The Fallible Study Bible

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Luke4:1–13

The Temptation of Jesus

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Luke 4:1–13 — The Temptation of Jesus. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

1

Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Iēsous plērēs Hagiou Pneumatos hypestrepsen apo tou Iordanou kai ēgeto en tō Pneumati en tē erēmō

Word by word17 · parsed
δὲdeThenG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
πλήρηςplērēsfullG4134
√ πλήρης — replete, or covered overAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
plērēs: full, replete, covered over (G4134) The word is used of vessels and of baskets of fragments, and here of a man. Luke alone of the evangelists opens the temptation by naming the fullness rather than the ordeal, so that the reader knows before the devil speaks that the hungry man in the desert is not depleted but filled. Cambridge notes that Luke returns to the Spirit at every hinge of these chapters (Luke 3:22, Luke 4:14, and on into Acts 6:3 and Acts 11:24), and Ellicott ties the phrase to the Spirit given "not by measure" in John 3:34.
ἉγίουHagiouof [the] HolyG40
√ ἅγιος — sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated)AdjectiveGenitive Neuter Singular
ΠνεύματοςPneumatosSpiritG4151
√ πνεῦμα — a current of air, iNounGenitive Neuter Singular
pneuma: breath, wind, spirit (G4151) Genitive of content after plērēs, with Ἁγίου (G40, sacred, set apart) standing first for emphasis. JFB, in the older Reformed manner, reads the phrase of the gifts of the Spirit and then concedes the difference: others were filled in measure, "to Christ the Spirit was given not by measure." That is the exact point at which the machine layer should stop and let the text stand.
ὑπέστρεψενhypestrepsenreturnedG5290
√ ὑποστρέφω — to turn under (behind), iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
hypostrephō: to turn back, return (G5290) A Lukan favourite. Cambridge prefers "went away," but the compound genuinely means turning under or back, and the Jordan he turns from is the place of the voice and the descending dove.
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸορδάνουIordanouJordanG2446
√ Ἰορδάνης — the Jordanes (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἤγετοēgetowas ledG71
√ ἄγω — properly, to leadVerbImperfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
agō: properly, to lead (G71) Imperfect middle or passive, and the tense is the whole argument: the leading is not a single shove at the trailhead but a sustained conducting. The identical verb returns in v. 9 with the devil as its subject (Ἤγαγεν, aorist active), so that Luke's vocabulary itself sets the two leadings side by side and lets the reader feel the difference between being led in the Spirit and being led to a parapet.
ἐνenbyG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῷtōtheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Singular
ΠνεύματιPneumatiSpiritG4151
√ πνεῦμα — a current of air, iNounDative Neuter Singular
pneuma: spirit (G4151) The Spirit is named twice in one verse, once as what fills Him and once as what leads Him. The desert is therefore not a lapse in the Spirit's care but its itinerary. Cambridge: the phrase "emphasizes the 'full of the Holy Ghost,' and has the same meaning as 'in the power of the Spirit,' Luke 4:14."
ἐνenintoG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
ἐρήμῳerēmōwildernessG2048
√ ἔρημος — desert, desolate, solitary, wildernessAdjectiveDative Feminine Singular
erēmos: desert, desolate, solitary (G2048) An adjective used as a noun, the uninhabited place. Gill fixes it geographically near the Jordan and morally as the place where Christ could have "neither the comfort and benefit of human society, nor any thing for the sustenance of life." It is also the word for the place where Israel was kept forty years, which is why the three answers Jesus will give all come out of Moses' commentary on those years.
2

where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He was hungry.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

tesserakonta hēmeras peirazomenos hypo tou diabolou Kai ephagen ouk ouden en ekeinais tais hēmerais kai autōn syntelestheisōn epeinasen

Word by word18 · parsed
τεσσεράκονταtesserakonta[where for] fortyG5062
√ τεσσαράκοντα — fortyAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Plural
tessarakonta: forty (G5062) The number carries freight. Cambridge lists the Jewish associations of seclusion, revelation and peril: Moses on Sinai (Exodus 34:28), Elijah (1 Kings 19:8), the wandering (Numbers 14:34). Since all three of Jesus' answers come out of Deuteronomy 6 to 8, Moses' own account of the forty years, the arithmetic of forty days against forty years is the passage's own frame and not an imposed one.
ἡμέραςhēmerasdaysG2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounAccusative Feminine Plural
πειραζόμενοςpeirazomenosHe was temptedG3985
√ πειράζω — to test (objectively), iVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
peirazō: to test, try, tempt (G3985) The verb is morally neutral in itself: it means to put to proof. What decides its colour is the prover. God proved Israel in the desert to know what was in their heart (Deuteronomy 8:2); here the prover is the accuser, and the aim is not to disclose the heart but to break it. The noun form, πειρασμὸν (G3986), closes the unit at v. 13.
ὑπὸhypobyG5259
√ ὑπό — under, iPreposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
διαβόλουdiaboloudevilG1228
√ διάβολος — a traducerAdjectiveGenitive Masculine Singular
diabolos: a traducer, slanderer (G1228) Literally one who throws across, an accuser. Cambridge draws the distinction carefully: "Both words mean 'the Accuser,' but the Greek Diabolos is far more definite than the Hebrew Satan, which is loosely applied to any opponent." The Verifier finds the lexeme in only thirty five verses, so its presence is a genuine marker when it links texts.
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔφαγενephagenHe ateG5315
√ φάγω — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
phagō: to eat (G5315) The plain verb, aorist, which makes the flat denial that follows it total.
οὐκoukvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
οὐδὲνoudennothingG3762
√ οὐδείς — not even one (man, woman or thing), iAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐνenduringG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ἐκείναιςekeinaisthoseG1565
√ ἐκεῖνος — that one (or (neuter) thing)Demonstrative PronounDative Feminine Plural
ταῖςtaisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Plural
ἡμέραιςhēmeraisdaysG2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounDative Feminine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
αὐτῶνautōn[when] theyG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Feminine 3rd Person Plural
συντελεσθεισῶνsyntelestheisōnhad endedG4931
√ συντελέω — to complete entirelyVerbAorist Participle PassiveGenitive Feminine Plural
synteleō: to complete entirely, bring to an end (G4931) Rare (six verses by the Verifier's count) and therefore load bearing. Here it is passive and refers to the days; at v. 13 it is active and refers to the devil. The same rare verb that measures God's appointed span at the start measures the exhaustion of the enemy's repertoire at the close, which is as near to an inclusio as Luke's vocabulary gets in this unit.
ἐπείνασενepeinasenHe was hungryG3983
√ πεινάω — "pine")VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
peinaō: to hunger, to pine (G3983) One word, and the whole first assault hangs on it. Cambridge is honest about the physiology: "at times of intense spiritual exaltation the ordinary needs of the body are almost suspended. But this can only be for a time, and when the reaction has begun hunger asserts its claims with a force so terrible." Luke places the verb last in the sentence, so that the tempter's voice can begin in the next breath.
3

The devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de ho diabolos Eipen autō Ei ei Huios tou Theou eipe tō toutō lithō hina genētai artos

Word by word17 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὁhoTheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
διάβολοςdiabolosdevilG1228
√ διάβολος — a traducerAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
diabolos: the slanderer (G1228) Now the noun stands in the nominative as an actor with a voice. Gill takes the plainest reading: he "now visibly appeared, and spoke unto him with an articulate voice." The Pulpit Commentary surveys the ancient and modern opinion and concludes with the moderns that "the whole transaction lay in the spiritual region of the life of Christ, but on that account it was not the less real and true." The text itself does not decide between them, and we should not pretend it does.
ΕἶπενEipensaidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτῷautōto HimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ΕἰEiIfG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
ei: if, assuming that (G1487) With the indicative this is a first class condition: the speaker argues from the premise, he does not contest it. Cambridge notes the same words come back at the cross in Matthew 27:40, which suggests Luke's readers heard the taunt as the devil's signature.
εἶeiYou areG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
ΥἱὸςHuios[the] SonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounNominative Masculine Singular
huios: son (G5207) No article in the Greek, though English supplies "the." Cambridge: "Doubtless an allusion to the divine Voice at His baptism (Luke 3:22)." The tempter's opening move is to take the Father's word and hand it back as a dare, so the whole exchange is a contest over Scripture from its first syllable.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
εἰπὲeipetellG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
τούτῳtoutōthisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounDative Masculine Singular
λίθῳlithōstoneG3037
√ λίθος — a stone (literally or figuratively)NounDative Masculine Singular
lithos: a stone (G3037) The same lexeme returns at v. 11 in the devil's own quotation of Psalm 91, "lest you strike your foot against a stone." A stone that should become bread, and a stone that must not bruise a foot: the tempter's two stones frame his two Scriptures, and the Verifier confirms the shared lexeme with Matthew 4:6.
ἵναhinatoG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
γένηταιgenētaibecomeG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Subjunctive Middle3rd Person Singular
ginomai: to cause to be, to come into being (G1096) Aorist subjunctive after hina. Strong's gives the root force as generating, causing to be, and that is what is being asked for: not a conjuring trick but the creative word, spoken for the speaker's own relief. Cambridge hears the ancestry of the suggestion in the garden, 'You may; you can; it will be pleasant: why not?', with Genesis 3:1-15 in his margin. ⚙ What is refused is not the power but its use to exempt Himself from the conditions He had taken.
ἄρτοςartosbreadG740
√ ἄρτος — bread (as raised) or a loafNounNominative Masculine Singular
4

But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai ho Iēsous apekrithē pros auton Gegraptai hoti ho anthrōpos Ouk zēsetai ep’ artō monō

Word by word15 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiButG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀπεκρίθηapekrithēansweredG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
apokrinomai: to answer, to conclude for oneself (G611) Aorist passive in form, active in force, the standard Gospel verb for a considered reply. Luke adds pros auton, "to him," which the English drops.
πρὸςprosG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
αὐτὸνautonG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ΓέγραπταιGegraptaiIt is writtenG1125
√ γράφω — to "grave", especially to writeVerbPerfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
graphō: to grave, to write (G1125) The perfect passive is the Gospels' standing formula for Scripture, and it is the hinge of this whole unit: it appears here, at v. 8, and on the devil's lips at v. 10, where the same perfect is used for a text wrenched to the wrong purpose. Poole draws the right conclusion: though Christ was full of the Holy Spirit, He makes the written word His rule of action.
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἄνθρωποςanthrōposManG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounNominative Masculine Singular
anthrōpos: man, human being (G444) The pivot of the answer. Deuteronomy 8:3 is Moses telling Israel why God let them hunger and then fed them with manna: to teach that the life of a man is not held up by what he can produce. Jesus takes His stand inside that lesson rather than above it, which is exactly what the tempter's "If You are the Son of God" was designed to make Him refuse.
ΟὐκOukvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ζήσεταιzēsetaishall not liveG2198
√ ζάω — to live (literally or figuratively)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
zaō: to live (G2198) Not merely to survive. Cambridge: "Bread sustains the body; but, that we may live, the soul also, and the spirit must be kept alive," and he sets beside it John 4:34, Job 23:12 and Jeremiah 15:16.
ἐπ’ep’onG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
ἄρτῳartōbreadG740
√ ἄρτος — bread (as raised) or a loafNounDative Masculine Singular
artos: bread, a loaf (G740) The same word the devil used in v. 3 comes back inside the quotation, so the answer is made out of the tempter's own material. Gill is careful not to spiritualize it away: the verse is not about spiritual food but about the fact that "bread itself, without a divine blessing, would not support life."
μόνῳmonōaloneG3441
√ μόνος — remaining, iAdjectiveDative Masculine Singular
monos: alone, only (G3441) A small word bearing the argument. It does not deny that bread feeds; it denies that bread alone accounts for life. The same lexeme returns at v. 8 in "Him only shall you serve," where the exclusive force is total rather than partial.
5

Then the devil led Him up to a high place and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai anagagōn auton edeixen autō en stigmē chronou pasas tas basileias tēs oikoumenēs

Word by word13 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀναγαγὼνanagagōn[the devil] led Him up to a high placeG321
√ ἀνάγω — to lead upVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
anagō: to lead up (G321) The compound of ana with agō, the leading verb that has already run through this unit: the Spirit led (v. 1), the devil leads up here and leads outright at v. 9. Luke's verbs quietly trace who has hold of Jesus at each stage, and the answer is never that the devil has taken Him out of the Spirit's hand.
αὐτὸνauton. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἔδειξενedeixen[and] showedG1166
√ δεικνύω — to show (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτῷautōHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
στιγμῇstigmēan instantG4743
√ στιγμή — a point of time, iNounDative Feminine Singular
stigmē: a point, a prick (G4743) A word for the mark of a sharp instrument, used of time only here in the New Testament. It measures the offer's technique: not a survey but a flash, too fast for the eye to test what it has seen.
χρόνουchronou. . .G5550
√ χρόνος — a space of time (in general, and thus properly distinguished from G2540 (καιρός), which designates a fixed or special occasionNounGenitive Masculine Singular
πάσαςpasasallG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Plural
τὰςtastheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
βασιλείαςbasileiaskingdomsG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounAccusative Feminine Plural
basileia: properly royalty, then rule and realm (G932) Strong's root sense is royalty, the abstract dignity standing before the territory, which makes the plural here telling: the tempter deals in realms, the sort of thing that can change hands. It is also the word Luke's Gospel carries as its subject, and JFB's own summary of this chapter runs straight on from the temptation to Luke 4:42-44, where Jesus preaches through the cities of Galilee. ⚙ Offer and mission use one word for two things: a possession transferred in the prick of a moment, and a reign proclaimed town by town.
τῆςtēsof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
οἰκουμένηςoikoumenēsworldG3625
√ οἰκουμένη — land, iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
oikoumenē: the inhabited earth (G3625) Rare (fifteen verses by the Verifier's count) and politically loaded: Luke uses it at Luke 2:1 for the empire Caesar taxes. The Verifier records the same lexeme in Revelation 12:9 alongside G1228 diabolos, so the accuser of this passage and the inhabited world he offers are found together again at the canon's close. Whether Luke means the empire, with Ellicott, or the globe, with Gill, the word names inhabited humanity rather than the planet.
6

“I will give You authority over all these kingdoms and all their glory,” he said. “For it has been relinquished to me, and I can give it to anyone I wish.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

dōsō Soi tēn exousian hapasan tautēn kai autōn tēn doxan kai ho diabolos eipen autō hoti paradedotai emoi kai didōmi autēn hō ean thelō

Word by word24 · parsed
δώσωdōsōI will giveG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbFuture Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ΣοὶSoiYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Singular
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ἐξουσίανexousianauthorityG1849
√ ἐξουσία — privilege, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
exousia: privilege, delegated authority (G1849) The word means right rather than might, which makes the boast self refuting: a delegated right is held from someone. Geneva catches the trap: he is sovereign "only by permission and request, and therefore he does not truly say that he can give it to whom he will."
ἅπασανhapasanover allG537
√ ἅπας — absolutely all or (singular) every oneAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
ταύτηνtautēn[these kingdoms]G3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiand [all]G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
αὐτῶνautōntheirG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Feminine 3rd Person Plural
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
δόξανdoxangloryG1391
√ δόξα — glory (as very apparent), in a wide application (literal or figurative, objective or subjective)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
doxa: glory, what is apparent (G1391) Root sense is appearance, what shows. The offer is precisely of the visible surface of rule, which is all the tempter has ever had to sell.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
διάβολοςdiabolos[he]G1228
√ διάβολος — a traducerAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
εἶπενeipensaidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτῷautōG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ὅτιhotiForG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
παραδέδοταιparadedotaiit has been relinquishedG3860
√ παραδίδωμι — to surrender, iVerbPerfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
paradidōmi: to hand over, to deliver up (G3860) Perfect passive, with the agent unnamed. Gill grants that the passive concedes an original owner and denies that the transfer ever happened as claimed: the power he has "was by usurpation, and not by designation of God; and at most only by permission." Ellicott is firmer still, calling the whole claim "a lying boast." The same verb will be used of the Son handed over at the end of the Gospel, so the devil unknowingly speaks the vocabulary of the passion.
ἐμοὶemoito meG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
δίδωμιdidōmiI can giveG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
didōmi: to give (G1325) Present tense after the future of v. 6 opening: he shifts from a promise to a habit, as if the giving were already his standing practice.
αὐτήνautēnitG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Feminine 3rd Person Singular
ᾧhōto anyoneG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounDative Masculine Singular
ἐὰνean. . .G1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
θέλωthelōI wishG2309
√ θέλω — to determine (as an active option from subjective impulseVerbPresent Subjunctive Active1st Person Singular
7

So if You worship me, it will all be Yours.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

oun ean sy proskynēsēs enōpion emou pasa estai sou

Word by word9 · parsed
οὖνounSoG3767
√ οὖν — (adverbially) certainly, or (conjunctionally) accordinglyConjunction
ἐὰνeanifG1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
σὺsyYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 2nd Person Singular
προσκυνήσῃςproskynēsēsworshipG4352
√ προσκυνέω — to fawn or crouch to, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Singular
proskyneō: to prostrate oneself, do homage (G4352) Aorist subjunctive: one act, once, and then the world. That single act is the whole price, and its smallness is the temptation's craft. Gill sets the angelic contrast: a good angel refuses worship and redirects it (Revelation 19:10), while the fallen one seeks it from the very Son whom the angels are told to worship (Hebrews 1:6).
ἐνώπιονenōpion. . .G1799
√ ἐνώπιον — in the face of (literally or figuratively)Preposition
enōpion: in the face of, before (G1799) A preposition of presence. It keeps the transaction spatial and ceremonial rather than naming it as worship, which is exactly how the sentence hopes to slip past.
ἐμοῦemoumeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
πᾶσαpasavvvG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Feminine Singular
ἔσταιestaiit will all beG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
eimi: to be (G1510) Future middle, and the only verb of the apodosis: not "I will hand it over" but "it will be yours." The offer is phrased to sound like the recognition of a fact rather than the closing of a bargain.
σοῦsouYoursG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
8

But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai ho Iēsous apokritheis eipen autō Gegraptai Proskynēseis Kyrion sou ton Theon kai latreuseis autō monō

Word by word16 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiButG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀποκριθεὶςapokritheisansweredG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
εἶπενeipen. . .G2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτῷautō. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ΓέγραπταιGegraptaiIt is writtenG1125
√ γράφω — to "grave", especially to writeVerbPerfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
graphō: to write (G1125) The same perfect as v. 4, and about to be turned against Him in v. 10. Three uses of the standing formula in this unit, two by the Son and one by the accuser, which is the passage's real argument: not whether Scripture is authoritative but who reads it in the path of obedience.
ΠροσκυνήσειςProskynēseisWorshipG4352
√ προσκυνέω — to fawn or crouch to, iVerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
proskyneō: to prostrate, do homage (G4352) The same lexeme the tempter used in v. 7, now taken out of his mouth and set where it belongs. The answer does not refute the offer; it relocates the verb.
ΚύριονKyrion[the] LordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ΘεόνTheonGodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounAccusative Masculine Singular
theos: God (G2316) With Κύριον standing first, the accusative of the object of worship. Jesus quotes the Shema's own chapter back at a creature soliciting worship, which is why Cambridge judges that nothing further needed saying: "Since Satan had now revealed himself in his true character, there was no need for Jesus to tell him of another and a divine Kingdom over which he had no power."
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
λατρεύσειςlatreuseisserveG3000
√ λατρεύω — to minister (to God), iVerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
latreuō: to minister to God, to render sacred service (G3000) The verb from which liturgy and latria come. Paired with proskyneō it covers posture and practice, the bow and the whole life of service, and the exclusive dative that follows shuts every other claimant out.
αὐτῷautōHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
μόνῳmonōonlyG3441
√ μόνος — remaining, iAdjectiveDative Masculine Singular
monos: alone, only (G3441) The same word that limited bread in v. 4 now limits service without remainder. In v. 4 it denied that bread is the whole of life; here it denies that God is one object of worship among others. The unit's argument turns twice on this one adjective.
9

Then the devil led Him to Jerusalem and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple. “If You are the Son of God,” he said, “throw Yourself down from here.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ēgagen auton eis Ierousalēm kai estēsen epi to pterygion tou hierou Ei ei Huios tou Theou kai eipen autō bale seauton katō enteuthen

Word by word24 · parsed
δὲdeThenG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἬγαγενĒgagen[the devil] ledG71
√ ἄγω — properly, to leadVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
agō: to lead (G71) The unit's hinge verb, now with the devil as subject. The Verifier confirms G71 shared with John 14:31, where Jesus says the ruler of this world comes and has nothing in Him, and then "rise, let us go from here" (G1782 enteuthen, in 9 vv, the same adverb that ends this verse).
αὐτὸνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
ἸερουσαλὴμIerousalēmJerusalemG2419
√ Ἱερουσαλήμ — Hierusalem (iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
Hierousalēm: Jerusalem (G2419) Luke uses the Hebraic indeclinable form rather than the Hellenized Hierosolyma. Matthew calls it the holy city; Poole notes the difference, "what Matthew calls the holy city, Luke expoundeth Jerusalem." It is the city to which Luke's whole Gospel travels and in which it ends.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔστησενestēsenset [Him]G2476
√ ἵστημι — to stand (transitively or intransitively), used in various applications (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
πτερύγιονpterygionpinnacleG4419
√ πτερύγιον — a winglet, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
pterygion: a little wing, an extremity (G4419) A rare word, and no one knows which part of Herod's complex it names. Cambridge offers the Royal Portico over the Kidron or the Eastern Portico from which tradition says James was thrown. The Pulpit Commentary quotes Josephus, that one looking down from there "would be giddy while his sight could not reach to such an immense depth." ⚙ That the third assault is staged at the temple and not in the desert is the point Luke's order makes: the subtlest attack comes in the holiest place and speaks in Scripture.
τοῦtouof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
ἱεροῦhieroutempleG2411
√ ἱερόν — a sacred place, iNounGenitive Neuter Singular
hieron: a sacred place, the temple precinct (G2411) Not naos, the sanctuary proper, but the whole holy enclosure. The Verifier records the lexeme shared with Acts 21:27, where the days are being completed and a crowd seizes Paul in the same precinct.
ΕἰEiIfG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
εἶeiYou areG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
ΥἱὸςHuios[the] SonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounNominative Masculine Singular
huios: son (G5207) The taunt of v. 3 verbatim. The tempter's first and last recorded words in Luke both begin "If You are the Son of God," which brackets the whole contest as an assault on the baptismal voice.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εἶπενeipenhe saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτῷautōG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
βάλεbalethrowG906
√ βάλλω — to throw (in various applications, more or less violent or intense)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ballō: to throw, cast (G906) Aorist imperative. Cambridge reads the imperative itself as a confession of weakness: "The devil may place the soul in peril and temptation, but can never make it sin." He can say throw yourself down; he cannot push.
σεαυτὸνseautonYourselfG4572
√ σεαυτοῦ — of (with, to) thyselfPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 2nd Person Singular
κάτωkatōdownG2736
√ κάτω — downwardsAdverb
ἐντεῦθενenteuthenfrom hereG1782
√ ἐντεῦθεν — hence (literally or figuratively)Adverb
10

For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You to guard You carefully,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gar gegraptai hoti enteleitai autou Tois angelois peri sou tou diaphylaxai se

Word by word12 · parsed
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
γέγραπταιgegraptaiit is writtenG1125
√ γράφω — to "grave", especially to writeVerbPerfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
graphō: to write (G1125) Third and last use of the formula in this unit, and the only one by the accuser. Henry draws the pastoral conclusion and it is the right one: the abuse of Scripture by Satan or by men must not lower our esteem for it or drive us from its use.
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ἐντελεῖταιenteleitaiHe will commandG1781
√ ἐντέλλομαι — to enjoinVerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
entellomai: to enjoin, give charge (G1781) The verb of issuing a commission. The quotation is accurate as far as it goes: Psalm 91 does say this, of the man who dwells in the shelter of the Most High. The fraud is not in the words but in the application.
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ΤοῖςToisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
ἀγγέλοιςangeloisangelsG32
√ ἄγγελος — compare G34 (ἀγέλη)) (to bring tidings)NounDative Masculine Plural
angelos: messenger, angel (G32) The plural. Matthew records that when the devil left, angels came and ministered, so the promise the tempter waves is in fact kept, but on God's timing and without the jump. ⚙ That is the sharpest thing in the episode: the guarding was real, and refusing to demand it was the condition of receiving it.
περὶpericoncerningG4012
√ περί — properly, through (all over), iPreposition
σοῦsouYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
διαφυλάξαιdiaphylaxaito guard You carefullyG1314
√ διαφυλάσσω — to guard thoroughly, iVerbAorist Infinitive Active
diaphylassō: to guard thoroughly (G1314) An intensive compound found nowhere else in the New Testament. Its strength is exactly what the argument needs, and its object in the Psalm is a man walking in his ways, not a man stepping off a parapet.
σεse. . .G4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Singular
11

and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”

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Greek — tap a word ↓

kai arousin se hoti epi cheirōn mē pote proskopsēs sou ton poda pros lithon

Word by word14 · parsed
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀροῦσίνarousinthey will liftG142
√ αἴρω — to lift upVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
airō: to lift up, take up (G142) Future active. The Psalm's picture is of hands that catch a falling man before his foot is bruised. ⚙ It is worth noticing what the Gospel does with hands and feet in the end: the hands that hold Him up are nailed, and no angel is sent. The promise is not broken, it is fulfilled at a depth the tempter is not offering.
σεseYou [up]G4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Singular
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ἐπὶepiinG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
χειρῶνcheirōn[their] handsG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounGenitive Feminine Plural
cheir: the hand, and so power (G5495) Genitive plural after epi. Strong's notes the figurative sense of power, which is why the image is of protection rather than of mere catching.
μή‿mēso that {You will} notG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ποτεpote. . .G4219
√ πότε — interrogative adverb, at what timeConjunction
προσκόψῃςproskopsēsstrikeG4350
√ προσκόπτω — to strike at, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Singular
proskoptō: to strike at, to dash the foot (G4350) A rare lexeme (eight verses by the Verifier's count) and the sharpest word in this quotation. The Verifier finds it paired with G3037 lithos in only two other places, Romans 9:32 and 1 Peter 2:8, where the striking is done by people and the stone is one God has laid. ⚙ The tempter is offering a Messiah whose foot no stone will bruise; that the apostolic reading runs the other way, and that the reversal is pointed, is our own inference, and the recorded basis is the shared rare lexeme alone.
σουsouYourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
πόδαpodafootG4228
√ πούς — a "foot" (figuratively or literally)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
pous: a foot (G4228) The last noun of the Psalm citation, and a small one. The whole enormous proposal (throw yourself from the temple in front of the crowds) is dressed in the language of not stubbing a toe.
πρὸςprosagainstG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
λίθονlithona stoneG3037
√ λίθος — a stone (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
lithos: a stone (G3037) The tempter's second stone. The first was to become bread and end a hunger; this one is not to touch a foot. Both are offers to be spared the ordinary weight of things, and both are refused.
12

But Jesus answered, “It also says, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai ho Iēsous apokritheis eipen autō hoti Eirētai Ouk ekpeiraseis Kyrion sou ton Theon

Word by word14 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiButG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀποκριθεὶςapokritheisansweredG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
εἶπενeipen. . .G2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτῷautō. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ΕἴρηταιEirētaiIt [also] saysG2046
√ ἐρέω — an alternate for G2036 (ἔπω) in certain tensesVerbPerfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
ereō: to speak, to say (G2046) Perfect passive, an alternate stem for the verb of saying. Its use here instead of the writing formula is the only variation in the three replies, and it is worth marking without over-reading.
ΟὐκOukvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ἐκπειράσειςekpeiraseisDo not putG1598
√ ἐκπειράζω — to test thoroughlyVerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
ekpeirazō: to test thoroughly, to tempt to the extreme (G1598) A rare compound, found in only four verses in the canon. Paul uses it at 1 Corinthians 10:9, in the chapter that rehearses the wilderness generation; Luke uses it at Luke 10:25 of a lawyer who stands up to test Jesus. Deuteronomy 6:16, the text quoted, names Massah, where Israel demanded proof that the LORD was among them. The verb, the source and the situation all line up: demanding that God prove himself on our schedule is the sin the word exists to name.
ΚύριονKyrion[the] LordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
kyrios: supreme in authority, lord (G2962) The Septuagint's standing rendering of the divine name, and the accusative object of the forbidden testing. ⚙ Readers since the fathers have noticed that if the words are addressed to the tempter about Jesus, the sentence identifies who is standing on the parapet. Gill puts both options and declines to force it; so do we.
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ΘεόνTheonGod {to the test}G2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounAccusative Masculine Singular
theos: God (G2316) With the possessive singular, the covenant formula "the LORD your God" that runs through Deuteronomy. Gill notes that Jehovah may be called the Lord even of Satan, "as he is his creator and governor," though not his covenant God.
13

When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai ho diabolos syntelesas panta peirasmon apestē ap’ autou achri kairou

Word by word11 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiWhenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
διάβολοςdiabolosdevilG1228
√ διάβολος — a traducerAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
συντελέσαςsyntelesashad finishedG4931
√ συντελέω — to complete entirelyVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
synteleō: to complete entirely (G4931) Rare (six verses), and used twice in this unit, once of the days and once of the devil. Elsewhere in the canon it marks an appointed end being reached: Mark 13:4, Hebrews 8:8, Romans 9:28. ⚙ Luke seems to be saying that even the enemy's repertoire has a terminus, and that he reached it.
πάνταpantaeveryG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
πειρασμὸνpeirasmontemptationG3986
√ πειρασμός — a putting to proof (by experiment (of good), experience (of evil), solicitation, discipline or provocation)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
peirasmos: a putting to proof, by experiment, experience, solicitation or provocation (G3986) The noun of the verb in v. 2, closing what that verb opened. Strong's own gloss keeps the double edge: the same act can prove good or solicit evil, and which it is depends on who is doing it and why. Ellicott takes the singular with "every" as an inventory: the three trials "taken together they made up the cycle of those to which our Lord's human nature was then open."
ἀπέστηapestēhe leftG868
√ ἀφίστημι — to remove, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
aphistēmi: to remove, to stand off, withdraw (G868) Aorist. Henry hears the limit in it: Satan "departed but till the season when he was again to be let loose upon Jesus, not as a tempter, to draw him to sin, and so to strike at his head, at which he now aimed and was wholly defeated in; but as a persecutor."
ἀπ’ap’. . .G575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
αὐτοῦautouHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἄχριachriuntilG891
√ ἄχρι — (of time) until or (of place) up toPreposition
καιροῦkairouan opportune timeG2540
√ καιρός — an occasion, iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
kairos: an occasion, a fixed or special season (G2540) The last word of the unit, and it points forward. Ellicott glosses it "till a convenient season, i.e., till the close of the great work, the time of the power of darkness (Luke 22:53)." Benson, Gill and Poole all read it the same way, toward Gethsemane. ⚙ Luke ends the temptation not with victory but with an appointment.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. Full, and led, and hungry — Luke 4:1 to 4:2

Luke's opening sentence refuses the obvious contrast. The man who goes into the desert is πλήρης Ἁγίου Πνεύματος, full of the Holy Spirit, and the verb that carries Him there is imperfect, ἤγετο, a leading that keeps going. Cambridge insists on the prepositions: "by the Spirit ] Rather, in the Spirit," and "into the wilderness ] Rather, in. He was 'in the Spirit' during the whole period." JFB, comparing Luke's verb with Mark's harsher one, rules that the words "do not signify a violent motion, (for without doubt Christ went willingly), but a potent and efficacious motion." So the desert is not a lapse in the Spirit's care; it is the Spirit's route. Cambridge adds that the participle πειραζόμενος is present and continuous, "the temptation was continuous throughout the forty days, though it reached its most awful climax at their close," which means the three recorded scenes are the crest of a siege and not its whole duration. Maclaren fixes what is at stake in the humanity: "As true man, He could be truly tempted; as perfect man, suggestions of evil could not arise within, but must be presented from without." Benson lines up the forty day fasts of Moses and Elijah; Cambridge adds the forty years of the wandering. Then Luke ends the sentence with one aorist verb, ἐπείνασεν, and the hunger arrives as an event. Cambridge, with unusual candour about the body, notes that when the reaction to such exaltation begins, "hunger asserts its claims with a force so terrible." That is the moment the accuser picks. ⚙ Luke has arranged his clauses so that fullness and hunger sit in the same breath, and the rest of the passage is an argument about whether the second cancels the first.

ii. The stone, the loaf, and Moses' sentence — Luke 4:3 to 4:4

The first proposal is domestic in scale: one stone, τῷ λίθῳ τούτῳ, singular and demonstrative. Ellicott notices that "the singular form is somewhat more vivid than the plural, 'these stones,' in St. Matthew," and Cambridge reports that the desert holds loaf shaped concretions that early travellers called lapides judaici, so the eye may already have been deceived before the ear was tempted. Cambridge weighs the subtlety exactly: it was "a temptation to gratify a natural and blameless appetite," which is what makes it hard rather than easy to refuse. The conditional Εἰ εἶ grants the premise rather than doubting it; Cambridge glosses it "Assuming that Thou art," and observes that the same words were thrown at Him on the cross. Jesus answers out of Deuteronomy 8:3, and Maclaren hears where the stress falls: the reply "begins emphatically with 'man.'" He will not step out of the human conditions He took in order to prove He is above them. Cambridge sets the original context: "where Moses tells the people that God has suffered them to hunger, and fed them with manna, to shew them the dependence of man on God." Gill draws the practical conclusion without spiritualizing the verse away: God can sustain "without the use of ordinary means," and bread itself without a blessing would not sustain at all. Poole, commenting on this exchange, states the governing principle of the whole unit: though Christ was full of the Holy Spirit, "yet maketh the Holy Scripture his rule of action." Henry puts the same thing as equipment: "The word of God is our sword, and faith in that word is our shield."

iii. A flash of empire, and the word that ends it — Luke 4:5 to 4:8

The second assault changes register entirely. The verb is ἔδειξεν, he exhibited, and the frame is ἐν στιγμῇ χρόνου, in the prick of a stylus, too fast for the eye to interrogate. Ellicott reads the compression itself as diagnostic: "the concentration of what seems an almost endless succession of images into the consciousness of a moment is eminently characteristic of the activity of the human soul in the state of ecstasy or vision." Gill is harsher and calls it outright "a mere phantasm, a deception of the sight." Cambridge, who thinks the mountain and even the word "devil" in v. 5 have drifted in from Matthew, states the scandal of the offer in a single line: "He was offering to One who had lived as the Village Carpenter the throne of the world." Then comes the claim that Luke alone records, παραδέδοται, "it has been handed over to me." Every commentator in this brief takes it as a lie with a grain in it. Ellicott: the claim "was a lying boast, resting only on the permitted activity and temporary predominance of evil in the actual course of the world's history." Geneva, with a lawyer's precision: he is prince of this world "but not absolutely, and is the sovereign of it only by permission and request, and therefore he does not truly say that he can give it to whom he will." Cambridge simply names the speaker: "here however we note the exaggeration of the father of lies." Poole, on this verse, observes that "the dominion over the things of the world was not given to the angels, but to man." The price is one act of προσκυνήσῃς, which Cambridge renders "wilt do homage before me," a vassal's crouch dressed as protocol. The answer comes from Deuteronomy 6:13, with two changes the commentators do not hide. Gill: "instead of 'fear the Lord', it is 'worship the Lord'; and the one well explains the other," and "the word 'only' is added by Christ, as expressing the true sense of it." Cambridge concurs that the citation is "slightly altered," and that the textual evidence deletes "Get thee behind me, Satan" from Luke. The Pulpit Commentary states what the refusal costs: He would win all and more, "but it would be by a slow and painful process."

iv. Scripture against Scripture on the temple wing — Luke 4:9 to 4:12

In Luke's order the last assault is the subtlest, and Cambridge thinks that is exactly why Luke put it last: "the temptation to spiritual pride (which he places third) was keener and subtler than that to temporal ambition." The devil now uses the very weapon that has twice defeated him. Cambridge quotes Shakespeare on it rather than arguing: "The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose." The text is Psalm 91:11 to 12, and the tempter, as Cambridge says, "omits 'in all thy ways,' which would have defeated his object, since the 'ways' referred to are only the ways of him 'who dwelleth under the defence of the Most High.'" Gill reports the same observation from Jerome and then, unusually, argues against the consensus he himself had earlier followed, allowing that rabbinic citation practice regularly abbreviates and that on comparing the evangelists "it is not a clear case to me, what Satan did leave out." We record both, because the honest state of the question is that the omission is real in the quoted words and disputed in its significance. Gill's own conclusion is the sharper one: the devil failed "not in the manner of citing it, nor in the application of it to Christ; but by wresting it to a wicked purpose." The reply is Deuteronomy 6:16, and Luke's verb is ἐκπειράσεις, the intensified compound. Cambridge: "Thou shalt not utterly tempt, or tempt to the extreme," and then the rule that follows from it, "we cannot claim miracles when we court temptations." The Pulpit Commentary notices what the three answers have in common: "the Redeemer, in each of his three answers to the devil, uses words taken from two chapters (the sixth and eighth) of Deuteronomy," and Cambridge calls the same fact "remarkable."

v. Until a season — Luke 4:13

Luke closes with the same rare verb he used of the forty days. At v. 2 the days were συντελεσθεισῶν, brought to completion by God; at v. 13 the devil is the one who has συντελέσας πάντα πειρασμόν, exhausted his repertoire. Ellicott takes the phrase as inventory rather than chronology: "had completed every kind of temptation. The three trials were each typical in character, and taken together they made up the cycle of those to which our Lord's human nature was then open." Cambridge borrows Bengel's image, that he had shot his last dart, and adds a caution against reading the departure as the end of the war: henceforth the temptations were "rather the negative ones caused by suffering, than the positive ones caused by allurement." Benson names the next engagement: "this implies that he assaulted him afterward, which, if not before, he certainly did in the garden of Gethsemane." Poole reads "for a season" the same way, as an intimation "that our Saviour had further conflicts with the devil than are here mentioned." Henry's phrasing of the same point is the sturdiest: Satan "departed but till the season when he was again to be let loose upon Jesus, not as a tempter, to draw him to sin, and so to strike at his head, at which he now aimed and was wholly defeated in; but as a persecutor." Luke's word is καιροῦ, not chronos: not a length of time but an opportunity, and Luke will use the cognate language again when Satan enters Judas.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text. Read only as a contest of wills, the temptation is a story about resistance, and the lesson is that we should resist too. But the vocabulary points somewhere narrower. Every answer Jesus gives comes out of one short stretch of Deuteronomy, chapters 6 to 8, and that stretch is Moses explaining to Israel what the forty years in the desert were for: God let you hunger and fed you with manna to teach you that man does not live on bread alone; do not test the LORD as you tested Him at Massah; fear the LORD your God and serve Him. Israel was led into the desert, hungered, demanded bread, tested God at the rock, and made a calf. The Son is led into the desert, hungers, is offered bread, is invited to test God from a height, and is offered a kingdom at the price of one act of homage. The three assaults land on the three points at which Israel actually broke, and the answers are taken from the very chapters that name those breaks. What Luke seems to be showing is not chiefly an example to imitate but an obedience rendered where obedience had failed, by one who insists on answering as ὁ ἄνθρωπος, man, rather than pulling rank as Son. The commentators reach this from several directions: Henry says the Redeemer "conquered, not for himself only, but for us also"; Cambridge cites Augustine, that Christ conquered the tempter so that the Christian may not be conquered by the tempter; the Pulpit Commentary notes the old quip that the enemy "practiced the old manner of his trading" with the second Adam that had worked with the first. Where we would under-claim against some of them: Luke does not say any of this in so many words. He lays the forty days beside the forty years, puts Deuteronomy in Jesus' mouth three times, and leaves the arithmetic to the reader. We think the arithmetic is intended. We do not think a machine should say more than that.

Not a verse, a fallible reading: where Israel was proved and broke, the Son is proved and answers, and He answers out of the very book that records the breaking.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

Bread alone: the answer is Moses explaining the manna structural / thematic: confirmed

Jesus does not improvise. He quotes Deuteronomy 8:3, which is Moses' own account of why the forty years included hunger. Cambridge states the source setting plainly: it is "where Moses tells the people that God has suffered them to hunger, and fed them with manna, to shew them the dependence of man on God." The manna itself is Exodus 16, where Israel's complaint was precisely that bread had run out. ⚙ The Son is therefore answering a hunger temptation with the passage that interprets Israel's hunger, which makes the citation a structural claim as much as a verbal one.

Deuteronomy 8:3 · Exodus 16:1-8

basis: A formal quotation: the words are Moses' own in Deuteronomy 8:3, quoted by Jesus as Scripture under the perfect formula gegraptai (G1125). The tier is structural rather than verbal only because the refs cross the Testaments: Luke 4:4 is Greek and Deuteronomy 8:3 is Hebrew, so no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed between them and the Verifier can record no verbal basis. Within the Greek the Verifier confirms G1125 grapho shared with Matthew 4:4 and Matthew 4:7 (in 181 vv), which records only the citation formula, not the Hebrew source.

Worship and serve: Deuteronomy 6:13 against the offer of the kingdoms structural / thematic: confirmed

The reply to the offer of the world is Deuteronomy 6:13, reinforced by its twin at Deuteronomy 10:20. The commentators do not hide the changes. Gill: "instead of 'fear the Lord', it is 'worship the Lord'; and the one well explains the other; the fear of God being often, in Scripture, put for the whole worship of God," and "the word 'only' is added by Christ, as expressing the true sense of it." Cambridge agrees the citation is "slightly altered from Deuteronomy 6:13" and notes that Matthew has the identical variation. ⚙ The temptation to buy a kingdom by one act of homage is the calf of Exodus 32 in compressed form: a real deliverance sought through a false worship.

Deuteronomy 6:13 · Deuteronomy 10:20 · Exodus 32:1-6

basis: A formal quotation: the words are Moses' in Deuteronomy 6:13 (with Deuteronomy 10:20), quoted as Scripture under gegraptai (G1125), though Gill and Cambridge both record that 'fear' is rendered 'worship' and that 'only' is supplied. The tier is structural rather than verbal only because the refs cross the Testaments, Greek to Hebrew, so shared Strong's lexemes cannot be computed and no verbal basis can be recorded. The Exodus 32 link is thematic and carries no quotation claim.

Massah: do not put the LORD to the test structural / thematic: confirmed

The third answer is Deuteronomy 6:16, and Cambridge notes that Luke's verb is the intensive compound: "Thou shalt not utterly tempt, or tempt to the extreme." Deuteronomy 6:16 itself names the occasion, Massah, which is Exodus 17:1 to 7: Israel at Rephidim quarrelling for water and asking whether the LORD is among them or not. Gill observes the grammatical accommodation, that Deuteronomy has the plural "ye shall not tempt" and Luke the singular, addressed to the one tempter. ⚙ The devil has just proposed a spectacular demonstration that God is indeed present and attentive; Deuteronomy 6:16 is the law forbidding exactly that demand.

Deuteronomy 6:16 · Exodus 17:1-7

basis: A formal quotation: the words are Moses' in Deuteronomy 6:16, quoted as Scripture under eirētai (G2046), and Deuteronomy 6:16 itself names Massah, Exodus 17:1-7. The tier is structural rather than verbal only because the refs cross the Testaments and no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed between Luke's Greek and the Hebrew of Deuteronomy or Exodus. Within the Greek the Verifier does confirm the rare lexeme G1598 ekpeirazō (in 4 vv), but that is a link to other Greek texts, not to the Hebrew source.

The Psalm the tempter cut: Psalm 91:11 to 12 without "in all your ways" structural / thematic: confirmed

The devil's own Scripture is Psalm 91:11 to 12. Cambridge records the excision: "the tempter omits 'in all thy ways,' which would have defeated his object, since the 'ways' referred to are only the ways of him 'who dwelleth under the defence of the Most High.'" Gill traces the same observation back to Jerome, then, unusually, argues against it: rabbinic citation regularly abbreviates, and comparing the evangelists, "it is not a clear case to me, what Satan did leave out, or whether any thing at all." We record the dispute rather than resolving it. Gill's own verdict on the abuse is not in dispute: the devil failed "by wresting it to a wicked purpose." Cambridge adds the sting from the next verse of the same Psalm, that Christ did in fact tread on the lion and the adder.

Psalm 91:11-12 · Psalm 91:13

basis: A formal quotation: the words are the Psalmist's in Psalm 91:11-12, quoted as Scripture by the devil under gegraptai (G1125). The tier is structural rather than verbal only because the refs cross the Testaments, Luke's Greek against the Hebrew Psalm, so no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed and no verbal basis recorded. Provenance of the omission claim is contested within the sources themselves: Cambridge (following Jerome) treats the dropped clause 'in all thy ways' as deliberate; Gill reviews the same evidence and doubts that anything was dropped by the tempter rather than by the evangelists.

Forty days against forty years, and the two fasting prophets typological

Cambridge lists what forty meant to a Jewish reader: "Moses on Sinai, Exodus 34:18; Elijah, 1 Kings 19:8; the wanderings of the Israelites, Numbers 14:34." Benson makes the same three comparisons and calls Moses "a type of Jesus." Deuteronomy 8:2, the verse immediately before the one Jesus quotes, states the purpose of the forty years: to humble you and to prove you, to know what was in your heart. ⚙ Luke's forty days sit on top of all three: the same span, the same desert, the same proving, with the outcome reversed.

Deuteronomy 8:2 · Exodus 34:28 · 1 Kings 19:8 · Numbers 14:34

basis: A figural reading of the forty day fast against the forty years of Israel and the forty day fasts of Moses and Elijah. Cross-Testament, Greek against Hebrew, so no shared Strong's lexeme exists and the link can never be tiered verbal; it rests on the shared number, the shared wilderness setting and the shared language of proving in Deuteronomy 8:2. Attestation is ancient and widely held: Benson names Moses explicitly as a type of Jesus, and Cambridge records the association as standard in Jewish reckoning.

ἐκπειράζω: the rare verb that names testing God verbal / quotation: confirmed

Luke does not use the plain πειράζω in Jesus' third answer but the intensified ἐκπειράσεις (G1598), a verb the Verifier finds in only four verses of the canon. Two of the other three are recorded in the candidates here: Paul at 1 Corinthians 10:9, in the chapter that rehearses the wilderness generation, and Luke himself at Luke 10:25, of a lawyer who stands up to test Jesus. The Verifier notes that 1 Corinthians 10:9 also shares G3985 peirazō (in 34 vv) and G5259 hypo (in 200 vv) with this unit. ⚙ The rare word therefore gathers three situations: the source text at Deuteronomy 6:16 forbidding what was done at Massah, the tempter urging a proof from the parapet, and a man in Luke's own Gospel testing Jesus to His face.

1 Corinthians 10:9 · Luke 10:25

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1598 ekpeirazō, rare at only four verses in the canon, linking Luke 4:12 with 1 Corinthians 10:9 (which also shares G5259 hypo, in 200 vv, and G3985 peirazō, in 34 vv) and with Luke 10:25. All refs are Greek New Testament texts, so a verbal tier is legitimate; no Old Testament ref is included in this thread.

The stone that must not bruise a foot, and the stone men strike verbal / quotation: confirmed

The tempter's citation ends on λίθον, a stone, with the verb προσκόψῃς (G4350), to strike against. Both words come back together, and in the Verifier's candidates only together, at Romans 9:32 and 1 Peter 2:8, where the striking is done by people and the stone is one God has laid. ⚙ In the desert the devil offers a Messiah whose foot no stone may bruise; the reading those two texts carry is of a Messiah who is himself the stone struck against. The Verifier records the shared lexemes and nothing more; the identification and the irony are our own reading and we mark them as such.

Romans 9:32 · 1 Peter 2:8

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4350 proskoptō (in 8 vv, rare) together with G3037 lithos (in 54 vv), linking Luke 4:11 with Romans 9:32 and 1 Peter 2:8. All three refs are Greek New Testament texts, so a verbal tier is legitimate. The recorded basis is the shared rare lexeme pair only; the reversal of roles between the two stones is our own reading and carries no quotation claim.

συντελέω: God completes the days, the enemy completes his darts verbal / quotation: confirmed

The rare verb συντελέω (G4931, found by the Verifier in only six verses) frames this unit: passive at v. 2 of the days being brought to completion, active at v. 13 of the devil having finished every temptation. Elsewhere in the canon it marks the end of an appointed span: the disciples' question about when all these things will be completed (Mark 13:4), the days coming when God will make a new covenant (Hebrews 8:8), the word the Lord will complete upon the earth (Romans 9:28). ⚙ Luke seems to be using a word of eschatological completion for both ends of a single ordeal.

Mark 13:4 · Hebrews 8:8 · Romans 9:28

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4931 synteleō, rare at only six verses in the canon, linking Luke 4:2 and Luke 4:13 with Mark 13:4 (also sharing G4219 pote, in 40 vv), Hebrews 8:8 and Romans 9:28. All refs are Greek New Testament texts, so a verbal tier is legitimate. No quotation is claimed between them; the basis is the shared rare lexeme.

Shown a land, and asked to take it another way typological

A man is taken up, shown the extent of a kingdom in a single sweep, and does not enter it. That happened once before, at Deuteronomy 34:1 to 4, when the LORD showed Moses the whole land from Nebo and told him he would not cross over. And the nations are already the subject of a promise: Psalm 2:8, where the Father says to the Son, ask of Me and I will make the nations Your inheritance. The Pulpit Commentary reads the ambition in exactly those terms, "this desire to have the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth as his possession," and calls it in Jesus "a high, pure, sinless ambition." ⚙ On that reading the offer is a forgery of a promise the Son already holds, and its only real content is the route.

Deuteronomy 34:1-4 · Psalm 2:8

basis: A figural reading: the showing of all the kingdoms from a height set against Moses shown the land from Nebo, and the offer of the nations set against the Father's grant of the nations to the Son in Psalm 2:8. Cross-Testament, Greek against Hebrew, so no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed and the link can never be tiered verbal. Attestation is mixed: the Psalm 2 background to the Messiah's claim on the nations is ancient and widely held, and the Pulpit Commentary states it here in substance; the specific pairing with Deuteronomy 34 is our own and should be treated as novel.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Son who answers as man where the son called out of Egypt failed ancient/widely-held

⚙ The tempter's opening and closing gambit is "If You are the Son of God," and the reply each time refuses to argue from that title. Maclaren sees the refusal as the point: to work the miracle for Himself "would be to shake off for His own sake the human conditions which He had taken for our sakes, and to seek to cease to be Son of man in acting as Son of God." The three answers come out of Deuteronomy 6 to 8, the chapters where Moses interprets the years when Israel, God's firstborn son, was proved in the desert and broke. Hunger and manna, the calf, the quarrel at Massah: the assaults fall on exactly those three points, and the answers come from the book that records them. Henry states the consequence: "Our victorious Redeemer conquered, not for himself only, but for us also." Cambridge quotes Augustine to the same end, that "Christ conquered the tempter, that the Christian may not be conquered by the tempter."

Deuteronomy 8:2-3 · Deuteronomy 6:13 · Deuteronomy 6:16 · Hebrews 4:15

Binding the strong man before spoiling his house ancient/widely-held

⚙ Luke places this ordeal between the baptism and the first public word, so that the ministry of casting out begins only after a private engagement with the one who is cast out. Maclaren puts it in the Lord's own later idiom: He "must 'first bind the strong man' if He is afterwards 'to spoil his house.'" Henry reads the departure at v. 13 through Genesis 3:15: Satan returns not as tempter, striking at the head, but as persecutor, "to bring Christ to suffer, and so to bruise his heel, which it was told him, he should have to do, and would do, though it would be the breaking of his own head." Gill, Benson and Ellicott all point the "until an opportune time" forward to Gethsemane and the hour of the power of darkness, Luke 22:53.

Genesis 3:15 · Luke 11:21-22 · Luke 22:53 · John 14:30

The kingdoms refused, and the kingdoms received ancient/widely-held

⚙ What the tempter offers is not false in substance but false in title and in route. Ellicott calls the claim "a lying boast"; Geneva allows the usurpation but denies the deed, since he holds only "by permission and request." The Son declines to receive by homage what Psalm 2:8 says is His by grant, and the Pulpit Commentary names the cost of that refusal: He would win all and more, "but it would be by a slow and painful process, by self-denial, self-sacrifice, self-surrender." Henry carries it through to the end: when the kingdoms of the world are delivered to Him by His Father, He "will not suffer any remains of the worship of the devil to continue in them." The route the Son takes instead is the one Cambridge glimpses back at v. 4, where he cites Philippians 2:6 to say that Jesus "does not consider equality with God a prize at which to grasp" but takes up instead the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Psalm 2:8 · Philippians 2:6-11 · Revelation 11:15

The clause the tempter dropped, kept by the one he tempted novel

⚙ This reading is ours and we mark it novel. Psalm 91 promises angelic guard to the man who keeps to his ways, and the clause the citation in Luke lacks is "to guard you in all your ways." Cambridge treats the omission as deliberate and fatal to the tempter's argument; Gill reviews the evidence and doubts the omission was the tempter's doing at all, so the ground is genuinely contested. What is not contested is the outcome: the one asked to claim the promise off the path refuses, and keeps the path. Matthew records that when the devil left, angels came and ministered, which is the promise arriving on its own terms rather than on demand. Cambridge notes that the next verse of the same Psalm speaks of treading on the lion and the adder, and reads the temptation itself as that treading.

Psalm 91:11-13 · Matthew 4:11 · Hebrews 5:8

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (c. 1905)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. The Greek here is the Berean interlinear with Strong's numbering; the English is the BSB. Three places in this unit carry textual questions that the sources themselves raise. At Luke 4:4 the clause "but by every word of God" is reported by Cambridge as "probably added in this place from Matthew 4:4, since they are omitted by Aleph, B, D, L, and various versions." At Luke 4:5 Cambridge judges that "the devil" and "into a high mountain" are likewise imported from Matthew; the interlinear before us has neither phrase, and the BSB's "to a high place" is supplied. At Luke 4:8 Gill notes that "get thee behind me, Satan" is absent from the Vulgate, Syriac, Persic and Ethiopic and from three of Beza's copies, and Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary both delete it from Luke as an addition from Matthew 4:10; the interlinear before us does not contain it.

Order of the temptations. Luke's second and third assaults stand in the reverse order from Matthew's. Benson, Gill and Cambridge all argue that Matthew preserves the historical sequence, on the grounds that only Matthew uses notes of sequence and that his order ends with the dismissal of Satan. Cambridge suggests Luke reordered because he judged spiritual pride the subtler temptation. We report the argument; we do not adjudicate it, and nothing in our reading depends on which order is original.

The omitted clause of Psalm 91. Our thread on Psalm 91:11-12 records a real disagreement in the sources rather than a settled fact. Cambridge, following Jerome, treats the missing "in all thy ways" as the tempter's deliberate excision. Gill reports that tradition, then argues against it from rabbinic citation practice and from the differences between Matthew and Luke, concluding that it is not clear to him what, if anything, was left out by the tempter as against the evangelists. Both are in the brief and both are in the thread.

Nature of the event. Whether the tempter appeared bodily, and whether Jesus was physically transported, is not decided by Luke's words. Gill takes the appearance as visible and audible and the transport as real. Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary, with the moderns the latter names, take the whole transaction as occurring in the spiritual region of Christ's life, no less real for that. Maclaren declines the question: "It is useless to discuss whether the tempter appeared in visible form, or carried Jesus from place to place." Our synthesis follows Maclaren and leaves it open.

Cross-Testament links. Every Old Testament citation in this unit, including the devil's, is a formal quotation, but no thread pairing this Greek text with a Hebrew one is tiered verbal. Shared Strong's numbers cannot be computed across the two languages, so the Verifier can record no verbal basis for such a pair, and the tier is structural or typological with the reason stated in each basis. Only the Greek to Greek links (G1598 ekpeirazō, G4931 synteleō, G4350 proskoptō with G3037 lithos) carry a verbal tier, and each of those rests on a rare shared lexeme with the frequency recorded.

Limits. Maclaren's entry and the Pulpit Commentary's entry on v. 1 are capped in the brief and we have quoted only from what is shown. One voice, the Pulpit Commentary at v. 7, is itself quoting Dr Morrison's imagined speech for the tempter rather than translating Luke, and is marked as such in its editorial note. The machine layer in this unit is marked with ⚙ and is fallible throughout; where our reading goes beyond what a source states, the basis or the attestation says so.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)