Matthew 9:35
To all the towns and villages
- The gospel’s word εὐαγγέλιον euangelion · gospel
Original
Translations
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness.
And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
And Jesus was going up and down all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people.
예수께서 모든 성과 촌에 두루 다니사 저희 회당에서 가르치시며 천국 복음을 전파하시며 모든 병과 모든 약한 것을 고치시니라
예수님께서 모든 도시와 마을을 두루 다니사 그들의 회당들에서 가르치시고 왕국의 복음을 선포하시며 백성 가운데서 모든 질환과 모든 질병을 고쳐 주시니라.
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on Matt 9:35-38 as a whole
Jesus visited not only the great and wealthy cities, but the poor, obscure villages; and there he preached, there he healed. The souls of the meanest in the world are as precious to Christ, and should be so to us, as the souls of those who make the greatest figure. …
Read the whole commentary →Church Fathers Matt 9:35
Chrysostom: … Herein He teaches us not to return accusations to them that accuse us, but kindness. For he that ceases to do good because of accusation, shews that his good has been done because of men. …
Read the whole commentary →Wesley
Nothing on this verse itself.
Read the whole commentary →
Note
Matthew repeats almost word for word the sentence of Matthew 4:23. This time it does not only sum up; it opens the door to the sending of the Twelve.
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness.
Matthew 9:35The verse comes straight after the healing of a man who was mute and possessed. The crowds said, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel!" (Matthew 9:33), while the Pharisees put His power down to the prince of demons. Between praise and slander Matthew sums up once more what Jesus was doing, and closes the section he opened at 4:23. Then the scene turns. Jesus sees the crowds "harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd" (Matthew 9:36), tells His disciples to pray for workers for the harvest, and in chapter 10 sends the Twelve out with a message of their own: "The kingdom of heaven is near" (Matthew 10:7).
The grammar has not changed since 4:23: is again what is proclaimed, the object of . But the stage has changed. Instead of "throughout Galilee" Matthew writes "all the towns and villages": the walled town (polis) and the small village (kōmē) alike. The next chapter shows why this matters. The authority Jesus gives the Twelve is authority to "heal every disease and sickness" (Matthew 10:1), the very words of this verse in Greek (pasan noson kai pasan malakian). What Jesus had been doing in every village now becomes the work of those He sends.
The BSB and the KJV agree in substance: "preaching the gospel of the kingdom," and the KJV's "all the cities and villages" for the BSB's "towns and villages." The LSV renders the verb and the noun as "proclaiming the good news of the kingdom." The KJV and the LSV end the verse with "among the people," as in 4:23; those words stand in the Greek text the KJV was made from, but not in the older manuscripts that modern editions and the BSB follow. Nothing in the sense turns on it.
Matthew Henry notices that Jesus "visited not only the great and wealthy cities, but the poor, obscure villages," and draws the lesson in a sentence: "The souls of the meanest in the world are as precious to Christ, and should be so to us, as the souls of those who make the greatest figure" Matthew Henry. In the Catena, Chrysostom answers the slander of the verse before, pointing to all that Christ did besides casting out demons: He "preached the kingdom of God, and brought men to the Father, which a daemon neither could nor would do" Chrysostom. The preaching of the kingdom itself shows where the power comes from.
The gospel of this verse does not stay in the great towns; it walks to villages that no map would name. Nor does it end with one man's journey. It becomes the road of everyone He sends, and any small place where it is heard today lies somewhere along that road.