Matthew 11:1

In the original Greek according to Westcott-Hort, this verse is:

Καὶ ἐγένετο ὅτε ἐτέλεσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς διατάσσων τοῖς δώδεκα μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ, μετέβη ἐκεῖθεν τοῦ διδάσκειν καὶ κηρύσσειν ἐν ταῖς πόλεσιν αὐτῶν.

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.

The New International Version translates the passage as:

After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.^[1]

The Amplified Bible, New Century Version and The Voice translation also add reference to "Galilee",^[2] and Heinrich Meyer identifies "their towns" with the Galilean towns from which the multitude had been drawn to listen to Jesus, linking this verse with Matthew 4:23 and Matthew 9:35.^[3]

Dale Allison sees verse 1 as a "transitional sentence".^[4] Jesus continues to preach,^[5] but he is alone at this point.^[3] Cornelius a Lapide believes that this verse indicates that Jesus separated Himself from His Apostles, whom He sent to preach the Gospel. A brief synopsis of what the apostles did is related in Luke 9:6 and Mark 6:12.^[6]

It was during the absence of the twelve that a delegation from John the Baptist arrived.^[3]