Matthew 4

Matthew 4:1

[a] the devil] The Hebrew יָשַׁע, an adversary, may be taken either in the general, or else as it contains under it two specifical notions; one, of an adversary in foro, an accuser, and especially a false accuser; the other, of a treacherous person, that consults and studies to mischief others. In the general it is often met with, and applied to the devil, our enemy, indefinitely. In reference to the specifical notions, it is accordingly rendered by the Septuagint, sometimes διάβολος, accuser, sometimes ἐπίβολος, betrayer, and in 1 Mac. 1. 36, the word διάβολος, accuser, is used, where the sense, and the mention of the sore snare, ver. 35, enforceth and requireth ἐπίβολος, treacherous person, and yet our English renders it in the general, (according to the more comprehensive nature of the Hebrew, to which it is answerable,) an adversary. Thus in the New Testament doth the word διάβολος prevail, and is commonly used to signify not in the special, either a calumniator, or insidiator, (though it some-

Matthew 4:3

And the devil laying hold, and taking advantage of that opportunity, came and said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, make use now of that power to thy own relief, and turn these stones into bread. a Bread, or ordinary means of sustaining men, is not of necessity to the life of man; God can feed and uphold him by other means, whatsoever he please to make use of to that purpose, his bare word and nothing else, Deut. viii. 3. 5, 6. Then Satan, as it is most probable, carried him in the air, without doing him any hurt, unto Jerusalem, being permitted by God to do so, and set him on the battlement of the temple; and urging a verse of the Psalm to him, Psalm xci. 11, he persuaded him to cast himself down from thence, by that means to testify that he was the Son of God; for if he were so, this he might do securely. b It is sufficiently manifest to me that I am the Son of God, and cared for by him. I shall not require any more signs to prove it, nor express any doubt of his power and goodness toward me, as the Israelites did, Exod. xvii. 7, saying, Is the Lord among us, or no? To which the prohibition of tempting God refers, Deut. vi. 16, (which is the text quoted in this place, a prohibition not of too much, but too little confidence, of doubting of God’s presence among them.) c and from thence gives him a view of all that was to be seen from thence, and adds a representation of many of the other kingdoms of the world, in as splendid and inviting manner as he could, and all this in a moment of time, Luke iv. 5, not one after another, that so they might amaze and affect him the more with their splendour, and on a sudden prevail upon him, which otherwise would not be so likely to do it.

Matthew 4:5

[b] a pinnacle] Πτερύγιον, signifying literally, a little wing, doth here note the exterior circuit of the top of the house, which compasseth it in, (and is thence called στεφάνη, Deut. xxii. 8,) to keep men from danger of falling from the roof, and is therefore in the law prescribed in their buildings, that thou bring not blood upon thy house. It is by the grammarians explained by ἀκρωτήριον, and that defined to be τὸ ἐπάνω τῶν ναῶν ἀνατιθέμενον ζώδιον, “a kind of girdle on the top of the temple to encompass it,” which is clearly the battlement, not the pinnacle: see note [i] ch. x.

Matthew 4:7

[c] tempt the Lord] That the phrase of tempting God signifies not too much, but too little confidence, a diffidence and incredulity, may appear by the several places wherein the phrase is used. Thus the Israelites tempting of God in Exodus and Deuteronomy, is generally doubting of God’s care and providence and power and wisdom, of which they had had so many arguments and assurances and promises from him. And so Num. xiv, the tempting God ten times, ver. 12, is all one with not believing him in all his signs, which he did in the midst of them, ver. 11; and what that unbelief was, appears by their words, ver. 2, Would we had died in Egypt! and, Wherefore hath God brought us into this land? thinking (it seems) that God would not go along with them, but permit them to be devoured by the people of the land, (see ver. 9.) So psalm lxxviii, their provoking and tempting of God, vv. 18, 19, is first their doubting whether God could and would prepare them a table, ver. 20, give them bread, provide them flesh in the wilderness, ver. 21, when by their own confession he had evidenced his power and will sufficiently in giving them streams of water out of the rock; and ver. 42, they tempted God, &c; which is explained, ver. 43, by they thought not of his hand, and of the day when he delivered them—how he had wrought his miracles in Egypt, v. 44, i. e. by their forgetting, or not considering the arguments they had had for the believing and depending on him: and so again, after he had cast out the nations, &c. done all for them imaginable, yet, ver. 57, they tempted the most high God, &c.; so Isa. vii, when Ahaz saith, he will not tempt the Lord, the words signify, that he needed no further arguments to ascertain him of the truth of what there was promised. Where yet Ahaz seems to have spoken ironically, he will ask no more signs, believing the thing impossible, and therefore is reprehended by the prophet for incredulity and wearying of God, and making it necessary for him to give a sign, vv. 13, 14. And thus clearly the phrase is used in this place, where the devil, persuading

Matthew 4:11

Then for a while, Luke iv. 13, Satan left tempting him, (afterwards setting himself more industriously on all stratagems to take away his life,) and as the devil left him, the good angels came and waited on him, ministering to his hunger, or bringing him meat, as to Elias was done.

Matthew 4:12

After this, not immediately, but having gone once into Galilee, and done many things there, (set down, John ii. &c.) and having before that entertained some disciples or constant followers, John ii. 2, by name Philip, John i. 42, (for this and much more was done before John’s being cast into prison, John iii. 24; see note [e] on John i.) when he heard of the imprisonment of John, he went a second time into Galilee. Galilee encompassed, or in the confines of other nations.

Matthew 4:15

[d] by the way] That which is here ὁδὸν θαλάσσης, is in the Greek, Isaiah ix. 1, (whence this verse is cited,) οἱ λοιπεὶ οἱ τὴν παραλίαν, the rest that dwell by the sea side. Now for this whole place that is here cited out of the prophet, and said to be fulfilled by that which here happened, it must first be remembered, what hath been said, note [k] ch. i, that prophecies, besides the literal sense of them, have sometimes another affixed to them, to which, when they are accommodated, they are said, πληροῦσθαι, to be fulfilled, i. e. to have a more eminent accomplishment. And so here. For these words had in Isaiah, ch. ix. 1, a clear literal sense, belonging to that time, viz. that God having threatened by his prophet a sore calamity to Judah and Jerusalem from Sennacherib, king of Assyria, begins in these words a little to soften it, thus: Nevertheless the dimness (or mist, or twilight) shall not be to her, to whom the vexation shall be, (i. e. to Jerusalem, which shall be thus afflicted,) according to the first time, wherein he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulon, and the land of Naphtali, and the latter time, wherein he more grievously afflicted the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations; i. e. this that shall befall upon Judah, though sharp, shall not be comparable to either of those two other; the first, the more tolerable of the two, when Zebulon and Naphtali, &c. were carried into captivity by Tiglath-Phalassar, king of Assyria, 2 Kings xv. 29; the second, not then come, which should be much more heavy, when the rest of the tribes should be carried away by Salmanassar into Assyria, 2 Kings xvii: The

[e] Galilee of the Gentiles] That which is here Γαλιλαία τῶν ἰθνῶν, is in Isaiah ix. 1, גליל הגוים, the circumference of the nations, or that part of Palestine which is furthest from Jerusalem, and hath the nations round about it, from גלל, volvit, circumduxit, and so by the Targum it is rendered תחום, confinium, the confines of the Gentiles, because round about that part of Palestine, the Egyptians, Arabians, Phoenicians inhabited near the sea side, in respect of traffic. Thus we find, Gen. xiv. 1, βασιλεὺς ἰθνῶν, the king of the nations, which will be confessed to belong to the nations adjoining to that region, if you compare it with Josh. xii. 23, where, though our English, out of some Hebrew copies, reads the king of the nations of Gilgal, yet the Septuagint reading βασιλεία γι’ Γαλιλαίας, shew that they read מלך גוים לגליל, the king of the nations of the confines, such were the Tyrians, Sidonians, and other Gentiles; and accordingly we read that king Solomon gave twenty cities in that part to Hiram, the king of the Tyrians, בארץ הגליל, in the land of the confines, 1 Kings ix. 11. Thus Josh. xiii. 2, we read גלילות, of the Philistines, where the Targum reads תחומי, the confines again, the Septuagint ὅρια, borders; and Joel iii. 4, Tyre and Sidon, and all the גלילות, circumambient regions of the Gentiles, where, though the Greek reads as here, Γαλιλαία ἀλλοφύλων, Galilee of the Gentiles, yet the Targum more exactly תחומי, the confines, or that part of Palestine which

Matthew 4:17

Now began Jesus to enter on his prophetic office, (consisting of three things; preaching or making known the will of God, entertaining disciples, doing of miracles; the first here, and more largely, Matt. v. 6, 7, and in his many parables; the second, v. 18, &c.; the third, as necessary to confirm his doctrine, on all occasions from time to time, till his death, and departure hence;) and the sum of that office was to bring sinners to repentance, by giving them warnings from God, promises to allure, and threatenings to fright them to it. 18—22. And as Jesus was walking by the lake of Genesereth, (see note [c] on Luke viii.) he saw

[I] beloved Son] Those words of the Father from heaven, both here and at the transfiguration, ch. xvii, Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός, ἐν ᾧ εὐδόκησα, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, were by him delivered with an intention, that they should be understood to relate to that prediction before delivered concerning the Messias, Isaiah xlii. 1. This will not so easily and so clearly appear by comparing these words with that prophecy, either in the Hebrew or the Greek, (because for beloved here and ch. xvii, it is chosen there; for ἐν ᾧ εὐδόκησα, in whom I am well pleased, here and ch. xvii, the Septuagint there have προσεδέξατο αὐτὸν ἡ ψυχή μου, my soul hath accepted him; for ὁ υἱός μου, my son, here and ch. xvii, it is there in the Hebrew עברי, my servant; and in the Septuagint, ὁ παῖς μου, agreeable to that, though capable of being rendered my son also,) as by comparing that of Isaiah with Matt. xii. 18, for in that place of Matthew, where those words of that prophet are purposely recited, we find all these words, Ἰδοὺ ὁ παῖς μου ὁ ἀγαπητός—εἰς ἐν εὐδόκησεν ἡ ψυχή μου, Behold my son, or servant, beloved—in whom my soul (i. e.) is well pleased, which differ very little from those voices from heaven in this and that other place, save that the Ἰδοὺ, behold, of emphatical promise in the prophet, is here changed into οὗτός ἐστι, this is, as fitter to point him out now present; and παῖς, an equivocal word for a son or servant, is changed into υἱός, which is a son only. To this may be added that one part of these words in Isaiah, δέδωκα πνεῦμα ἐπ’ αὐτὸν, I have given my Spirit upon him, was here really supplied at this time, the Holy Ghost coming visibly upon him; and in like manner, κρίσιν ἀπαγγελεῖ, he shall declare judgment, in the close of that verse, Isa. xlii. 1, is equivalently supplied Matt. xvii. 5. in αὐτὸν ἀκούετε, Hear him, he having then begun that office of declaring or preaching, which consequently was then to be heard by them.