4:17–16:20 Review · Jesus’s Announcement of the Kingdom to Israel and Resulting Responses: The second major section of Matthew focuses on Jesus’s announcement and enactment of the reign of God and the responses it generates in Israel. The people have been prepared for Jesus’s kingdom inauguration by John’s call to repentance and announcement of the kingdom’s impending arrival (identical to that of Jesus; cf. 3:2 and 4:17). In addition, Jesus’s return to and relocation within Galilee sets up his Galilean ministry spanning 4:17–16:20.

Matthew 4:17–16:20 is structured by a number of formal and conceptual repetitions, the most overarching of which is the repeated formula at 4:17 and 16:21 (“from that time on Jesus began to . . .”; see “Structure” in the introduction). Three of Matthew’s five…