Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 4:3
And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
3. that these stones be made bread ] The temptation is addressed to the appetite, Use thy divine power to satisfy the lusts of the flesh.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The tempter – The devil, or Satan. See Mat 4:1.
If thou be the Son of God – If thou art Gods own Son, then thou hast power to work a miracle, and here is a suitable opportunity to try thy power, and show that thou art sent from God.
Command that these stones … – The stones that were lying around him in the wilderness. No temptation could have been more plausible, or more likely to succeed, than this. He had just been declared to be the Son of God Mat 3:17, and here was an opportunity to show that he was really so. The circumstances were such as to make it appear plausible and proper to work this miracle. Here you are, was the language of Satan, hungry, cast out, alone, needy, poor, and yet the Son of God! If you have this power, how easy could you satisfy your wants! How foolish is it, then, for the Son of God, having all power, to be starving in this manner, when by a word he could show his power and relieve his wants, and when in the thing itself there could be nothing wrong!
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mat 4:3
If Thou be the Son of God.
-His object is to shake Christs confidence in the Fatherly character of God. (Dr. Macleod.)
Tempted to distrust the Divine Providence. (Dr. Macleod)
As the devil laboureth most against our faith, should we most labour in fortifying it
Policy teacheth men to plant the most strength at that fort or part of the wall where the enemy plants his greatest ordnance, and makes the strongest assault. And nature teacheth us to defend all our parts, but especially our head and heart, and such like vital parts. (Dr. Taylor.)
Faith determines victory
If Satan take away our root, how can our branch flourish? If he break our band, all that is bound up will shatter in pieces. If he cut off our anchor, our vessel will be driven upon the rocks. If he overcome our trust in God, he will subdue all unto himself, for this is the victory that over-cometh the world (1Jn 4:5).
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Mat 4:3
Command that these stones.
Implying in these few words
1. That it is an easy thing-say the word.
2. That it is now fit; here is an object ready, here be stones, these stones.
3. That it is harmless, only a proof of the power of the Son of God.
4. That it is a necessary thing; is it not necessary for a man that is ready to starve to eat and procure bread?
5. That it is a glorious thing to command stones.
6. That it is a work of special use, not only for the use of Thyself in this want, but to satisfy me.
7. That it is not unreasonable; to command a few stones to be made bread will be no hurt to any man.
8. The Son of God should demean Himself as the Son of such a Father, therefore by this action manifest that which Thy estate doth not. (Dr. Taylor.)
An inducement to satisfy lawful needs and desires by unlawful means
What is the safeguard against this peril?
1. Not by denying the legitimacy of the desires of the bodily organization.
2. By showing that mans present life was not the gratification of a bodily need, but the satisfaction of the hunger of the spirit in God. (G. S. Barrett, B. A.)
Let us beware of acting the devils part by discouraging those whom God has afflicted. (L. H. Wiseman.)
Why would it have been improper had He turned a stone into a loaf
1. He would have by that act placed an impassable gulf between Himself and His brethren.
2. It was important that Christs miracles should be free from suspicion, that they were not for the gratification of His own wants.
3. The motive constitutes an action good or evil, the circumstances in this case would have determined it wrong.
4. It would have been inconsistent with the whole recorded life of Jesus. (L. H. Wiseman.)
The cunning of Satan in this temptation
1.He skilfully chooses his time.
2. He suggests nothing which appears to be a great sin.
3. He presents this to Christ as an act of necessity.
4. The plea he employs is one which Jesus could not reject.
5. In the proposal there was no appearance of pampering the body, but only of providing for absolute need.
Reply to the first temptation
1. In this answer Satan is left unsatisfied. Uneducated disciples are not bound to answer all Satans questions.
2. The snare was avoided.
3. Patience in enduring hunger till God send Him a supply.
4. When we have bread we must still live by the Word of the Lord.
5. When we appear to be without bread the Word of the Lord can sustain us. (L. H. Wiseman.)
The first temptation
`I. The visibility of the tempter. The Evangelists seem to imply that the tempter presented himself before the eyes of Christ. It is objected to this view:-
1. That while good angels are permitted to address men under visible forms, evil angels are not recorded to have done so.
2. That Satan by undisguised appearance would have no prospect of success. But he addressed our first parents under a visible form. The second objection assumes that the visible form of Satan is necessarily unsightly.
II. Satans knowledge of Christ. Satan was not certain about Christs Divine Sonship; hence he sought to find out if Christ could create or change substances.
III. The limits of the temptation.
1. It has been said that Christs temptation differs from ours in that His were only external, and ours internal also; that Christ had no susceptibility to temptation, but simply heard what Satan had to say without any inward excitement of desire. This takes from it its essence and removes it from us. We would not limit the temptation to an external trial.
2. We would not reduce it to the general idea of suffering, on account of contact with the tempter. We maintain that each temptation appealed to a desire in the heart of Christ, which His will restrained and refused to gratify.
The true limits of the mystery:-
1. Christ was absolutely sinless.
2. Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost, no taint of the Fall was permitted to intermingle with the foundation of His human life. There was a certain impossibility of His sinning; but this must not be so explained as to destroy the faculty of free will, which is a constituent element of human nature. We must not so interpret impossibility to sin as not to permit susceptibility of temptation to co-exist with it. Upon the exercise of free will in Christ depends His merits, the reality of His temptation, the force of His example.
IV. The reality of the temptation. If we subject temptation to analysis we find five ingredients.
(1) Desire;
(2) Law;
(3) Opposition between desire and law;
(4) Suggestion;
(5) Free will.
Desire may be simply natural, the movement of pure nature; or when some morbid quality has been imported into it, which gives it a wrong direction. The former was in Christ; but not the latter. There are two kinds of laws-positive and moral-the natural desires may be restrained by the former, the corrupt desires by the latter. The craving, whatever it be, must come into collision with the law. In the case of a pure creature the clash must be with a positive law; with a corrupt creature it will be also with the moral law. Now in Christ the desire of the body was in opposition to the Divine will; the pure desire of nature was contrary to what He knew to be the Fathers will. In this sense His was inward and real temptation. Several truths must be taken into calculation in, comparing Christs temptation with ours.
1. That the desires which are original and form part of our nature are, in the long run, the more intense.
2. The finer sensibilities of His uncorrupt nature. (W. H. Hutchings, M. A.)
1. If every good Christian were satisfied at all times with temporal blessings we should appear to serve God for our profit.
2. God does net always give bread to him that is his son, that he may loathe this world and look for reward in heaven.
3. The good man shall fill his bosom with better fruits. (Hacket.)
Christ and the Christian alike in temptation
The struggle, as far as possible, was the same as in us. The lifeboat must brave the same storm, and plough through the same foaming billows, which threaten to engulph her, as the wrecked vessel to which she bears relief; and though so constructed as to be able to bear up against the fury of the waves, she needs the careful steerage, persevering efforts, ay, and courage, of those who venture forth to save the sinking ship. (W. H. Hutchings, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. And when the tempter] This onset of Satan was made (speaking after the manner of men) judiciously: he came when Jesus, after having fasted forty days and forty nights, was hungry: now, as hunger naturally diminishes the strength of the body, the mind gets enfeebled, and becomes easily irritated; and if much watching and prayer be not employed, the uneasiness which is occasioned by a lack of food may soon produce impatience, and in this state of mind the tempter has great advantages. The following advice of an Arabian philosopher to his son is worthy of attention. “My son, never go out of the house in the morning, till thou hast eaten something: by so doing, thy mind will be more firm; and, shouldest thou be insulted by any person, thou wilt find thyself more disposed to suffer patiently: for hunger dries up and disorders the brain.” Bibliot. Orient. Suppl. p. 449. The state of our bodily health and worldly circumstances may afford our adversary many opportunities of doing us immense mischief. In such cases, the sin to which we are tempted may be justly termed, as in Heb 12:1, , the well circumstanced sin, because all the circumstances of time, place, and state of body and mind, are favourable to it.
If thou be the Son of God] Or, a son of God, . is here, and in Lu 4:3, written without the article; and therefore should not be translated THE Son, as if it were , which is a phrase that is applicable to Christ as the Messiah: but it is certain, whatever Satan might suspect, he did not fully know that the person he tempted was the true Messiah. Perhaps one grand object of his temptation was to find this out.
Command that these stones] The meaning of this temptation is: “Distrust the Divine providence and support, and make use of illicit means to supply thy necessities.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And when the tempter, viz. Satan, the devil, as he is called, came unto him, probably in some visible shape, he, forming an audible voice of the air, said,
If thou be the Son of God, ( not that he doubted it, which showed his horrible impudence),
command that these stones, (this stone, saith Luke, Luk 4:3) be made bread. The temptation plainly was to the use of means which God did not allow him, to relieve him in his distress of hunger, to distrust the providence of God in supporting of him. A temptation common to those who are the members of Christ, and enough to instruct us, that we ought to look upon all thoughts and motions to the use of means not allowed by God, in order to a lawful end, as temptations vel a carne, vel hoste, either from our own flesh, for every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed, Jam 1:14, or from our grand adversary the devil. It is not much material for us to know from which, they being both what we ought to resist, though those from Satan are usually more violent and impetuous.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. And when the tempter came tohimEvidently we have here a new scene.
he said, if thou be the Sonof God, command that these stones be made breadrather,”loaves,” answering to “stones” in the plural;whereas Luke, having said, “Command this stone,” in thesingular, adds, “that it be made bread,” in the singular(Lu 4:3). The sensation ofhunger, unfelt during all the forty days, seems now to have come onin all its keennessno doubt to open a door to the tempter, ofwhich he is not slow to avail himself; “Thou still clingest tothat vainglorious confidence that Thou art the Son of God, carriedaway by those illusory scenes at the Jordan. Thou wast born in astable; but Thou art the Son of God! hurried off to Egypt for fear ofHerod’s wrath; but Thou art the Son of God! a carpenter’s roofsupplied Thee with a home, and in the obscurity of a despicable townof Galilee Thou hast spent thirty years, yet still Thou art the Sonof God! and a voice from heaven, it seems, proclaimed it in Thineears at the Jordan! Be it so; but after that, surely Thy daysof obscurity and trial should have an end. Why linger for weeks inthis desert, wandering among the wild beasts and craggy rocks,unhonored, unattended, unpitied, ready to starve for want of thenecessaries of life? Is this befitting “the Son of God?” Atthe bidding of “the Son of God” surely those stones shallall be turned into loaves, and in a moment present an abundantrepast.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And when the tempter came to him….. By “the tempter”, is meant the devil, see 1Th 3:5 so called, because it is his principal work and business, in which he employs himself, to solicit men to sin; and tempt them either to deny, or call in question the being of God, arraign his perfections, murmur at his providences, and disbelieve his promises. When he is here said to come to Christ at the end of forty days and nights, we are not to suppose, that he now first began to tempt him; for the other Evangelists expressly say, that he was tempted of him forty days, Mr 1:13 but he now appeared openly, and in a visible shape: all the forty days and nights before, he had been tempting him secretly and inwardly; suggesting things suitable to, and taking the advantage of the solitary and desolate condition he was in. But finding these suggestions and temptations unsuccessful, and observing him to be an hungered, he puts on a visible form, and with an articulate, audible voice, he said,
if thou be the Son of God; either doubting of his divine sonship, calling it in question, and putting him upon doing so too; wherefore it is no wonder that the children of God should be assaulted with the like temptation: or else arguing from it, “if”, or “seeing thou art the Son of God”; for he must know that he was, by the voice which came from heaven, and declared it: and certain it is, that the devils both knew, and were obliged to confess that Jesus was the Son of God, Lu 4:41 by which is meant, not a good, or righteous man, or one dear to God, and in an office; but a divine person, one possessed of almighty power; and therefore, as a proof and demonstration of it, be urges him to
command that these stones be made bread, pointing to some which lay hard by; , “say” but the word, and it will be done. He did not doubt but he was able to do it, by a word speaking; but he would have had him to have done it at his motion, which would have been enough for his purpose; who wanted to have him obedient to him: and he might hope the rather to succeed in this temptation, because Christ was now an hungry; and because he had carried his point with our first parents, by tempting them to eat of the forbidden fruit.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
If thou art the Son of God ( ). More exactly, “If thou art Son of God,” for there is no article with “Son.” The devil is alluding to the words of the Father to Jesus at the baptism: “This is my Son the Beloved.” He challenges this address by a condition of the first class which assumes the condition to be true and deftly calls on Jesus to exercise his power as Son of God to appease his hunger and thus prove to himself and all that he really is what the Father called him.
Become bread ( ). Literally, “that these stones (round smooth stones which possibly the devil pointed to or even picked up and held) become loaves” (each stone a loaf). It was all so simple, obvious, easy. It would satisfy the hunger of Christ and was quite within his power.
It is written (). Perfect passive indicative, stands written and is still in force. Each time Jesus quotes Deuteronomy to repel the subtle temptation of the devil. Here it is De 8:3 from the Septuagint. Bread is a mere detail (Bruce) in man’s dependence upon God.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And when the tempter came to him, he said,” (kai proselthon ho peirazon eipen auto) “And the old tempter approaching him (Jesus) tempting with ulterior motive, said to him;” No indication is given whether the Devil came in visible or invisible form to Jesus at this moment. He assumed that Jesus was abandoned of men and God also He would not be as hungered, alone in the wilderness.
2) “If thou be the Son of God,” (ei huios ei tou theou) “if you are or exist as the Son of God,” the one born in the stable of an unclean beast, hurried off to Egypt for fear of Herod, reared under a poor carpenter’s roof in the despised town of Nazareth in Galilee of the Gentiles, heathen to your people, baptized by an unlettered prophet of the desert whose food was locusts and wild honey, because the Holy Spirit in dove form came to you – you who have been alone, deserted, starving among the wild beasts of the wilderness, Luk 4:3.
3) “Command that these stones be made bread.” (eipe hina hoi lithoi houtoi aetoi genontai) “Just say (the word) in order that (to cause) these stones, at your word, to become loaves of bread;” The “if thou be or (exist as) the Son of God,” is a direct challenge to the Divinity of Jesus Christ. In essence the Devil said, “obey me, or do what I tell you, thereby become my servant, to prove to me that you are the Son of God,” that you may have bread to eat.
All who question the Deity or Divinity of Jesus Christ do so in the spirit of the Devil. In two places the Satanic “if” was prominent:
1. At the temptation: a) To turn stones to bread. b) To leap from the temple. Mat 4:6.
2. At the cross: a) The cry of the rabble, Mat 27:40 b) The cry of the soldiers, Luk 23:27. c) The cry of the thief, Luk 23:39.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Mat 4:3
. And when he, who tempteth, had approached to him. This name, ὁ πειράζων, the tempter, is given to Satan by the Spirit for the express purpose, that believers may be more carefully on their guard against him. Hence, too, we conclude, that temptations, which solicit us to what is evil, come from him alone: for, when God is sometimes said to tempt or prove, (Gen 22:1; Deu 13:3,) it is for a different purpose, namely, to try their faith, or to inflict punishment on unbelievers, or to discover the hypocrisy of those who do not sincerely obey the truth.
That these stones may become loaves. Here the ancients amused themselves with ingenious trifles. The first temptation, they said, was to gluttony; the second, to ambition; and the third, to covetousness. But it is absurd to suppose that it arises from the intemperance of gluttony, (310) when a hungry person desires food to satisfy nature. What luxury will they fancy themselves to have discovered in the use of bread, that one who satisfies himself, as we say, with dry bread, must be reckoned an epicure? But not to waste more words on that point, Christ’s answer alone is sufficient to show, that the design of Satan was altogether different. The Son of God was not such an unskillful or inexperienced antagonist, as not to know how he might ward off the strokes of his adversary, or idly to present his shield on the left hand when he was attacked on the right. If Satan had endeavored to allure him by the enticements of gluttony, (311) he had at hand passages of Scripture fitted to repel him. But he proposes nothing of this sort.
(310) “ Friandise ou gourmandise;” — “epicurism or gormandizing.”
(311) “ A friandise, ou a quelque excez de la bouche.” — “To epicurism, or any excess of the palate.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) When the tempter came.Nothing in the narrative suggests the idea of a bodily presence visible to the eye of sense, and all attempts so to realise it, whether as Milton has done in Paradise Regained, or as by rationalistic commentators, who held that the Tempter was, or assumed the shape of, a scribe or priest, are unauthorised, and diminish our sense of the reality and mystery of the Temptation. The narrative is not the less real and true because it lies altogether in the spiritual region of mans life.
If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.These stones, as if in union with glance and gesture, pointing to the loaf-like flints of the Jordan desert. The nature of the temptation, so far as we can gauge its mysterious depth, was probably complex. Something there may have been, suggested from without, like that which uttered itself in Esaus cry, What profit shall this birthright do to me? (Gen. 25:32). Hungry, exhausted, as if life were ebbing away in the terrible loneliness of the desert, the wild beasts around him, as if waiting for their victim, what would it avail to have been marked out as the Son of God, the long-expected Christ? With this another thought was blended. If He were the Son of God, did not that name involve a lordship over nature? Could He not satisfy His hunger and sustain His life? Would He not in so exercising the power of which now, for the first time it may be, He was the conscious possessor, be establishing his status as the Christ in the eyes of others? That thought presented itself to His mind, but it was rejected as coming from the Enemy. It would have been an act of self-assertion and distrust, and therefore would have involved not the affirmation, but the denial of the Sonship which had so recently been attested.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE FIRST TEMPTATION, Mat 4:3-4.
3. The tempter The being who loves to lead man into sin. Came to him In what form Satan came is not said. He tempted Eve as a serpent; perhaps he tempted our Lord as an angel of light or truth. At any rate, he was at first disguised; for our Saviour did not recognize him to be Satan until the deceiver claimed his worship.
If thou be the Son of God The consciousness of his divine union with God, so far forth as he had yet received it, may now, perhaps, be supposed to be in a measure withheld. He is the pure-minded, guileless, guiltless Jewish youth, alone in the wilderness; worn and weak with the fasting and the excitement with which the fast had been sustained. Was it not a rare chance for Satanic counsels? “How know you that you are the Son of God? True, there are some prodigious narratives about your birth, but they may be fables; there were the dove and the voice dropped from the sky at your baptism; but that may have been an ocular illusion. It is a great thing for a quiet young man to imagine himself Messiah and Son of God.” Command Nothing like experiment. Try to put forth miraculous power, and that will show whether or not you are divine. That these stones be made bread You are hungry. Here is the material, and you have the power. Use your Messianic power to supply your bodily wants. So you will at once prove your divinity and satisfy your hunger.
In this first temptation Satan tempts our Lord, as he did Eve, by the bodily appetite. He appeals to the animal nature first. By this avenue he approaches and conquers the great majority of mankind. Beneath this temptation of bodily appetites all gluttons, drunkards, and debauchees have fallen and become the devil’s prey.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And the tempter came and said to him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” ’
Then He became conscious of a malevolent presence, probably speaking in His mind. For forty days and nights He had been considering the significance of the words at His baptism, and now came the challenge. ‘You are hungry. If you really are the Son of God look around you. See these flat white stones that look like bread. Did not God provide manna in the wilderness? Why do you not turn them into bread and feed yourself, ensuring your preservation for the sake of mankind? It is after all important that you keep yourself fit and well. And at the same time you will be able to prove to yourself what you can do. Turning these stones into bread can only give you greater confidence in God. It can only be for good. You have done well. Now reap your reward.’
Jesus would be aware of what John had said about God turning stones into the sons of Abraham. The thought may be, if God can consider doing that, what harm can there be in the Son of God turning stones into bread? But it was not the act that would be wrong. It would be why it was done. Later He would turn a few small loaves into sufficient to feed a large crowd. But that would be in order to confirm that they were a new covenant community whom God promised to feed spiritually (Mat 14:15-21; Mat 15:32-38). Here, however, it would simply be in order to satisfy His own needs in a way not available to others. By it He would cease to be a man among men. He would fall at the first hurdle.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Of the many and various assaults which the devil employed during the forty days, Matthew and also Luke mention three incidents which took place at the end of this period. Note that the chronological sequence of the events here narrated is a minor consideration. The evangelist’s chief aim is to picture the cunning manner of the temptation:
v. 3. And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. The word tempter applied to the devil fittingly describes his evil work, his constant occupation, his ceaseless attacks, Luk 22:31; 1Th 3:5. The time and the form of this temptation were chosen with crafty calculation. Hunger naturally diminishes the resistance of the body, both physically and mentally; it enfeebles and irritates the mind and interferes with sound judgment. The wily suggestion might therefore easily find a favorable reception. Even the phrasing of the devil’s insinuation should be noted in harmony with his character, couched in the form of a question, implying a doubt, both as to the divine sonship of the Savior and as to His ability to provide food for Himself by miraculous means. As though he were saying: “I cannot believe that Thou art the Son of God; give me some proof. Speak, in order that these stones lying about on the desert floor may be turned, by a miracle, into loaves. ” To yield to the request would have meant giving up to the spirit of evil and darkness, lack of trust in the divine Providence and support, letting selfishness rule rather than practicing self-sacrifice.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mat 4:3. When the tempter came to him, he said, &c. We may infer from Mar 1:13 that during the forty days which Jesus spent in the wilderness, he was exposed to several other temptations besides those mentioned here; and therefore Dr. Doddridge very well translates and paraphrases the passage thus; “Just at that time, when he was very hungry, and entirely unprovided with food, the tempter coming to him, in a visible form, putting on a human appearance (as one that desired to inquire farther into the evidence of his mission) said, if thou art the Son of God, &c.” It is only in the original, If thou be Son of God, without any article; but it seems to be properlyinserted in our version, because the miracle which the devil required of Jesus, was not that he might shew himself to be a child of God, but the Son of God; that is to say, the Messiah. The Jews were persuaded that the Messiah was to be the Son of God; and they commonly applied to him the 7th verse of the 2nd Psalm, and the 14th verse of the 7th chapter of the 2nd book of Samuel. By comparing several passages in the New Testament, it appears, that in the language of the Jews, the words Messiah and Son of God were of the same import. See Mat 26:63. Luk 17:37. Joh 1:41; Joh 1:44-45 and Mat 16:16 compared with Mar 8:29. Luk 9:20. Christ was tempted in all things, Heb 4:15 and as the things which solicit us to sin may be referred to three kinds, pleasures, honours, and riches, (1Jn 2:16.) Christ, being tempted by all these, came off victorious. When he refused to command the stones to become bread, he shewed his conquest over pleasure, or the animal appetite; when he cast not himself down from the temple, he shewed his triumph over vainglory; and in the third temptation, expressing his contempt of the goods of this world, he shewed that nothing in this life could conquer his piety and integrity. See Beausobre and Lenfant, and Wetstein. We may read the last words, Command these stones to become bread.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 4:3 . Part, present taken substantively. See on Mat 2:20 . Here: the devil . Comp. 1Th 3:5 .
] does not indicate that Satan had doubts of Jesus being the Son of God (Origen, Wolf, Bengel), or was not aware of it (Ignat. Phil. interpol . 9), comp. Mat 28:20 ; but the problematical expression was to incite Jesus to enter upon the unreasonable demand, and to prove Himself the Son of God. Euth. Zigabenus: , , .
] See Mat 3:17 . The devil makes use of this designation of the Messiah, not because he deemed Jesus to be only a man, who (Euth. Zigabenus), or because he had become doubtful, owing to the hungering of Jesus, of His divinity, which had been attested at His baptism (Chrysostom); but because Jesus’ supernatural relation to God is well known to him, whilst he himself, as the principle opposed to God, has to combat the manifestation and activity of the divine. Observe that by the position of the words the emphasis lies on : if Thou standest to God in the relation of Son .
, ] after verbs of commanding, entreaty, and desire, and the like, does not stand in the sense of the infinitive , as is commonly assumed (Winer, de Wette, Bleek), in opposition to the necessary conception of the words, but is, as it always is, an expression of the purpose, in order that , the mistaking of which proceeds from this, that it is not usual in the German language to express the object, of the command, and so on, in the form of a purpose . Here: speak (utter a command) in order that these stones, and so on. Comp. Mat 20:21 . The oldest examples from Greek writers after , , in Hom. Il . i. 133 (see Ngelsbach thereon), occur in Herodotus and Demosthenes. See Schaefer, ad Dem . 279. 8 : , ; Khner, II. 2, p. 519.
] comp. Mat 3:9 .
] Bread , in the proper sense; not, like , food in general. Comp. Mat 7:9 .
The Son of God must free Himself from the state of hunger, which is unbecoming His dignity, by an act similar to the divine creation, and thus employ His divine power for His own advantage. The tempter introduces his lever into the immediate situation of the moment.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
The subject of CHRIST’S temptations, is a subject attended with much difficulty thoroughly to explain. One of the great causes for which the SON of God was manifested, was, that he might destroy the works of the Devil. 1Jn 3:8 . And if we take the whole purport of scripture on this point, one mass of particulars, we shall be led to conclude, that the quarrel between CHRIST and the devil was personal Jud 1:6 ; Rev 12:7-9 . Now when CHRIST came upon earth, the conflict was with this accursed enemy. Hence CHRIST combated personally with Satan; when he began his temptations, and afterwards at the cross. Heb 2:14 . He doth this also, when in his people he enables his redeemed to resist him, and at length brings Satan under their feet. Jas 4:7 ; Rom 16:20 . And there is another triumph, scripture seems to intimate, which the Son of God will have over Satan, before the day of judgment; namely, when Satan is to be shut up, and restrained from his cursed temptations over the LORD’S people. Rev 20:1-3 . And, lastly, at the great day of all, then the devil will be brought forth for final judgment, and eternal punishment, before the whole world. Rev 20:10 , etc.
I do not think, it necessary to go minutely over the several temptations with which the devil assaulted Christ. The whole was necessary, no doubt, that CHRIST should fulfil all righteousness. But it was necessary also, on the account of his redeemed. For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. Heb 2:18 . Few have taken into their soul’s comfort the whole blessedness of this account of JESUS. It is not meant simply to say that as GOD and as man, in one person, he knoweth what temptations are; but it is meant to say, that from his personal knowledge of them, and his own exercises in those seasons, he knoweth both what his people feel under temptations, and how to administer the very succour which will exactly suit their case and circumstances. And nothing can give equal relief as this assurance to every tempted Child of GOD?
Moreover, it should be added, that in those temptations, wherewith JESUS was assaulted, the believer ought to draw comfort, if at any time his exercises are the same. In those temptations in the wilderness CHRIST was assaulted with the sin of distrust; unbelief; to worship the devil; and to self-murder. And if the tempter thus dared to attack the LORD of life and glory, is it a wonder that he should his members? Oh! for grace upon all occasions, when assaulted with the fiery darts of Satan, to look unto JESUS and to take the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of GOD. JESUS will make all his redeemed more than conquerors, through his grace enabling them. And in due season, that song will be heard by every soul which John heard; Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of’ our GOD , and the power of his CHRIST : for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our GOD day and night. Rev 12:10 . And as in the instance of the glorious Head, so all his members, when temptations cease, the ministering services of angels are enjoyed. Heb 1:14
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
Ver. 3. Then came unto him the tempter ] . So called, because he politicly feels our pulses which way they beat, and accordingly fits us a penny worth. He sets a wedge of gold before covetous Achan, a courtesan Cozbi before a voluptuous Zimri, a fair preferment before an ambitious Absalom: and finds well that a fit object is half a victory. So dealt his agents with those ancient Christians, , , they “were sawn asunder, they were tempted,” saith the apostle, Heb 11:37 to wit, with the proffers of preferment, would they but have renounced their religion and done sacrifice to an idol. So the Pope tempted Luther with wealth and honour. But all in vain; he turned him to God, Et valde protestatus sum, saith he, me nolle sic satiari ab eo, he said flat, that God should not put him off with these low things. (Melch. Adam.) Here was a man full of the spirit of Christ. The tempter came to Christ, but found nothing in him; that matter was not malleable. In vain shall the devil strike fire if we find not tinder; in vain shall he knock at the door if we look not out to him at the window. Let us but divorce the flesh from the world, and the devil can do us no hurt. Ita cave tibi, ut caveas teipsum. From that naughty man myself, good Lord, deliver me, said one.
If thou be the Son of God ] As the devil quarrelled and questioned the law given in Paradise as nought, or naught; so doth he hear the voice from heaven as a mere imposture. And this he did out of deep and desperate malice; for he could not be ignorant nor doubtful. Neither is his dealing otherwise with us (many times), who are too ready (at his instigation) to doubt our spiritual sonship. We need not help the tempter, by holding it a duty to doubt; this is to light a candle before the devil, as we use to speak. Rather let us settle and secure this, that we are indeed the sons of God and heirs of heaven, by passing through the narrow womb of repentance, that we may be born again, and by getting an effectual faith, the property whereof is to adopt as well as to justify; viz. ratione obiecti, by means of Christ the object upon whom faith layeth hold, and into whom it engrafts the believer after an unspeakable manner. Now ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, Gal 3:26 ; Joh 1:12 , who hath both laid down the price of this greatest privilege, Heb 9:15 ; Gal 4:5 , and sealed it up to us by his Spirit, crying, “Abba, Father,” in our hearts, whatever Satan or our own misgiving hearts object to the contrary, Gal 4:6 ; Rom 8:15 ; Eph 1:13 .
Command that these stones be made bread ] And so distrust the providence of God for relieving thy body in this hunger; help thyself by working a preposterous miracle, in this point of God’s providence for this present life. Satan troubled David and Jeremiah, and so he doth many good souls at this day, who can sooner trust God with their souls than with their bodies; and for a crown than for a crust, as those disciples, Mat 16:8 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
3. ] From the words of both St. Mark and St. Luke, it appears that our Lord was tempted also during the forty days . Whether the words of St. Mark, , allude to one kind of temptation, is uncertain: see note on Mar 1:13 . The word . need not be understood of the first approach, but the first recorded ‘at a certain time the tempter approaching, &c.’
, ‘the tempter.’ Here first we find the N.T. meaning of , to solicit to sin , which does not occur in the LXX, nor in the classics. The use of the pres. part. with the art., as denoting employ, or office, is very common. See, among other places, Joh 4:36-37 , and ch. Mat 13:3 ; Mat 26:46 ; Mat 26:48 . Cf. Winer, 18. 3.
] , Chrys. Or, as Euthymius, , . At all events, there is no doubt expressed, as Wolf and Bengel think.
] In the N.T. are found three combinations of these two substantives and the article, and all with one and the same meaning , viz. THE SON OF GOD, in the highest and Messianic sense. (1) The expression in the text, of which our Lord says, Joh 10:36 , ; see also Mat 27:40 . (2) . In Joh 9:35 , we read, ; . (3) . In Luk 1:35 , . See also ch. Mat 27:54 ( [28] Mk.), and notes there and on Luk 23:47 .
[28] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25 , the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified , thus, ‘ Mk.,’ or ‘ Mt. Mk.,’ &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 4:3-4 . First temptation , through hunger.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mat 4:3 . , another of the evangelist’s favourite words, implies that the tempter is conceived by the narrator as approaching outwardly in visible form. : literally “speak in order that”. Some grammarians see in this use of with the subjunctive a progress in the later Macedonian Greek onwards towards modern Greek, in which with subjunctive entirely supersedes the infinitive. Buttmann ( Gram. of the N. T. ) says that the chief deviation in the N. T. from classic usage is that appears not only after complete predicates, as a statement of design, but after incomplete predicates, supplying their necessary complements ( cf. Mar 6:25 ; Mar 9:30 ). here may be classed among verbs of commanding which take after them. , these stones lying about, hinting at the desert character of the scene. ., that the rude pieces of stone may be turned miraculously into loaves. Weiss (Meyer) disputes the usual view that the temptation of Jesus lay in the suggestion to use His miraculous power in His own behoof. He had no such power, and if He had, why should He not use it for His own benefit as well as other men’s? He could only call into play by faith the power of God, and the temptation lay in the suggestion that His Messianic vocation was doubtful it God did not come to His help at this time. This seems a refinement. Hunger represents human wants, and the question was: whether Sonship was to mean exemption from these, or loyal acceptance of them as part of Messiah’s experience. At bottom the issue raised was selfishness or self-sacrifice. Selfishness would have been shown either in the use of personal power or in the wish that God would use it.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
when. . . came, &c.= having approached Him and said.
the tempter= he who was tempting Him. See App-116.
came to Him : as to our first parents, Adam and Eve, App-119.
he said. See App-116 for the two sets of three temptations, under different circumstances, with different words and expressions; and, in a different order in Matthew 4 from that in Luke 4. It is nowhere said that there were “three” or only three; as it is nowhere said that there were “three” wise men in Matthew 2.
If. Greek ei, with the indicative mood, assuming and taking it for granted as an actual fact.
” If Thou art ? ” App-118. Same as in Mat 4:6, but not the same as in Mat 4:9.
the Son of God. Compare this with Mat 3:17, on which the question is based. See App-98.
command that = speak, in order that.
these stones: in this the fourth temptation; but in the first temptation = “this stone” (Luk 4:3).
be made = become.
bread = loaves.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
3. ] From the words of both St. Mark and St. Luke, it appears that our Lord was tempted also during the forty days. Whether the words of St. Mark, , allude to one kind of temptation, is uncertain: see note on Mar 1:13. The word . need not be understood of the first approach, but the first recorded-at a certain time the tempter approaching, &c.
, the tempter. Here first we find the N.T. meaning of , to solicit to sin, which does not occur in the LXX, nor in the classics. The use of the pres. part. with the art., as denoting employ, or office, is very common. See, among other places, Joh 4:36-37, and ch. Mat 13:3; Mat 26:46; Mat 26:48. Cf. Winer, 18. 3.
] , Chrys. Or, as Euthymius, , . At all events, there is no doubt expressed, as Wolf and Bengel think.
] In the N.T. are found three combinations of these two substantives and the article, and all with one and the same meaning, viz. THE SON OF GOD, in the highest and Messianic sense. (1) The expression in the text, of which our Lord says, Joh 10:36, ; see also Mat 27:40. (2) . In Joh 9:35, we read, ; . (3) . In Luk 1:35, . See also ch. Mat 27:54 ([28] Mk.), and notes there and on Luk 23:47.
[28] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25, the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified, thus, Mk., or Mt. Mk., &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 4:3. , having come to Him) sc. in a visible form. The Tempter watched his time.[134]- , the tempter) who did not wish it to be known that he was Satan: yet Christ at the conclusion of the interview, and not till then, calls him, in Mat 4:10, Satan, after that Satan had plainly betrayed his satanity, i.e., pride, his peculiar characteristic. Thus, by Divine skill, He defeated his infernal skill. The tempter seems to have appeared under the form of a , scribe, since our Lord thrice replies to him by the word, , It is written.-, if) Thus also, in Mat 4:6, Satan both doubts himself, and endeavours to produce doubt, to take away that which is true, to teach that which is false. He solicits our Lord, stating that hypothetically, which had been (Mat 3:17) declared categorically from heaven.-, …, command, etc.) The tempter acknowledges that He who is the Son of God must be Almighty.-, …, these, etc.) i.e., that some one of these stones become bread [or a loaf]: see Luk 4:3, [where it is, Command this stone (sing.) that it be made bread.]-, stones) q. d., You are in the wilderness, which has hard stones, but no bread. Nay, on very different grounds shalt thou become convinced, O Tempter, that this is the Son of God. Soon will He commence the work of thy destruction. See Luk 4:34; Luk 4:41.
[134] Our Lord spent that season of the year in the wilderness, in which the nights are longer, the wild beasts more ravenous, the weather more inclement, and when there was no means of obtaining food either from trees or herbs.-See Harm. Evang. 149.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
the tempter: Job 1:9-12, Job 2:4-7, Luk 22:31, Luk 22:32, 1Th 3:5, Rev 2:10, Rev 12:9-11
if: Mat 3:17, Luk 4:3, Luk 4:9
command: Gen 3:1-5, Gen 25:29-34, Exo 16:3, Num 11:4-6, Psa 78:17-20, Heb 12:16
Reciprocal: 1Ch 21:1 – Satan Zec 10:5 – tread Mat 8:29 – thou Son Mat 27:40 – If Mar 3:11 – the Son Joh 1:34 – this Act 5:3 – why Jam 4:7 – Resist Rev 2:18 – the Son
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE SON OF GOD
If Thou be the Son of God.
Mat 4:3
Our Lord at the baptism in Jordan had been conscious of new powers bestowed upon Him by the Spirit of God, and of a divine Voice which said to Him, Thou art My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased. And the temptations in the wilderness which immediately followed were trials addressed to this newly-confirmed conviction that He was in a peculiar sense Gods beloved Sona newly-confirmed conviction, not a new conviction.
I. Our Lord had enjoyed this sense of Sonship from boyhood. Wist ye not, He said to Joseph and His mother when they lost Him from their company, wist ye not that I must be about My Fathers business? a saying which He had not learned from them, because they found it strange. From boyhood, then, the characteristic, so far as we can judge, of our Lords religious consciousness was this sense of Sonship to God, and He could not have lived long among His fellows without becoming aware that the consciousness was unique; and then as He read and pondered the Scriptures He must have come to realise that, if He were the Son of God, a mission had been laid upon Him by the Father, because the Son of God was spoken of in the Bible, and spoken of especially in the Psalms as One who was to redeem Israel and sit upon the throne of His Father David (Psalms 2, 89).
II. And this was the meaning that the title Son of God would therefore convey to any Israelite who knew the prophetic hope and waited for the promised redemption. Nathanael, when he was amazed at our Lords insight into His character, acknowledged His claim in the words, Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel, as though the titles were equivalent. Well, then, if that was the sense in which the title must be interpreted, if Gods Son be Gods elected King, we can see the force of the temptation that came when our Lord, after the solemn announcement of the kingship, retired to meditate in the wilderness.
III. What were the kingly prerogatives which Jesus claimed to exercise as Gods anointed during the opening of His ministry? As St. Luke tells the story in the synagogue of Nazareth, there was delivered to Him the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, and He opened the book and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. We are not surprised, then, to find that Gods kingdom, being a kingdom of love and peace, Jesus would never take to Himself the title of Son of God because of the associations of earthly sovereignty, by which it was coloured in the minds of the people, and only once did He allow it to be applied to Himnamely, when the High Priest adjured Him to confess whether He were the Christ, the Son of the Blessed; and then He accepted the title because to accept it was not to receive an earthly kingdom, but to mount the throne of the Cross from which He knew that He should indeed rule the world. Nevertheless, though, in order to avoid misunderstanding, our Lord did not allow Himself to be called by this name, it was not because He did not regard Himself as King, and as King by right of His Divine Sonship. All through the Gospels, in page after page, you find evidences of a personal claim upon mans allegiance. He uses For My sake and For the kingdoms sake as equivalent terms. He regards service between the citizens of the kingdom as service done to Himself. Then shall the King say, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these, ye did it unto Me. And this kingship He declared to rest upon the intimate and unique union between the Son and the Father. No man knoweth the Father, but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. It is only Gods anointed who can be king in Gods kingdom, because no one else can have the Divine wisdom, or the Divine power, or the Divine devotion.
IV. There is no repudiation of the Divine kingship.In reality it is its most emphatic assertion, because the Divine kingship was to be distinguished from a mere earthly sovereignty by this great fact above all, that it reflected the sovereignty of God which is a sovereignty of love. In all their afflictions He was afflicted, said the prophet, speaking of Gods love for Israel. In His love and in His pity He redeemed them, and He bore them and carried them all the days of old. The King, thenand this is a great lesson for us allthe King, then, just because He was Divine could not exempt Himself from any human need.
V. The real sting of the suggestion.If Thou be the Son of God is not so much that it attempted to cast doubt into our Lords mind as to His relation with the Father, and the reality of His authority and power, as that it would fain have substituted an unworthy idea of God to that vision of mercy and truth which was ever before His mind. The attractiveness of the Gospel of Jesus to the human heart is, that it answers to our longing that the Almighty power behind the world may be known to be a power of righteousness, and wisdom, and love. If Jesus be the Son of God we have that assurance. Before His righteousness, and His wisdom, and His love our hearts bow themselves, and when He says to us, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father, we are ready to believe that it is so, and that it must be so. We echo the testimony of the first disciples: We beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Canon Beeching.
Illustration
In St. Pauls view the condition of being filled with the fullness of God is that Christ should dwell in the heart through faith, because in Christ, and alone in Christ, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells. If we know anything of ourselves, we know that our nature requires something more than growth to become divine. Is not the great difference between Jesus Christ and other men thisthat He was without sin, and we are not? And, if so, is it not a difference which needs explanation? The most striking defect of the new theology is, that having no doctrine of Atonement it must either minimise the evil of sin or deny the remedy of forgiveness, and by doing that it takes away that whole side of Christianity which the experience of the world shows to be not its least important side, that whole side of Christianity which is represented by the hymn Jesus, lover of my soul. We do, indeed, claim to be the children of God by creation, for it is He Who hath made us, and not we ourselvesmade us not like the rest of creation, but in His own image, endowed our nature with reason, and will, and conscience, so that we can feel what goodness is. Virtue in her shape how lovely! And we claim to be children of God in the more intimate sense through the Spirit of the Son which God sends into our hearts. Beloved, said St. Paul, now are ye the sons of God. But it is through the only Son that we are sons: He is, in St. Johns great phrase, the only Son. There is none like Him; there is none second. He is the very Word, and expressed Word, of the Father, and we, as matter of simple history, are sons by adoption, accepted in the Beloved. Let us acknowledge this, and then our hope will be, that as we attain more and more to see Him as He is we shall be drawn more and more into His likeness.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
4:3
Tempter is from the same word as “tempted” in verse 1, and the person doing the tempting is the devil also defined in that verse. The devil knew that the great issue at stake was the divinity of Christ, hence the suggestion he made was a challenge for Him to prove his claim. There is no doubt with us (and neither was there with the devil) as to Christ’s ability to do the thing suggested. But Christ never used his miraculous power or divine character in his own behalf. He was here to set an example for his followers who were to be taught the lesson of self-denial. It would have been inconsistent to ask his disciples to resist temptation when they had only their natural powers for support, while He overcame his trials by falling back on his divine power. Another thing that would have made it wrong for Christ to turn the stones into bread is that it would have been an act proposed by the devil. It is wrong to have any fellowship with Satan in any act, even though it might be right in itself.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
FIRST TEMPTATION. Mat 4:3-4. If thou art the Son of God. The emphasis rests on Son. On any theory the tempter meant by Son, what our Lord had been declared to be at His baptism. That he would not have dared to tempt Jesus, had he known who He, was, is an unwarranted supposition. The language implies more of taunt than of doubt. Malicious taunting is more like Satan than ignorant doubting.
Command that, lit., speak in order that these stones may become bread, lit., loaves. A challenge to the hungering Messiah to display His miraculous power, as if he had said, Can the Son of God hunger? The tempter sought to overcome His trust in God. The demand was for magic, rather than miracle. What Satan suggested resembles not the miracles of the Gospels, but the legends of the Apocryphal Gospels, and many Lives of the saints.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, 1. The occasion of the temptation.
2. The temptation itself.
The occasion was our Savior’s hunger and want of bread.
Learn thence, That when God suffers any of his dear children to fall into want, and to be straitened for outward things, Satan takes a mighty advantage thereupon, to tempt and assualt them.
But what doth he tempt our Savior to?
To the sin of distrust, to question his sonship; If thou be the Son of God; and next to distrust his Father’s providence and care. Command that these stones be made bread. As Satan had said, “How unlikely is it, that thou shouldst be highly favoured, and yet deserted? What! the Son of God; and yet ready to starve! Certainly if thou canst not supply thy necessities, thou art nothing akin to God.’
Learn hence, 1. That Satan’s grand design is, first to tempt the children of God to doubt of their adoption; and next, to distrust God’s fatherly care over them and provision for them; and last of all, to use unwarrantable means to help themselves.
Thus Satan dealt with Christ, and thus he deals with Christians: for for to work a miracle at Satan’s direction was not a lawful means of providing food for himself.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mat 4:3. And when the tempter came to him In a visible shape and appearance, to tempt him outwardly, as he had done inwardly before. For it appears from the account which Mark and Luke have given us of this matter, that our Lord had been tempted by the devil invisibly during the whole of the above-mentioned forty days but now, it seems, he came to him in a visible form, probably in the human, as one that desired to inquire further into the evidences of his mission. Accordingly he said, If thou be the Son of God In such an extraordinary sense as thou hast been declared to be, and if thou art indeed the promised Messiah, expected under that character, command that these stones be made bread To relieve thy hunger, for in such circumstances it will undoubtedly be done. Thus Satan took advantage of our Lords distress to tempt him to doubt his being the Son of God in the sense in which he had just been declared to be so; and it seems the object of this first temptation was, to excite in his mind a distrust of the care and kindness of his heavenly Father, and to induce him to use unwarranted means to relieve his hunger. But it is objected here, If Christ were God, why should he be tempted? Was it to show that God was able to overcome the temptations of the devil? Could there be any doubt of this? We answer, he was man, very man, as well as God, of a reasonable soul, and human flesh subsisting, and it was only as man that he was tempted. If it be replied, that seeing his human nature was personally united to the divine, it must still be superfluous to show that even his human nature, thus influenced, should be able to baffle the assaults of Satan: Irenus, an eminent father of the second century, answering this very objection, then made by the Ebionites, (the elder brethren of the Photinians and Socinians,) observes that, as he was man, that he might be tempted, so he was the Word, that he might be glorified; the Word, (or Godhead,) being quiescent in his temptation, crucifixion, and death. These words being preserved and cited, says Dr. Whitby, by Theodoret, show that the latter fathers approved of this solution of this difficulty. Among the reasons assigned of our Lords temptation, one is, the consolation of his members conflicting with the adversary of their souls. For, in that he suffered, being tempted, he can sympathize with, and succour those that are tempted; affording them the same Spirit that was in him, that they may resist the devil with the same weapons, and overcome him with the same assistance, by which he, in his human nature, combated and conquered. Now this ground of comfort would be wholly taken from us, if Christ overcame Satan merely by virtue of that nature, by which he was , Jas 1:13, incapable of being overcome by temptation. But if, with Irenus, we affirm that the divinity was then quiescent in him, and that he overcame Satan by virtue of the Spirit given to him, we, who have the same unction from the Holy One, may also hope to do it by his aid.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Verse 3
The tempter came to him; whether in bodily form or by inward suggestions is uncertain; perhaps the latter, as we read (Hebrews 4:15) that he was tempted in all points like as we are.–If thou be the Son of God; that is, the Messiah, as had been proclaimed by the voice from heaven, (Matthew 3:17.)–Command that these stones, &c.; to satisfy his hunger.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Satan attacked Jesus when He was vulnerable physically. The form of Satan’s question in the Greek text indicates that Satan was assuming that Jesus was the Son of God (Mat 3:17) It is a first class conditional clause.
"The temptation, to have force, must be assumed as true. The devil knew it to be true. He accepts that fact as a working hypothesis in the temptation." [Note: Robertson, p. 1009.]
This temptation was not to doubt that Jesus was God’s Son. It was to suggest that as the Son of God Jesus surely had the power and right to satisfy His own needs independent of His Father. Satan urged Jesus to use His Sonship in a way that was inconsistent with His mission (cf. Mat 26:53-54; Mat 27:40). God had intended Israel’s hunger in the wilderness to teach her that hearing and obeying God’s Word is the most important thing in life (Deu 8:2-3). Israel demanded bread in the wilderness but died. Jesus forewent bread in submission to His Father’s will and lived.
"The impact of Satan’s temptation is that Jesus, like Adam first and Israel later, had a justifiable grievance against God and therefore ought to voice His complaint by ’murmuring’ (Exodus 16; Numbers 11) and ought to provide for Himself the basic necessity of life, namely, bread. Satan, in other words, sought to make Jesus groundlessly anxious about His physical needs and thus to provoke Him to demand the food He craved (cf. Psa 78:18). In short, the devil’s aim was to persuade Jesus to repeat the apostasy of Adam and Israel. Satan wanted to break Jesus’ perfect trust in His Father’s good care and thereby to alter the course of salvation-history." [Note: Garlington, p. 297. Cf. Davies and Allison, 1:362.]
The wilderness of Judea contains many limestone rocks of all sizes and shapes. Many of them look like the loaves and rolls of bread that the Jews prepared and ate daily.
Jesus’ response to Satan’s suggestion (Mat 4:4) reflected His total commitment to follow God’s will as revealed in His Word. He quoted the Septuagint translation of Deu 8:3. Its application originally was to Israel, but Jesus applied it to everyone and particularly Himself. By applying this passage to Himself, Jesus put Himself in the category of a true "man" (Gr. anthropos).
Jesus faced Satan as a man, not as God. He did not use His own divine powers to overcome the enemy, which is just what Satan tempted Him to do. Rather He used the spiritual resources that are available to all people, including us, namely, the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit (Mat 4:1). It is for this reason that He is an example for us of one who successfully endured temptation, and it is this victory that qualified Him to become our high priest (Heb 2:10; Heb 3:1-2).
"Matthew here shows that Jesus is not God only, but an unique theanthropic person, personally qualified to be King of Israel." [Note: Toussaint, p. 76.]
Everyone needs to recognize and acknowledge his or her total dependence on God and His Word. Jesus’ real food, what sustained Him above all else, was His commitment to do the will of His Father (Joh 4:34).
In this first temptation Satan’s aim was to seduce Jesus into using His God-given power and authority independently of His Father’s will. Jesus had subjected Himself to His Father’s will because of His mission (cf. Php 2:8). It was uniquely a personal temptation; it tested Jesus’ person.
"Obedience to God’s will takes priority over self-gratification, even over the apparently essential provision of food." [Note: France, The Gospel . . ., p. 131.]