Most of the events recorded in this chapter took place in Galilee. Verse 1 refers to scribes and Pharisees who have come from Jerusalem. The word order is "scribes and Pharisees" in the Textus Receptus, but "Pharisees and scribes" in Westcott and Hort's critical edition.[2] Theologian Johann Bengel makes the point that these events could not therefore have taken place at the time of the Passover.[3]
Verses 21 to 28 refer to an excursion to the region of Tyre and Sidon, after which Jesus returned to Galilee and 'skirted' or walked beside the Sea of Galilee to a mountain on the lake's eastern shore.[4] Harold H. Buls notes that "at this point in the life of Jesus", he is "less than a year from his suffering and death".[5]
At the close of the chapter (verse 39) he "got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala" or Magadan.[6] According to E. H. Plumptre in Anglican bishop Charles Ellicott's Commentary, "the better [manuscripts] give the reading Magadan.[7] The King James Version translates this text as "the coasts of Magdala".[8]Heinrich Ewald thinks the reference may be to Megiddo, but Heinrich Meyer criticises this opinion because Megiddo is "too far inland".[9] The parallel passage in Mark's gospel[10] gives (in the majority of manuscripts) a quite different place name, Dalmanutha, although a handful of manuscripts give either Magdala or Magadan, possibly through assimilation with the Matthean text.[11]
^Buls, H. H., The Faith of the Canaanite Woman, adapted from Exegetical Notes, Series A Matthew-John Sundays After Pentecost Gospel Texts, by Harold H. Buls, Concordia Theological Seminary Press: Ft Wayne IN, 1981, accessed 2 December 2022
