For John was not yet cast into prison - See Luke 3:20. The mention of this shows that John was not imprisoned until some time after our Lord entered on his ministry. The design of John was to call men to repentance, and to prepare them for the Messiah, and this he continued to do after our Saviour commenced his work. It shows that a minister of religion should be industrious to the day of his death. John still toiled in his work not the "less" because the Messiah had come. So ministers should not labor less when Christ appears by his Spirit, and takes the work into his own hands, and turns many to himself.

For John was not yet cast into prison. As he afterwards was by Herod, for the sake of Herodias, because he reproved Herod for taking her to be his wife, when she was wife to his brother Philip; see Matthew 14:3; and this circumstance shows, that these things were done before that journey of Christ into Galilee, mentioned in Matthew 4:12.

John not yet cast into prison--Hence it is plain that our Lord's ministry did not commence with the imprisonment of John, though, but for this, we should have drawn that inference from Matthew 4:12 and Mark's (Mark 1:14) express statement.