When Jesus heard of it, he departed from there by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities.
All Commentaries on Matthew 14:13 Go To Matthew 14
Jerome
AD 420
They announced the death of the Baptist to the Savior. When Jesus heard this, he withdrew to a lonely place apart, but not, as some people think, for fear of death. He withdrew to spare his enemies from compounding one murder with another or to defer his death to the day of Passover on which a lamb is ritually offered up and doorposts are sprinkled with the blood of the faithful. Or else he withdrew in order to give us an example of avoiding the foolhardiness of those who betrayed him, because not everyone perseveres amid torments with the same constancy they had when they offered themselves to be tortured. For this reason in another place he gave this admonition: “When they persecute you in this city, flee to another.” It was also fitting that the Evangelist did not say “he fled to a lonely place” but “he withdrew,” so that he avoided his persecutors rather than feared them. .
