Matthew4chapter 4

The pinnacle of the temple was a real place with a real drop. The southeast corner of Herod's platform stands above the Kidron valley, and Josephus says a person looking down from it grew dizzy. A leap there would have been performed in front of the crowds in the courts below.

Capernaum was a good base. It sat on the lake's north shore on the trade road running from Damascus to the coast, which meant a customs post and a small military presence. Its houses were built of the local black basalt, and the foundations of a synagogue from roughly this era lie under the white limestone ruin visitors see today.

Fishing on that lake was a real industry, not a hobby. Crews worked in partnerships, used weighted dragnets and cast nets at night, and salted the catch for shipping. Their trade was licensed and taxed, so leaving the boats meant walking away from a going business — and, for Zebedee's sons, from a father who employed hired men.

One detail would have struck a Jewish reader as backwards. Normally a young man sought out a teacher and asked to follow him. Here the teacher walks up to working men and summons them.