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Jesus tested by Satan
4
1 Then Jesus, full of Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where He was tested for forty days by the devil.* We are not told just how Satan did this. He ate nothing at all during those days, so after they were completed He was hungry.† This episode was ordained by the Holy Spirit. Jesus had to confront Satan when He was physically the weakest He would ever be (40 days without food!). When Satan failed to defeat this weakened Jesus, he was probably filled with despair—he now knew that he could never defeat Him (but he would still try to kill Him). Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15-16 give at least part of the reason why Jesus had to undergo this experience. 3 So the devil said to Him, “Since you are Son of God,‡ There are several kinds of conditional clause in Greek, among them ‘of doubt’, ‘of fact’ and ‘contrary to fact’—Satan was not so crude as to express doubt about Christ's identity, ‘if’, he was more subtle; he granted the fact, ‘since’, and appealed to His pride. tell this stone to become bread!”§ Matthew 4:3 has “these stones”, instead of “this stone”. I gather that Satan said both: he started with ‘these stones’ and then picked out a specific one. 4 Jesus answered him saying, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ ”* See Deuteronomy 8:3. Less than half a percent of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, omit “but by every word of God” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). If we are to live by ‘every’ word, then every word must be kept available.
5 And taking Him up on a high mountain,† Just three known Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality (against over 1,700), omit “up on a high mountain the devil” (to be followed by NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc., except that some keep ‘the devil’, but not the rest). the devil showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.‡ This is obviously supernatural. Even from a satellite you cannot see the whole world at once, because it is a sphere. 6 The devil said to Him: “To you I will give all this authority, and their glory, because it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I want to. 7 So you, if you would worship before me, all will be yours.”§ This was a master stroke. Jehovah the Son entered this world as the second/last Adam precisely to recover what the first Adam had lost, and Satan was evidently well aware of what was going on. So he offers it to Jesus on a ‘silver platter’, with just one small condition… Note that Jesus does not deny Satan's right to make the offer. 8 In answer Jesus said to him: “Get behind me, Satan!* Some 3.5% of the Greek manuscripts, of inferior quality, omit “Get behind me, Satan” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve!’ ”† See Deuteronomy 6:13.
9 He also took Him to Jerusalem and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple,‡ Matthew's report has the temple before the mountain; since he employs adverbs of time (sequence) while Luke does not, I take it that Matthew gives the correct sequence (which is also the logical progression). Luke handles the temple event almost as an afterthought. and said to Him: “Since you are Son of God, throw yourself down from here; 10 because it is written, ‘He will give His angels orders concerning you, to protect you,’ 11 and, ‘They will carry you along on their hands, so you do not stub your foot on a stone.’ ”§ See Psalm 91:11-12. 12 In answer Jesus said to him: “The statement stands, ‘You shall not test the Lord your God!’ ”* See Deuteronomy 6:16. To do something irresponsible to try to oblige God to perform a miracle to save you from the consequences is forbidden. It would be a kind of ‘blackmail’.
13 Having finished every test,† Jesus was tested in the three areas: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15-16 give at least part of the reason why Jesus had to go through this experience. the devil departed from Him until an opportune time.‡ “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7), but he is in the business of returning and renewing the attack—constant vigilance is required.
Jesus begins His public ministry, in Galilee§ A number of months elapsed between verses 13 and 14; John 1:15-4:42 records some of what transpired during that interval.
14 Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and news about Him spread throughout the whole surrounding area; 15 yes, He started teaching in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
His hometown rejects Him
16 So He came to Natsareth, where He had been brought up; as was His custom He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 The book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, so unrolling the scroll He found the place where it was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because He has anointed me to evangelize poor people.
He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,* Perhaps 1.5% of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, omit “to heal the brokenhearted” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).
to proclaim release to captives
and recovery of sight to blind people,
to send those who are oppressed out in freedom,
19 to proclaim the Lord's favorable year.”† Jesus interrupted the reading of Isaiah 61:2 at a coma—‘the great parenthesis’. The part that He read pertained to His first coming, but “the day of vengeance of our God” pertains to His second coming—the ‘parenthesis’ is closing in on 2,000 years.
“Today this Scripture is fulfilled”
20 Then, having rolled up the scroll and returned it to the attendant, He sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him, 21 and He began by saying to them, “Today, this Scripture in your ears has been fulfilled.” 22 (All were bearing witness to Him and were marveling at the gracious words that were coming out of His mouth;‡ He doubtless spoke for a reasonable length of time and was producing a favorable impression, but at the end He got offensive; verses 23-27 presumably contain the conclusion of His discourse. and they started saying, “Isn't this the son of Joseph?”) 23 He said to them: “Doubtless you will quote this parable to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’—do here in your hometown the things we have heard were done in Capernaum.”
Jesus treads on their toes
24 Then He said: “Assuredly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. 25 Further, I can assure you that there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three years and six months and a severe famine came over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow woman in Sarepta, near Sidon. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, yet not one of them was cleansed—just Naaman the Syrian.”§ It appears that Jesus antagonized them on purpose. Why? I see two possible answers: to remove any claim to special privilege that they might harbor because of being His home town; to be personally free from possible pressure arising from such a claim. In fact He moved out, choosing Capernaum as His base of operations.
28 Well, upon hearing these things everyone in the synagogue was filled with fury,* The violent reaction was out of all proportion to the ‘provocation’. Presumably Satan took this opportunity to try to kill Him. 29 and rising up they drove Him out of the town and took Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw Him off the cliff. 30 But He, passing through the middle of them, went on His way.† “Passing through the middle of them, He went on His way”—now how did that happen? To throw Him down, someone would have to be holding Him, probably a man on each arm, and they had gotten Him there by force, and He was surrounded. Obviously the Lord made use of supernatural power to free Himself from that situation—He had come to this world to die, all right, but not then and not in that way.
Capernaum becomes His base of operations—27 AD
31 Then He went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee; He started teaching them on the Sabbaths. 32 They kept on being amazed at His teaching, because His word was with authority.
A demonized man
33 Now in the synagogue was a man having a spirit of an unclean demon; he cried out with a loud voice 34 saying: “Ugh! What do you want with us, Jesus of Natsareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God!”‡ Evidently the Lord's mere presence was enough to make the demons feel threatened. Based on John 14:12, I wonder if the same thing should not be true of us. 35 So Jesus rebuked him saying, “Be muzzled, and get out of him!” When the demon had thrown him down in the midst, it came out of him without harming him. 36 Everyone was taken with amazement and they started conversing together, saying: “What is this word! For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” 37 And the news about Him started going out to every place of the surrounding region.
Peter's mother-in-law
38 Then He left the synagogue and entered Simon's house. But Simon's mother-in-law was suffering with a high fever, and they requested Him on her behalf. 39 So He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and began to serve them.§ Normally a high fever leaves one weak, so the Lord reversed the consequences of the fever as well. I take it that Matthew 8:14-15 records a different occasion. Just because God heals you once does not mean you will not get sick again.
Healings at sunset
40 Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on each one of them and healed them.* On this occasion Jesus placed a hand on each one, but that would not always be the case. It would appear that He deliberately used a variety of procedures to heal. 41 Moreover, demons came out of many, crying out and saying, “You are the Christ,† Perhaps 1.5% of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, omit “the Christ” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). the Son of God!” But rebuking them He would not allow them to continue speaking, because they knew that He was the Messiah.‡ I find this to be curious: the demons kept telling the truth about Jesus, but He evidently did not want testimony from that quarter. But it seems that the demons felt compelled to identify Him—I wonder why.
42 Now at daybreak He departed and went to a deserted place; so the crowds started looking for Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them. 43 But He said to them, “I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other towns also, because for this purpose I have been sent.” 44 So He went preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.§ Around 4% of the Greek manuscripts read Judea rather than Galilee, possibly influenced by Lectionaries. There is confusion among the 4% such that the prepositional phrase as given in UBS is read by less than 1%. However, Jesus was in Galilee (and continued there), not in Judea, as the context makes clear. In the parallel passage, Mark 1:35-39, all texts agree that Jesus was in Galilee. Thus UBS3 contradicts itself by reading Judea in Luke 4:44. Bruce Metzger makes clear that the UBS editors did this on purpose when he explains that their reading “is obviously the more difficult, and copyists have corrected it…in accord with the parallels in Matthew 4:23 and Mark 1:39.” Thus the UBS editors introduce a contradiction into their text which is also an error of fact. This error in the eclectic text is reproduced by LB, NIV, NASB, NEB, RSV, etc. NRSV adds insult to injury: “So he continued proclaiming the message in the synagogues of Judea.”

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*4:2 We are not told just how Satan did this.

†4:2 This episode was ordained by the Holy Spirit. Jesus had to confront Satan when He was physically the weakest He would ever be (40 days without food!). When Satan failed to defeat this weakened Jesus, he was probably filled with despair—he now knew that he could never defeat Him (but he would still try to kill Him). Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15-16 give at least part of the reason why Jesus had to undergo this experience.

‡4:3 There are several kinds of conditional clause in Greek, among them ‘of doubt’, ‘of fact’ and ‘contrary to fact’—Satan was not so crude as to express doubt about Christ's identity, ‘if’, he was more subtle; he granted the fact, ‘since’, and appealed to His pride.

§4:3 Matthew 4:3 has “these stones”, instead of “this stone”. I gather that Satan said both: he started with ‘these stones’ and then picked out a specific one.

*4:4 See Deuteronomy 8:3. Less than half a percent of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, omit “but by every word of God” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). If we are to live by ‘every’ word, then every word must be kept available.

†4:5 Just three known Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality (against over 1,700), omit “up on a high mountain the devil” (to be followed by NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc., except that some keep ‘the devil’, but not the rest).

‡4:5 This is obviously supernatural. Even from a satellite you cannot see the whole world at once, because it is a sphere.

§4:7 This was a master stroke. Jehovah the Son entered this world as the second/last Adam precisely to recover what the first Adam had lost, and Satan was evidently well aware of what was going on. So he offers it to Jesus on a ‘silver platter’, with just one small condition… Note that Jesus does not deny Satan's right to make the offer.

*4:8 Some 3.5% of the Greek manuscripts, of inferior quality, omit “Get behind me, Satan” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).

†4:8 See Deuteronomy 6:13.

‡4:9 Matthew's report has the temple before the mountain; since he employs adverbs of time (sequence) while Luke does not, I take it that Matthew gives the correct sequence (which is also the logical progression). Luke handles the temple event almost as an afterthought.

§4:11 See Psalm 91:11-12.

*4:12 See Deuteronomy 6:16. To do something irresponsible to try to oblige God to perform a miracle to save you from the consequences is forbidden. It would be a kind of ‘blackmail’.

†4:13 Jesus was tested in the three areas: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15-16 give at least part of the reason why Jesus had to go through this experience.

‡4:13 “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7), but he is in the business of returning and renewing the attack—constant vigilance is required.

§4:13 A number of months elapsed between verses 13 and 14; John 1:15-4:42 records some of what transpired during that interval.

*4:18 Perhaps 1.5% of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, omit “to heal the brokenhearted” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).

†4:19 Jesus interrupted the reading of Isaiah 61:2 at a coma—‘the great parenthesis’. The part that He read pertained to His first coming, but “the day of vengeance of our God” pertains to His second coming—the ‘parenthesis’ is closing in on 2,000 years.

‡4:22 He doubtless spoke for a reasonable length of time and was producing a favorable impression, but at the end He got offensive; verses 23-27 presumably contain the conclusion of His discourse.

§4:27 It appears that Jesus antagonized them on purpose. Why? I see two possible answers: to remove any claim to special privilege that they might harbor because of being His home town; to be personally free from possible pressure arising from such a claim. In fact He moved out, choosing Capernaum as His base of operations.

*4:28 The violent reaction was out of all proportion to the ‘provocation’. Presumably Satan took this opportunity to try to kill Him.

†4:30 “Passing through the middle of them, He went on His way”—now how did that happen? To throw Him down, someone would have to be holding Him, probably a man on each arm, and they had gotten Him there by force, and He was surrounded. Obviously the Lord made use of supernatural power to free Himself from that situation—He had come to this world to die, all right, but not then and not in that way.

‡4:34 Evidently the Lord's mere presence was enough to make the demons feel threatened. Based on John 14:12, I wonder if the same thing should not be true of us.

§4:39 Normally a high fever leaves one weak, so the Lord reversed the consequences of the fever as well. I take it that Matthew 8:14-15 records a different occasion. Just because God heals you once does not mean you will not get sick again.

*4:40 On this occasion Jesus placed a hand on each one, but that would not always be the case. It would appear that He deliberately used a variety of procedures to heal.

†4:41 Perhaps 1.5% of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, omit “the Christ” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).

‡4:41 I find this to be curious: the demons kept telling the truth about Jesus, but He evidently did not want testimony from that quarter. But it seems that the demons felt compelled to identify Him—I wonder why.

§4:44 Around 4% of the Greek manuscripts read Judea rather than Galilee, possibly influenced by Lectionaries. There is confusion among the 4% such that the prepositional phrase as given in UBS is read by less than 1%. However, Jesus was in Galilee (and continued there), not in Judea, as the context makes clear. In the parallel passage, Mark 1:35-39, all texts agree that Jesus was in Galilee. Thus UBS3 contradicts itself by reading Judea in Luke 4:44. Bruce Metzger makes clear that the UBS editors did this on purpose when he explains that their reading “is obviously the more difficult, and copyists have corrected it…in accord with the parallels in Matthew 4:23 and Mark 1:39.” Thus the UBS editors introduce a contradiction into their text which is also an error of fact. This error in the eclectic text is reproduced by LB, NIV, NASB, NEB, RSV, etc. NRSV adds insult to injury: “So he continued proclaiming the message in the synagogues of Judea.”

© 2016 Wilbur N. Pickering, ThM, PhD