds of soil, weeds among wheat, a mustard seed, leaven, hidden treasure, a pearl, and a net. He explained to His disciples that the parables both reveal and conceal, citing Isaiah's word about a people who hear without understanding.
Open record - Event
The calming of the storm
Crossing the Sea of Galilee by night, the disciples were caught in a violent storm while Jesus slept. They woke Him in fear, He rebuked the wind and the sea and it became perfectly calm, and He asked why they still had no faith. They asked one another who this could be, that even wind and sea obey Him.
Open record - Event
The raising of Jairus's daughter
A synagogue leader named Jairus begged Jesus to heal his dying daughter. On the way a woman who had suffered bleeding for twelve years touched His cloak and was healed, and Jesus told her that her faith had made her well. Word came that the girl had died; Jesus took Peter, James, John, and her parents into the house and raised her with a word.
Open record - Event
The feeding of the five thousand
In a remote place near the Sea of Galilee Jesus fed a crowd of about five thousand men, besides women and children, with five loaves and two fish, blessing and breaking the bread until all were satisfied and twelve baskets were left over. John records that the people wanted to make Him king by force, and that Jesus withdrew.
Open record - Event
Jesus walks on the water
The night after the feeding, the disciples were rowing against the wind on the Sea of Galilee when Jesus came to them walking on the water. Matthew records that Peter stepped out toward Him, began to sink, and was caught by Jesus's hand. When Jesus climbed into the boat the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshiped Him as the Son of God.
Open record - Event
Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi
Near Caesarea Philippi Jesus asked His disciples who people said He was, then who they said He was, and Peter answered that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus blessed him, then for the first time told the disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and rise on the third day, and rebuked Peter for resisting it.
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The transfiguration
About a week after Peter's confession Jesus took Peter, James, and John up a high mountain, where His face and clothing shone, Moses and Elijah appeared talking with Him, and a voice from the cloud called Him the beloved Son and told the disciples to listen to Him. Coming down, Jesus told them that Elijah had already come, and they understood He meant John the Baptist.
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The parables of the lost sheep, coin, and son
When the Pharisees grumbled that Jesus welcomed sinners and ate with them, He told three parables: a shepherd who searches for one lost sheep, a woman who sweeps her house for one lost coin, and a father who runs to embrace a son who had squandered his inheritance. Each ends in a celebration, and the last with an older brother who refuses to join.
Open record - Event
The raising of Lazarus
When Lazarus of Bethany died, Jesus came four days after the burial, told Martha that He is the resurrection and the life, wept at the tomb, and called Lazarus out alive still bound in grave clothes. Many who saw it believed, and the council resolved from that day to put Jesus to death.
Open record
Old Testament threads 9
Promises and patterns in this chapter
Matthew 12:39-41 alludes to Jonah 1:17
Strong allusion or echoHigh confidenceJesus names the sign of Jonah and compares Jonah's three days in the fish with the Son of Man's three days in the earth.
John 6:31 quotes Psalms 78:24
Direct quotationHigh confidenceThe crowd cites the Scripture that God gave their fathers bread from heaven to eat, which matches the psalm's account of the manna and Nehemiah's prayer.
Matthew 13:14-15 quotes Isaiah 6:9-10
Direct quotationHigh confidenceJesus explains the purpose of parables by quoting Isaiah's commission about a people who hear without understanding.
Matthew 12:18-21 quotes Isaiah 42:1-4
Direct quotationHigh confidenceMatthew quotes Isaiah's first servant song to explain why Jesus healed quietly and withdrew from conflict.
Evidence:Matthew 8:17 quotes Isaiah 53:4
Direct quotationHigh confidenceMatthew applies the servant's bearing of infirmities to Jesus's evening of healings in Capernaum.
Evidence:Mark 2:10 echoes Daniel 7:13-14
Strong allusion or echoMedium confidenceJesus's use of Son of Man as a title of authority, on earth to forgive sins and destined to suffer and rise, is most often traced to Daniel's vision of one like a son of man who receives dominion.
Other responsible views
- An idiom for a human being: Some hold that in many sayings Son of Man is simply an Aramaic way of saying a man or this man, and that the link to Daniel is clear only in the sayings about coming with the clouds.
The feeding of the five thousand echoes 2 Kings 4:42-44
Strong allusion or echoMedium confidenceElisha fed a hundred men with twenty barley loaves and had some left over; John's account of five barley loaves feeding five thousand with twelve baskets over follows the same shape on a far larger scale.
Evidence:Other responsible views
- Manna as the primary background: John's own discourse turns to the manna, not to Elisha, so the Elisha echo is a reader's observation rather than John's stated point.
The calming of the storm echoes Psalms 107:23-30
Strong allusion or echoMedium confidenceThe psalm describes sailors crying to the Lord in a storm and the Lord stilling it to a whisper; the disciples' cry and Jesus's word to the sea follow that pattern, and their question about who He is points the same way.
Evidence:Other responsible views
- A general Old Testament theme: The power to still the sea belongs to God in many passages (Psalm 65:7, 89:9, Job 38:8-11); Psalm 107 is the closest in shape but not the only background.
John 6:14 alludes to Deuteronomy 18:15
Strong allusion or echoHigh confidenceThe crowd's words about the Prophet who is to come into the world, like the priests' earlier question to John, refer to Moses's promise of a prophet like himself.
Explore the layers
People, places, themes, and passages in this chapter
- Person
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth is the center of the Christian faith and of FaithGraph. The Gospels present Him as the promised Messiah of Israel, the eternal Word made flesh, who taught, healed, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, rose bodily on the third day, and commissioned His followers to carry the good news to all nations.
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Galilee
Galilee is the northern region of the land where Jesus grew up and carried out most of His public ministry. Isaiah had spoken of light dawning on Zebulun and Naphtali, and Matthew reads the Galilean ministry as that light.
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The Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God is God's active reign, promised through Israel's prophets and announced by Jesus as having come near in Himself. Jesus taught its character in parables, displayed it in healings, and said it would grow until His return.
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Capernaum
Capernaum was a fishing town on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee that became the base of Jesus's Galilean ministry. Matthew calls it His own town; the Gospels place many healings and synagogue teachings there.
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Faith
Faith in Scripture is trust that takes God at His word and acts on it. Abraham believed the promise and it was credited to him as righteousness; in the Gospels Jesus repeatedly answers faith with healing, rebukes its absence in a storm, and calls people to believe in Him for eternal life.
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Sea of Galilee
The Sea of Galilee is the freshwater lake in northern Israel, also called Gennesaret and Tiberias, around which most of Jesus's Galilean ministry took place. He called fishermen on its shore, taught from boats, calmed its storm, and walked on its water.
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Isaiah 6:9-10
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Psalms 107:23-30
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James son of Zebedee
James was a Galilean fisherman, the son of Zebedee and brother of John, called by Jesus while mending nets beside the Sea of Galilee. He was one of the three disciples present at the raising of Jairus's daughter and at the transfiguration, and Acts records that Herod Agrippa had him killed by the sword.
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