Matthew 19:1

He departed (methren). Literally, to lift up, change something to another place. Transitive in the LXX and in a Cilician rock inscription. Intransitive in Leviticus 13:53 and here, the only N.T. instances. Absence of oti or kai after kai egeneto, one of the clear Hebraisms in the N.T. (Robertson, Grammar, pp. 1042f.). This verse is a sort of formula in Matthew at the close of important groups of logia as in Leviticus 7:28 ; Leviticus 11:1 ; Leviticus 13:53 . The borders of Judea beyond Jordan (ei ta oria th Ioudaia peran tou Iordanou). This is a curious expression. It apparently means that Jesus left Galilee to go to Judea by way of Perea as the Galileans often did to avoid Samaria. Luke ( Luke 17:11 ) expressly says that he passed through Samaria and Galilee when he left Ephraim in Northern Judea ( John 11:54 ). He was not afraid to pass through the edge of Galilee and down the Jordan Valley in Perea on this last journey to Jerusalem. McNeile is needlessly opposed to the trans-Jordanic or Perean aspect of this phase of Christ's work.