Luke 4:31-32

1 st. Luke 4:31-32.

The term, He went down, refers to the situation of Capernaum on the sea-shore, in opposition to that of Nazareth on the high land.

We have to do here with a permanent abode; comp. John 2:12 and Matthew 4:13 (ἐλθὼν κατῴκησεν εἰς Κ.), as well as the term, His own city (Matthew 9:1). The name Capernaum or Capharnaum (see critical note, Luke 4:23) does not occur in the O. T. From this it would seem that it was not a very ancient place. The name may signify, town of Nahum (alluding to the prophet of this name), or (with more probability) town of consolation. The name, according to Josephus, belonged properly to a fountain; in the only passage in which he mentions this town, he calls it Κεφαρνώμη. Until lately, it was very generally admitted that the site of Capernaum was marked by the ruins of Tell-Hum towards the northern end of the lake of Gennesareth, to the west of the embouchure of the Jordan. Since Robinson's time, however, several, and among the rest M. Renan, have inclined to look for it farther south, in the rich plain where stands at the present day the town of Khan-Minyeh, of which Josephus has left us such a fine description. Keim pronounces very decidedly in favour of this latter opinion, and supports it by reasons of great weight.

Agriculture, fishing, and commerce, favoured by the road from Damascus to Ptolemais, which passed through or near Capernaum, had made it a flourishing city. It was therefore the most important town of the northern district of the lake country. It was the Jewish, as Tiberias was the heathen, capital of Galilee (a similar relation to that between Jerusalem and Caesarea).

The 31st and 32d verses form the fifth resting-place or general summary in the narrative (see Luke 4:14-15). The analytical form ἦν διδάσκων indicates habit. In the parallel place in Mark, the imperf. ἐδίδασκεν puts the act of teaching in direct and special connection with the following fact. By the authority (ἐξουσία) which characterized the words of Jesus, Luke means, not the power employed in the healing of the demonaic (to express this he would rather have used δύναμις, force), but the commanding character which distinguished His teaching. Jesus did not dissect texts, like the Rabbis; He laid down truths which carried with them their own evidence. He spoke as a legislator, not as a lawyer (Matthew 7:28-29).

The following incident proves the right He had to teach in this way.

It appears that it was with this 31st verse that Marcion commenced his Gospel, prefacing it with the fixing of the date, Luke 3:1: “In the 15th year of the government of Tiberius, Jesus went down into the town of Galilee called Capernaum.” The complement understood of went down was evidently: from heaven. As to the visit to Nazareth, Marcion places it after the scene which follows; this transposition was certainly dictated by Luke 4:23.