Matthew 4

1 led up. Urged by a powerful Divine impulse, the wilderness. See note Matt. iii. 1 and Mark i. 12.

to be tempted. This was the express purpose of the Holy Spirit in leading our Lord to retire to the wilderness.

the devil. The temptation is clearly ascribed to the personal agency of Satan. Our Lord’s human soul was free from all tendency to evil; but it was accessible to temptation from without. Thus He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. iv. 15). And He meets every temptation exactly as any one else might meet it, by the simple and appropriate use of God’s revealed word.

2 fasted. Abstaining from all food (Luke iv. 2). Moses (Exod. xxxiv. 28) and Elijah (1 Kings xix. 8) had been similarly sustained by Divine power through a fast of equal duration.

forty days. On the length of the temptation, see Mark i. 13.

The three temptations were directly aimed against the mission of the Son of God: first against its chief requirement, self-renunciation and trust in God (see xx. 28; xxvi. 53); then against its principal evidence, the unostentatious usefulness and beneficence which characterise all His miracles (see xi. 4-6; Luke ix. 55, 56); and lastly against its ultimate object, the restoration of God’s rightful rule and acknowledged supremacy over the whole world. Had the temptation succeeded, Jesus would have become only the Messiah expected by the worldly-minded Jews. For us, allowing for the difference due to Christ’s Messiahship, the similar temptations are those of appetite, of avarice, and of ambition.

4 every word. That is, by whatever God shall appoint: see Deut. viii. 3.

5. Then.** This word seems to fix the order of the temptations: see notes on ver. 6, and on Luke iv. 2.

a (the) pinnacle (lit., wing) of the Temple. This was probably the pointed roof of the southern portico, which overhung the valley of the Kedron at a height of more than 250 feet.

6 cast Thyself down. An attempt to pervert the implicit trust in God just avowed by our Lord into presumption. Satan tempts by endeavours to engagerate what is right. He would turn piety into fanaticism.

7. It is written again. Satan’s artful misuse of Scripture is met and repelled by Scripture rightly applied: see Psa. xci. 11.

8. The kingdoms of the world. See Milton, Paradise Regained, iii. 251, and foll.

9 will I give Thee. Falsely asserting (see Luke iv. 6) that God has given to him the entire disposal of them.

worship me. Rendering me homage as Thy superior, of whom Thy kingdom is held. Satan here (a liar from the beginning) claims that the great objects of human desire are to be gained by worshipping him. Upon this bold disclosure of the tempter’s object, our Lord rebukes and repels him.

11 the devil leaveth Him. See note on Luke iv. 13.

12. John was cast into prison. See xiv. 3-5.

He departed into Galilee. See John iv. 1-3.

13. Capernaum. Capernaum was the name of a fountain (Joseph. Worx, iii. 10, 8), and of a town, situated on the western shore of the Lake of Tiberias, probably at or near Khan Minyeh. It was a meeting-place of many great roads. Its present complete desolation forcibly illustrates our Lord’s denunciation in xi. 23.

15,16. See Isa. viii. 22.

17. From that time. That is, from the time when He heard of John’s imprisonment (12). Jesus had preached before; but, now that the ministry of His forerunner had ceased, He took up and carried forward the teachings of John.

18. Sea of Galilee. Called also the Sea of Tiberias (John vi. 1; xxi. 1); the Lake of Gennesareth (Luke v. 1); and, in the Old Testament, the Sea of Chinnereth (Numb. xxxiv. 11). This lake, or inland sea, is about thirteen miles long and less than seven broad.

20 left [their] nets, and followed Him. They had, previously to this, recognised Jesus as the Messiah (see John i. 40, 41), but had continued to follow their occupation as fishermen. They now appear to have left their business, and become constant attendants on Jesus; although, when they were near their homes, they sometimes went out to fish.

22 the ship. Rather, as R.V., “the boat.” So in many other passages.

23 synagogues. The synagogues were places in which the Jews, from the time of the Captivity, were accustomed to meet, chiefly on the Sabbaths and new moons, to hear the Law and the Prophets read and explained. They existed in our Lord’s time in almost every town both in Palestine and wherever Jews were settled. Each synagogue had a community, with its president and elders (Mark v. 22), who might chastise (x. 17; Acts xxii. 19; xxvi. 11) or expel (John ix. 34) an offender.

24. Syria. In the New Testament, “Syria” is the Roman province, of which Palestine was the south-western part.

torments. Painful maladies.

possessed with devils. In the New Testament, various bodily and mental disorders, often of the most severe and painful kind, are attributed to the agency of the devil (Acts x. 28) or of demons. Some suppose that in thus speaking of them our Lord and the sacred writers used the current language of the Jews, without intending to give any sanction to the opinion on which it was founded. But this hardly accounts for all the references. The subject is too large and mysterious to be dealt with in a single note.

lunatic. “Epileptic” (R.V.).

25. Decapolis. This name, which means ten cities, included several towns, lying (with one exception) on the east of the Jordan, and distinguished from the neighbouring districts by a large admixture of Gentile inhabitants.

by no means warrants (as the Jews held that it did) the practice of private retaliation. On the contrary, the Christian is required to cherish a spirit of forgiveness and generosity; rather foregoing his rights and submitting to injury, than doing anything which might produce a revengeful or unkindly spirit.