Mark 1:39

He preached. Thus opens Mark’s account of the first missionary tour of Galilee, begun, probably, in the early summer of A.D. 29 (see MB 2, 3; see Additional Note on Luke 4). In his writings Josephus names upward of 200 towns and villages in Galilee, and these afforded ample opportunity for an extensive and protracted campaign away from the larger cities clustered along the western shore of the Lake of Galilee. As with the early Judean ministry, concerning which the synoptic writers say little if anything, it is probable that the first missionary tour was more extensive and continued over a longer period of time than the brief attention given it would tend to indicate (see on Mark 2:1). Mark records only one specific incident on the first tour (ch. 1:40-45), but his summary of the results of the tour (v. 45) points to a successful period of ministry covering several weeks, and perhaps as much as two or three months.

In their synagogues. See pp. 56, 57. As a popular visiting rabbi Jesus would be asked to participate in the services and to speak, as at Nazareth (Luke 4:16-27) and at Capernaum (Mark 1:21, 22).

Throughout all Galilee. Matthew (ch. 4:23-25) speaks more at length of the extent and influence of the first missionary tour.

Altogether Jesus conducted three missionary tours in Galilee between the Passover of A.D. and that of A.D. 30, the period of the Galilean ministry (see The Ministry of Our Lord). On the first tour it is uncertain whether Jesus had as companions more than the four disciples whom He had recently called by the Lake of Galilee (see Mark 1:16-20). They are the only ones specifically named as being with Jesus the day before His departure from Capernaum (v. 29). Others may have begun to follow Him during the course of the first tour, as the formal appointment of the Twelve took place before the beginning of the second tour (ch. 3:13-19).

On this first tour Christ proclaimed the imminent establishment of the “kingdom of God” (Luke 4:43), which was basic to all of His later teaching.