Why is it specified that the people who followed Jesus came from the regions of Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan?
Matthew mentions that the people following Jesus came from, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan to show the wide distribution of the gospel of the kingdom and of the light that had begun to shine in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali (Matthew 4:16), even into the corrupt capital of Jerusalem. Next, Jesus will move south to give the law of this kingdom in the Sermon on the Mount.
All the various different districts are named to indicate that a representative segment of the population of the entire promised land had come towards the light that had begun to shine in the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. This serves to indicate that the light truly reaches the people as a whole (Matthew 4:16)—beginning with the people who lived under God’s judgment in darkness and in the shadow of death. Just as the judgment had begun in the north and later reached Jerusalem, so now deliverance from this judgment penetrates into the capital city and the people gather together around Emmanuel. He then precedes this people to the mount where he will enact his new law by means of the famous Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1–7:29).1
25 Une grande foule le suivit, de la Galilée, de la Décapole, de Jérusalem, de la Judée, et d'au-delà du Jourdain.