The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew4:1–11

The Temptation of Jesus

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Matthew 4:1–11 — 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 was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tote ho Iēsous anēchthē hypo tou Pneumatos eis tēn erēmon peirasthēnai hypo tou diabolou

Word by word14 · parsed
ΤότεToteThenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
τότε: then Matthew's favorite hinge adverb (it opens vv. 1, 5, 10 and 11 of this unit). JFB calls it "an indefinite note of sequence," and fixes the sense from Mark: immediately after the baptism.
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀνήχθηanēchthēwas ledG321
√ ἀνάγω — to lead upVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
ἀνάγω: to lead up (Aorist Passive) A passive, aorist, single decisive act: the Son is conducted upward out of the Jordan basin into desolation. The passive is theologically load-bearing, because it puts the initiative for the temptation on God's side of the ledger before the devil ever speaks. Benson reads it as "a strong impulse of the Spirit of God, of which he was full," and Barnes insists "It was not done by presumption on the part of Jesus."
ὑπὸhypobyG5259
√ ὑπό — under, iPreposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
ΠνεύματοςPneumatosSpiritG4151
√ πνεῦμα — a current of air, iNounGenitive Neuter Singular
πνεῦμα: breath, wind, Spirit The same Spirit who descended at the baptism (Matthew 3:16) now drives the beloved Son into a place with no bread. Cambridge records that "The agency of the Spirit of God is named in each of the Synoptists," and Pulpit states the limit carefully: "The Holy Spirit cannot, indeed, tempt, but he can and does lead us into circumstances where temptation is permitted."
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ἔρημονerēmonwildernessG2048
√ ἔρημος — desert, desolate, solitary, wildernessAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
ἔρημος: desert, desolate, solitary Not a neutral landscape but the canonical place of testing: Israel's forty years, Elijah's flight, John's preaching. Cambridge notes the ancient assumption that "The desert unpeopled by men was thought to be the abode of demons. So Jesus meets the evil spirit in his own domains, the Stronger One coming upon the strong man who keepeth his palace."
πειρασθῆναιpeirasthēnaito be temptedG3985
√ πειράζω — to test (objectively), iVerbAorist Infinitive Passive
πειράζω: to test, try, tempt (Aorist Infinitive Passive) The verb that names this whole unit, and the hinge on which its honesty turns. Benson distinguishes the two uses without splitting the word: God tries "that our righteousness, our faith, love, patience, and every grace and virtue, may be manifested," while "the devil tempts, or tries us, in expectation of finding us insincere." One event, two intentions, and the Greek refuses to separate them.
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
διάβολος: slanderer, accuser Parsed here as an adjective used substantivally, which is exactly what the word is: an accusing one. Barnes traces the names across the canon (Satan, Beelzebub, the old Serpent, the Prince of the power of the air), and Gill notes the accusation runs both directions: "He was the accuser of God to men, and is the accuser of men to God."
2

After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai nēsteusas tesserakonta hēmeras kai tesserakonta nyktas hysteron epeinasen

Word by word9 · parsed
καὶkaivvvG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
νηστεύσαςnēsteusasAfter fastingG3522
√ νηστεύω — to abstain from food (religiously)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
νηστεύω: to abstain from food (Aorist Participle) The participle places Jesus in a named canonical company. Benson: "As Moses, the giver, and Elias, the restorer of the law, had done before." Gill adds the purpose: "so did Christ, when he was about to publish the Gospel of his grace." The forty-day fast is thus not asceticism but office, taken up at the threshold of a public work.
τεσσεράκονταtesserakontafortyG5062
√ τεσσαράκοντα — fortyAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Plural
ἡμέραςhēmerasdaysG2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounAccusative Feminine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τεσσεράκονταtesserakontafortyG5062
√ τεσσαράκοντα — fortyAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Plural
τεσσαράκοντα: forty Forty days here, forty years for Israel in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:2-3, the very chapter Jesus will quote in v. 4). Cambridge draws the line explicitly: "The forty years were to the Jews what the forty days are to Jesus." Pulpit passes on Trench's observation that in Scripture forty is "the number or signature of penalty, of affliction, of the confession, or the punishment, of sin."
νύκταςnyktasnightsG3571
√ νύξ — "night" (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
ὕστερονhysteronG5305
√ ὕστερον — more lately, iAdverb
ὕστερον: afterward, at last The pivot of the verse: everything before it is endurance, everything after it is assault.
ἐπείνασενepeinasenHe was hungryG3983
√ πεινάω — "pine")VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
πεινάω: to hunger The first thing Matthew records of the incarnate Son after the voice from heaven is that His body failed. Poole holds both natures together on this one verb: the fast "showed he was God man, the Divine nature supported the human; afterward he was hungry, to show that he was truly man." Pulpit, quoting Godet, describes the physiological crisis at about six weeks when "the demand for nourishment is renewed with extreme urgency": "he felt himself dying."
3

The tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai ho peirazōn proselthōn autō eipen Ei ei Huios tou Theou eipe hina houtoi hoi lithoi genōntai artoi

Word by word18 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhoTheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
πειράζωνpeirazōntempterG3985
√ πειράζω — to test (objectively), iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
πειράζω: to test, tempt (Present Participle) The article plus participle makes testing the creature's whole identity. Gill fixes the reference from 1 Thessalonians 3:5 and gives the working definition: it is "his principal work and business... to solicit men to sin; and tempt them either to deny, or call in question the being of God, arraign his perfections, murmur at his providences, and disbelieve his promises."
προσελθὼνproselthōncameG4334
√ προσέρχομαι — to approach, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
προσέρχομαι: to come to, approach Pulpit weighs the word: "The word expresses local nearness, and suggests, though we cannot affirm it as certain, that he appeared visibly." The same verb returns at v. 11 of the angels who came to Him. The unit is framed by two approaches, one to assault and one to serve.
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
εἶπενeipen[and] saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ΕἰEiIfG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
εἰ: if (first-class condition) Assumed as true for argument's sake. The subtlety is that the tempter does not deny the baptismal voice; he weaponizes it.
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
υἱός: son Matthew 3:17 said "This is My beloved Son"; here the words come back as the premise of a proposal. The same title will be flung at the cross in the same shape: "If You are the Son of God, come down" (Matthew 27:40). Pulpit notes that parallel exactly: there, "in mockery, the same truth is assumed."
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
ἵναhina. . .G2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
οὗτοιhoutoitheseG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Plural
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
λίθοιlithoistonesG3037
√ λίθος — a stone (literally or figuratively)NounNominative Masculine Plural
γένωνταιgenōntaito becomeG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Subjunctive Middle3rd Person Plural
γίνομαι: to come to be (Aorist Subjunctive Middle) The middle voice matters: the stones are to become, not to be manufactured. What is asked is a word of creation spoken by the Son on His own behalf and at another's prompting. Ellicott names the cost: it "would have been an act of self-assertion and distrust."
ἄρτοιartoibreadG740
√ ἄρτος — bread (as raised) or a loafNounNominative Masculine Plural
ἄρτος: bread, a loaf The plural answers the plural stones. Ellicott pictures the scene from the ground: "'These stones,' as if in union with glance and gesture, pointing to the loaf-like flints of the Jordan desert." Pulpit is more cautious about Farrar's "loaf-shaped fossils": "it seems quite unnecessary to see any allusion to them here."
4

But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Ho de apokritheis eipen Gegraptai ho anthrōpos Ouk zēsetai ep’ artō monō All’ epi panti rhēmati ekporeuomenō dia stomatos Theou

Word by word20 · parsed
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἀποκριθεὶςapokritheis[Jesus] answeredG611
√ 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
ΓέγραπταιGegraptaiIt is writtenG1125
√ γράφω — to "grave", especially to writeVerbPerfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
γράφω: to write (Perfect Passive) The perfect tense is the theology: what God has said is not past, it is in force. Every one of the Son's three answers begins here, and Henry draws the pattern out: "Christ answered all the temptations of Satan with It is written; to set us an example, he appealed to what was written in the Scriptures."
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἄνθρωποςanthrōposManG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounNominative Masculine Singular
ΟὐκOuk. . .G3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ζήσεταιzēsetaishall not liveG2198
√ ζάω — to live (literally or figuratively)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ζάω: to live (Future Indicative Middle) The future middle ζήσεται states a law of creaturely existence, not a promise to one man: this is how humanity lives. Note that Jesus answers as ὁ ἄνθρωπος, man, and not as Son: the title the tempter pressed is exactly the one He declines to use as leverage.
ἐπ’ep’onG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
ἄρτῳartōbreadG740
√ ἄρτος — bread (as raised) or a loafNounDative Masculine Singular
μόνῳmonōaloneG3441
√ μόνος — remaining, iAdjectiveDative Masculine Singular
μόνος: alone, only A small word doing the whole work of the refutation, and it returns at v. 10 ("Him only shalt thou serve"). Twice in this unit the decisive Greek word is an exclusive adjective: bread alone will not sustain, God alone will be served.
Ἀλλ’All’butG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
παντὶpantieveryG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveDative Neuter Singular
ῥήματιrhēmatiwordG4487
√ ῥῆμα — an utterance (individually, collectively or specially),NounDative Neuter Singular
ῥῆμα: utterance, spoken word The source text (Deuteronomy 8:3, LXX) grounds Israel's forty years of manna, and Cambridge notes the Hebrew omits "word" altogether, reading simply "by every thing that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD." So the reply is not about doctrine sustaining the soul (Gill explicitly sets that reading aside) but about God's provision not being tied to ordinary means.
ἐκπορευομένῳekporeuomenōthat comesG1607
√ ἐκπορεύομαι — to depart, be discharged, proceed, projectVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveDative Neuter Singular
ἐκπορεύομαι: to go out, proceed (Present Participle) A present participle, continuous: the utterance is always proceeding from God's mouth. The manna fell daily; the word does not cease. Gill reads the whole answer as "his strong faith and confidence in God, that he was able to support him, and would do it, though in a wilderness, and destitute of supply."
διὰdiafromG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
στόματοςstomatos[the] mouthG4750
√ στόμα — the mouth (as if a gash in the face)NounGenitive Neuter Singular
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
5

Then the devil took Him to the holy city and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tote ho diabolos paralambanei auton eis tēn hagian polin kai estēsen auton epi to pterygion tou hierou

Word by word17 · parsed
ΤότεToteThenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
διάβολοςdiabolosdevilG1228
√ διάβολος — a traducerAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
παραλαμβάνειparalambaneitookG3880
√ παραλαμβάνω — to receive near, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
παραλαμβάνω: to take along (Historic Present) The commentators split, honestly and openly, on what physically happened. Gill holds it was bodily and real, "Satan, by divine permission, and with the consent of Christ... had power over his body." Ellicott reads it as outside ordinary locomotion, on the analogy of Ezekiel. Barnes denies any bearing through the air at all. The Greek verb itself settles none of this; it says only that Jesus was taken along.
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
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ἁγίανhagianholyG40
√ ἅγιος — sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated)AdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
ἅγιος: holy, set apart Matthew calls Jerusalem holy at the precise moment the devil arrives there with the Son in tow. Henry draws the pastoral edge: "Satan has no objection to holy places as the scene of his assaults."
πόλινpolincityG4172
√ πόλις — a town (properly, with walls, of greater or less size)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔστησενestēsensetG2476
√ ἵστημι — to stand (transitively or intransitively), used in various applications (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἵστημι: to cause to stand (Aorist Active) The one aorist among the presents; the placing is finished and the height is now a fact to be argued from.
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
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
πτερύγιον: a winglet, a wing-like projection A rare word (the Verifier finds it in only two verses in the Greek canon, here and Luke 4:9), which is why it is so strong a marker of the shared tradition behind Matthew and Luke. Which projection is meant is not recoverable: Barnes argues for the southern portico, JFB and Cambridge for Herod's Royal Porch above the Kidron, Pulpit lists three options and declines to choose, citing Josephus that "human sight could not reach from the top of it to the bottom of the ravine."
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
ἱερόν: sacred place, temple precinct ἱερόν is the whole temple complex, not the ναός (sanctuary proper). Pulpit records that Hegesippus, in Eusebius, uses both words of the place from which James the Just was thrown, which is why Ellicott and Gill both mention that later event here.
6

“If You are the Son of God,” he said, “throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Ei ei Huios tou Theou kai legei autō bale seauton katō gar gegraptai enteleitai hoti Tois autou angelois peri sou kai se arousin epi cheirōn mē pote proskopsēs ton sou poda pros lithon

Word by word33 · parsed
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
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
λέγειlegeihe saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent 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
βάλλω: to throw, hurl (Aorist Imperative) An imperative addressed to the Son of God by the accuser. Poole sees in it the oldest of the enemy's fiery darts: "a temptation, in effect, to destroy himself; which is one of those... which he commonly throws at the people of God in their hours of melancholy."
σεαυτὸνseautonYourselfG4572
√ σεαυτοῦ — of (with, to) thyselfPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 2nd Person Singular
κάτωkatōdownG2736
√ κάτω — downwardsAdverb
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
γράφω: to write (Perfect Passive) Scripture quoted by the devil is still Scripture; what is corrupt is the use. Gill grants the citation is not even misapplied as to its subject ("it does not appear that Satan was wrong in the application of this passage to Christ") and locates the sin precisely in the omitted clause and in the demand that a promise for a man in his duty be claimed by a man outside it.
ἐντελεῖταιenteleitaiHe will commandG1781
√ ἐντέλλομαι — to enjoinVerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ΤοῖςToisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
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
ἀγγέλοιςangeloisangelsG32
√ ἄγγελος — compare G34 (ἀγέλη)) (to bring tidings)NounDative Masculine Plural
ἄγγελος: messenger, angel The angels the tempter offers as a proof-on-demand in v. 6 are the same angels who arrive unrequested in v. 11. Ellicott makes that the moral of the whole episode: the ministry comes "as the reward of the abnegation which refused to make their ministry the subject of an experimental test."
περὶpericoncerningG4012
√ περί — properly, through (all over), iPreposition
σοῦsouYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
σεsevvvG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Singular
ἀροῦσίνarousinthey will lift You upG142
√ αἴρω — to lift upVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ἐπὶepiinG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
χειρῶνcheirōn[their] handsG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounGenitive Feminine Plural
μή‿mēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ποτεpotevvvG4219
√ πότε — interrogative adverb, at what timeConjunction
προσκόψῃςproskopsēsso that You will not strikeG4350
√ προσκόπτω — to strike at, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Singular
προσκόπτω: to strike against, stumble A rare verb (the Verifier finds it in only 8 verses), and its rarity gives this unit one of its strongest Greek-to-Greek links: the same verb and the same λίθος appear in Romans 9:32 and 1 Peter 2:8, where Christ Himself is the stone men strike against. Here the promise is that no stone will bruise His foot; there, He is the stone.
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
σουsouYourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
πόδαpodafootG4228
√ πούς — a "foot" (figuratively or literally)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
πρὸςprosagainstG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
λίθονlithona stoneG3037
√ λίθος — a stone (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
λίθος: stone Third mention of stones in the unit: stones to be made bread (v. 3), a stone that shall not bruise the foot (here). The wilderness gives the tempter his props, and both times he asks the Son to use a promise of God as a lever.
7

Jesus replied, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Iēsous Ephē autō ho Palin gegraptai ekpeiraseis Ouk Kyrion ton sou Theon

Word by word12 · parsed
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἜφηEphērepliedG5346
√ φημί — to show or make known one's thoughts, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
φημί: to declare, make known (Imperfect) The only imperfect of speaking in the unit; Matthew slows the pace for the answer that refuses the sign.
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
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΠάλινPalinvvvG3825
√ πάλιν — (adverbially) anew, iAdverb
πάλιν: again, in turn The hinge of the whole hermeneutic on display here. One text of Scripture may not be set against another. Pulpit quotes Article XX: the Church may not "so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another."
γέγραπταιgegraptaiIt is also writtenG1125
√ γράφω — to "grave", especially to writeVerbPerfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
γράφω: to write (Perfect Passive) Third occurrence of the standing perfect, and the second from Jesus' mouth. He never argues; He cites.
ἐκπειράσειςekpeiraseisDo not putG1598
√ ἐκπειράζω — to test thoroughlyVerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
ἐκπειράζω: to test thoroughly, put to the proof The compound raises the stakes over the simple verb: this is not being tried, it is putting God on trial. Cambridge supplies the historical anchor the quotation truncates: Deuteronomy 6:16 continues "as ye tempted him in Massah," and Ellicott explains what Massah was, that "the sin of the people had been that they questioned the presence of God with them until they saw a supernatural proof of it." The rarity of this verb (4 verses) makes it the most distinctive lexeme in the verse.
ΟὐκOuk. . .G3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ΚύριονKyrion[the] LordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
κύριος: lord, supreme in authority In the Greek Old Testament this word stands for the covenant Name; the prohibition is therefore not generic piety but covenant loyalty, and the reply lands squarely where the tempter had pitched his offer.
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
ΘεόνTheonGod {to the test}G2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounAccusative Masculine Singular
8

Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Palin ho diabolos paralambanei auton eis lian hypsēlon oros kai deiknysin autō pasas tas basileias tou kosmou kai tēn autōn doxan

Word by word21 · parsed
ΠάλινPalinAgainG3825
√ πάλιν — (adverbially) anew, iAdverb
πάλιν: again Matthew marks the third assault with the same adverb Jesus had used in v. 7 to bring in a second Scripture. The word that served the Son now serves the narrative of the enemy's persistence.
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
διάβολοςdiabolosdevilG1228
√ διάβολος — a traducerAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
παραλαμβάνειparalambaneitookG3880
√ παραλαμβάνω — to receive near, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
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
λίανliana veryG3029
√ λίαν — much (adverbially)Adverb
ὑψηλὸνhypsēlonhighG5308
√ ὑψηλός — lofty (in place or character)AdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
ὄροςorosmountainG3735
√ ὄρος — perhaps akin to G142 (αἴρω)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
ὄρος: mountain In Matthew the mountain is a place of revelation and authority: the sermon (5:1), the transfiguration (17:1), and finally 28:16-18, where the risen Son says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. Pulpit makes that connection explicit here, noting that the Lord finally received "more than (note 'in heaven') what the devil would have given him as a reward of obedience to false principles."
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
δείκνυσινdeiknysinshowedG1166
√ δεικνύω — to show (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent 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
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
βασιλεία: royalty, kingdom, reign This is the word that will dominate the rest of Matthew's Gospel, "the kingdom of heaven." The offer is a kingdom now, whole, without a cross, on one condition. The Son will preach a different βασιλεία beginning at 4:17, immediately after this unit closes.
τοῦtouof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
κόσμουkosmouworldG2889
√ κόσμος — orderly arrangement, iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
κόσμος: orderly arrangement, world The lexicon's root sense, order, is what is being offered: not chaos but a running system, already organised, and (on the tempter's telling in Luke 4:6) already delivered to him. Ellicott grants a partial truth to the claim, citing John 12:31 and Ephesians 6:12, "the world-rulers of darkness."
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
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
δόξανdoxangloryG1391
√ δόξα — glory (as very apparent), in a wide application (literal or figurative, objective or subjective)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
δόξα: glory, apparent splendour The counterfeit of the glory the Son had with the Father. Gill judges the whole display a permitted illusion: "there is no mountain in the world, from whence can be beheld anyone kingdom, much less all the kingdoms of the world." Benson allows a mixed account, part real prospect, part "artful visionary representation."
9

“All this I will give You,” he said, “if You will fall down and worship me.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

panta Tauta dōsō soi kai eipen autō ean pesōn proskynēsēs moi

Word by word11 · parsed
πάνταpantaAllG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
πᾶς: all, every, the whole Placed first for effect. The totality offered here is answered in v. 10 by a different totality: not all things given, but one Lord served.
ΤαῦτάTautathisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Neuter Plural
δώσωdōsōI will giveG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbFuture Indicative Active1st Person Singular
δίδωμι: to give (Future Active) Luke's fuller form adds the ground of the claim, "for it has been delivered to me, and to whomsoever I will I give it." JFB weighs whether any of that is true and answers carefully: Christ Himself calls him "the prince of this world" (John 12:31), Paul "the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4), and Hebrews 2:14 grants him "the power of death." So "he speaks what is not devoid of truth." Gill grants nothing. The sources genuinely differ.
σοιsoiYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person 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
ἐὰνeanifG1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
ἐάν: if (third-class condition) An open condition, not an assumed one: the grammar itself concedes that the homage is exactly what is not yet given.
πεσὼνpesōnYou will fall downG4098
√ πίπτω — to fall (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
πίπτω: to fall The posture demanded is the one Scripture reserves; Pulpit lists the ordinary human uses (Genesis 23:7; 1 Samuel 20:41; 2 Samuel 9:6) to argue the request was for vassalage rather than divine honours.
προσκυνήσῃςproskynēsēs[and] worshipG4352
√ προσκυνέω — to fawn or crouch to, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Singular
προσκυνέω: to prostrate, do obeisance The pivot word of the third assault, and it returns unchanged in the Son's answer at v. 10 as a future indicative quoted from Deuteronomy 6:13. Whatever the tempter meant by it, Jesus answers by citing the one text that fixes its only lawful object. Poole draws a hard Reformation consequence from the word: "if to worship before the devil be to worship the devil, worshipping before an image... must be worshipping the image."
μοιmoimeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Singular
10

“Away from Me, Satan!” Jesus told him. “For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Hypage Satana Tote Iēsous legei autō ho gar gegraptai proskynēseis Kyrion ton sou theon kai latreuseis autō monō

Word by word18 · parsed
ὝπαγεHypageAway from MeG5217
√ ὑπάγω — to lead (oneself) under, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ὑπάγω: to withdraw, go away (Present Imperative) The only command Jesus gives in this unit, and it is given to a person, not about a proposal. Pulpit hears a change of register: "Christ does not address him directly till this climax... This temptation calls out a passionate utterance of a personality stirred, because touched, in its depths. Only once again do we find our Lord so moved, in Matthew 16:23."
ΣατανᾶSatanaSatanG4567
√ Σατανᾶς — the accuser, iNounVocative Masculine Singular
Σατανᾶς: the accuser, adversary The name withheld through nine verses. Barnes marks the escalation that draws it out: the earlier assaults were plausible and indirect, but this "was a proposition that the Son of God should worship the devil... that he should bow down before the Prince of wickedness and give him homage."
ΤότεToteG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
λέγειlegeitoldG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent 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
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
γάρgarForG1063
√ 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
γράφω: to write (Perfect Passive) Fourth and last occurrence. JFB: "Thus does our Lord part with Satan on the rock of Scripture."
προσκυνήσειςproskynēseisWorshipG4352
√ προσκυνέω — to fawn or crouch to, iVerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
προσκυνέω: to prostrate, do obeisance (Future Indicative) The identical verb the tempter used in v. 9, now quoted back from Deuteronomy with its lawful object supplied. The future indicative renders the Hebrew absolute prohibition, a form of command stronger than an imperative.
ΚύριονKyrion[the] LordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
θεόνtheonGodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounAccusative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
λατρεύσειςlatreuseisserveG3000
√ λατρεύω — to minister (to God), iVerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
λατρεύω: to render religious service A cultic word, not a domestic one; it names the service of a worshipper, not a servant. Its presence is why Benson can argue from this verse to the deity of Christ (since Christians are told to serve the Lord Christ, Colossians 3:24) and why he rejects the compromise that a lesser religious honour might be paid to a creature.
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
μόνος: alone, only The second exclusive adjective in the Son's answers (compare v. 4, bread alone). Both times the decisive word is a limit: bread is not enough, and God will not share.
11

Then the devil left Him, and angels came and ministered to Him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tote ho diabolos aphiēsin auton kai idou angeloi prosēlthon kai diēkonoun autō

Word by word12 · parsed
ΤότεToteThenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
διάβολοςdiabolosdevilG1228
√ διάβολος — a traducerAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἀφίησινaphiēsinleftG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἀφίημι: to send away, let go The subject is still the devil: he is the one who leaves. Poole reads the sequence as law for the tempted: "as he did not flee from Christ till commanded away, so neither till commanded off by God doth he leave the people of God; but upon our resistance God will command him off, that we may not be tempted above our strength." The cross-reference he has in view is James 4:7.
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
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἰδοὺidouG2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ἰδού: behold, see A hinge, not a detail. Everything before it in this unit is deprivation and assault; everything after it is provision.
ἄγγελοιangeloiangelsG32
√ ἄγγελος — compare G34 (ἀγέλη)) (to bring tidings)NounNominative Masculine Plural
ἄγγελος: messenger, angel These are the angels of v. 6, the ones the tempter proposed be summoned by a jump. Ellicott presses the irony into a principle and then notes a second one: this "explains the words recorded by St John (John 1:51) as uttered but a few days later, and which speak of 'the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.'"
προσῆλθονprosēlthoncameG4334
√ προσέρχομαι — to approach, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
διηκόνουνdiēkonounministeredG1247
√ διακονέω — to be an attendant, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
διακονέω: to attend, serve, wait upon (Imperfect) The imperfect makes the ministry ongoing rather than a single act. JFB and Gill both take it of food in the first instance, comparing 1 Kings 19:5-8 where an angel fed Elijah after his own forty days; Pulpit argues bodily sustenance "is but secondary to spiritual, the latter must at least be included," citing Hebrews 1:14 and Luke 22:43. ⚙ That He is fed at the end, by ministry He refused to demand at the height, is the quiet answer to the first temptation as well as the second.
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

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. Led up: the Spirit's errand into the enemy's ground — 4:1-2

⚙ Matthew's first verb about the tested Son is a passive: ἀνήχθη, He was led up. The initiative is not the devil's and not even, in the grammar, the Son's. JFB weighs the three accounts and finds the same fact under different pressure: Mark's word "driveth Him... putteth, or hurrieth Him forth," against "Matthew's more gentle expression, was led up," which "intimates how purely voluntary on His own part this action was." Pulpit draws the doctrinal line that keeps this from becoming blasphemy: "The Holy Spirit cannot, indeed, tempt, but he can and does lead us into circumstances where temptation is permitted." Benson keeps the one Greek verb from splitting in two: πειράζω "is to try," and the difference between God's trying and the devil's lies in the intention, not the word. Cambridge adds the geography of the demonic imagination: "The desert unpeopled by men was thought to be the abode of demons. So Jesus meets the evil spirit in his own domains." Then Matthew spends one verse on forty days and lands the whole weight on a single ingressive aorist, ἐπείνασεν, He came to hunger. Poole holds the two natures on that verb: the fast "showed he was God man, the Divine nature supported the human; afterward he was hungry, to show that he was truly man."

ii. Bread: the first answer, spoken as man and not as Son — 4:3-4

⚙ The accuser opens with the last word God spoke: Son of God (Matthew 3:17). The conditional is first-class, and Pulpit names it "the if of assumption": "The devil does not attempt to throw doubt on the truth of the utterance in Matthew 3:17." Gill allows the alternative, that it is "either doubting of his divine sonship, calling it in question," and we leave the two readings standing side by side. What is not in doubt is the answer's shape. Jesus replies with the perfect Γέγραπται, it stands written, and then quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 not as the Son but as ὁ ἄνθρωπος, man. Cambridge sets the two tests of sonship against each other in one sentence: obedience and trust on one side, "supply of bodily wants, external prosperity" on the other. Pulpit, with Trench, locates the force in the noun: "The creative word, the ῥῆμα Θεοῦ, which alone imparts to the bread its sustaining power, can sustain... apart from the bread." Barnes insists the Deuteronomy sense is plain and not mystical: God is not bound to bread. Benson states the method the Son will use three times over: "There is no better way of answering the tempter, than by opposing the word of God to his temptations."

iii. The winglet: Scripture turned into a lever, and refused — 4:5-7

⚙ Having felt the edge of the written word, the accuser picks it up. JFB quotes Bishop Hall's astonished line, "Satan himself with a Bible under his arm and a text in his mouth!" and explains the move: the tempter "was eager to try the effect of it from his own mouth." He quotes Psalm 91:11-12 in the Greek of the Psalter, and leaves out four words, to keep thee in all thy ways. Cambridge judges that "The omission distorts the meaning of the original." Benson, Henry and Poole agree; JFB and Pulpit think the sense survives intact, since Jesus answers the principle rather than the gap. Gill puts the fault precisely where it belongs: the passage was not even misapplied as to its subject, but was urged "to countenance actions which are out of the way of a man's calling." The answer is one word plus one text. Πάλιν, again, which Pulpit reads as aimed "not to our Lord's previous quotation... but to the devil's appeal to Scripture," citing Bengel: Scripture is interpreted and harmonised by Scripture. Then Deuteronomy 6:16, with its rare compound ἐκπειράσεις, you shall not put utterly to the proof. Ellicott supplies what the quotation leaves unsaid, that at Massah "the sin of the people had been that they questioned the presence of God with them until they saw a supernatural proof of it." The Son will not audit His Father.

iv. The kingdoms: the mask off, and one exclusive word — 4:8-10

⚙ The third approach drops the title "Son of God" and drops Scripture with it. JFB reads the silence as tell-tale: "No Scripture, it will be observed, is quoted now, because none could be found to support so blasphemous a claim... Despairing of success as an angel of light, he throws off all disguise." Ellicott names the change of target: "the temptation is no longer addressed to the sense of Sonship, but to the love of power." How much truth lies under the offer is disputed in the sources. Ellicott grants a partial claim (John 12:31; Ephesians 6:12), JFB grants it with the same texts plus Hebrews 2:14, Gill grants it nothing at all: "this poor, proud, wretched creature... has not the disposal, at his pleasure, of anyone single thing." Pulpit reads the demanded προσκυνήσῃς as "acknowledge my rights as over-lord" rather than "worship me as God." Benson takes the harder line, that the devil "claims, therefore, only a subordinate worship; and yet our Lord rejects his claim... on the ground of God only having a right to any kind of religious worship." The refusal is an imperative and a name: Ὕπαγε, Σατανᾶ. Matthew has withheld that name for ten verses. And the text He cites carries the same exclusive adjective that carried v. 4: μόνῳ, only. Bread alone will not do; God alone will be served.

v. The angels: the ministry He would not demand — 4:11

⚙ Two verbs close the unit, and their tenses are the point. προσῆλθον is aorist, the angels came, one act; διηκόνουν is imperfect, they kept on ministering. Ellicott hears it: "The tenses of the two verbs differ, the latter implying continued or repeated ministrations." And the irony is exact. In v. 6 the angels were offered as a proof to be extracted from God by jumping; here they arrive unbidden. Ellicott states the principle: their help "comes as the reward of the abnegation which refused to make their ministry the subject of an experimental test." Poole draws it out for the reader at the low end of the same conflict: "as he did not flee from Christ till commanded away, so neither till commanded off by God doth he leave the people of God." Luke adds "for a season," and both Gill and Ellicott refuse to let the victory be read as final peace: the accuser returns, at Caesarea Philippi through Peter's mouth (Matthew 16:23, the same "Get thee behind me, Satan"), and at the end, in the hour and power of darkness.

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

⚙ Offered as the tool's own fallible reading, to be tested against the text. Three times the Son is invited to use something true. The baptismal voice is true; the psalm is true; the world's kingdoms really are, in some permitted sense, under the accuser's administration. Nothing offered here is a lie outright, which is why the temptation is dangerous and why Poole calls Scripture misapplied the most dangerous hook of all. What is refused each time is not a falsehood but a short way: bread without waiting, proof without trust, a kingdom without a cross. And the answers are all of one kind. He does not argue, does not display power, does not once invoke the title the enemy keeps pressing on Him. He stands on three sentences from a single book, two of them from the chapters a Jewish child learned first, and He answers as man. If that is right, then the deepest thing in this unit is not that Jesus was strong but that He was obedient, and that the obedience was exercised in the one place where Israel's had failed, the wilderness, on the same rations, with the same texts. The forty days answer the forty years. And the last word belongs to the Father, not the Son: the angels He would not summon come anyway, and stay. That is the pattern the whole Gospel will follow, all the way to a garden where twelve legions were available and not called.

Every offer was a shortcut around the Father's timing, and He answered all three with the same book. (⚙ synthesis, not Scripture.)

⚙

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.

The winglet of the temple: a word found in two verses only verbal / quotation: confirmed

The Verifier's strongest link out of this unit is lexical and unmistakable: πτερύγιον (G4419), the "little wing" of Matthew 4:5, occurs in only two verses of the Greek New Testament, here and at Luke 4:9. Cambridge notes the same rarity from the other side, that the word is "lit. 'a little wing,' an architectural term for a wing-like projection," and both Evangelists use the article, the winglet, as of a known feature. Pulpit observes that the aorist ἔστησεν here matches Luke's form exactly and is "probably a trace of the basis common to the two records." Luke's order of the second and third temptations differs from Matthew's, and the sources argue about which is original (JFB, Pulpit and Ellicott all defend Matthew; Godet and, by Pulpit's report, Ellicott elsewhere, favour Luke). The shared rare vocabulary does not settle the order; it does establish that the two accounts stand on one tradition.

Luke 4:9 · Luke 4:2

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4419 πτερύγιον, which occurs in only 2 verses in the canon, plus G5207 υἱός and G2476 ἵστημι (Luke 4:9); Luke 4:2 shares G3985 πειράζω (34 vv) and G1228 διάβολος (35 vv). Greek to Greek, both New Testament, so a verbal tier can be scored.

The stone that shall not bruise His foot, and the stone men strike structural / thematic: confirmed

The tempter's citation ends with a rare verb: προσκόψῃς (G4350, "to strike against, to stumble"), found in only eight verses, paired with λίθον (G3037). The Verifier finds the same rare pair at Romans 9:32 and 1 Peter 2:8, and there the terms have changed places: it is no longer a stone that might bruise the Messiah's foot but the Messiah who is the stone men stumble over. ⚙ Neither Paul nor Peter is quoting Matthew, and neither passage is quoting Psalm 91; the shared vocabulary is real, the inversion is ours to observe and not the commentators', so read it as a lexical observation that opens a motif, not as an argument either apostle makes. The verbal link itself is verifiable; the irony drawn from it is synthesis.

Romans 9:32 · 1 Peter 2:8 · Luke 4:11

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4350 προσκόπτω (rare, in 8 vv) with G3037 λίθος (54 vv) at Romans 9:32, 1 Peter 2:8 and Luke 4:11, all New Testament, Greek to Greek. Deliberately NOT tiered verbal despite the rare lexeme: neither Paul nor Peter quotes this verse or Psalm 91 (both cite Isaiah 8:14), so the shared rare pair is a genuine lexical link inside a stone-and-stumbling motif, not a quotation relation. The theological inversion is marked ⚙ synthesis in the body.

"You shall not put Him thoroughly to the proof": a four-verse verb verbal / quotation: confirmed

ἐκπειράζω (G1598), the intensified compound Jesus uses in v. 7, is not the ordinary πειράζω of vv. 1 and 3. It appears in only four verses of the Greek canon. Two of them are the Lukan parallel to this very answer (Luke 4:12) and the lawyer who stood up "testing" Jesus at Luke 10:25, where the same compound describes a man putting the Son of God on trial. ⚙ The unit therefore contains both halves of the verb's canonical range: the command not to test God, and the practice of testing Him. Gill notes on v. 7 that in Hebrew usage the corresponding verb "is always taken in an ill part... of such who would try the power, goodness, or will of God."

Luke 4:12 · Luke 10:25

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1598 ἐκπειράζω, rare at 4 verses in the canon (Luke 4:12 also shares G611 ἀποκρίνομαι, Luke 10:25 also G2400 ἰδού). New Testament to New Testament.

Three answers from two chapters of Deuteronomy structural / thematic: confirmed

Every one of the Son's replies comes from Deuteronomy, and from a narrow band of it: 8:3, then 6:16, then 6:13. Ellicott notes what that band was in Jewish practice: Deuteronomy 6:4-9 supplied "one of the passages... for the phylacteries or frontlets worn by devout Jews," so "The words which our Lord now uses had, we must believe, been familiar to Him from His childhood." Pulpit says the same of the Shema portions being "the first part of Scripture taught a Jewish child." Cambridge sets the chapter's own frame over the scene: Deuteronomy 8 "sets forth the teaching of the wilderness. The forty years were to the Jews what the forty days are to Jesus." The quotations are explicit and verbatim from the Septuagint (Pulpit checks each one, noting that at 6:13 the LXX has προσκυνήσεις where the Hebrew has "fear," and adds "only"). But the tier cannot be verbal: a Greek to Hebrew pairing shares no Strong's lexicon, so the Verifier cannot score a shared lexeme across the Testaments. The citation is certain; the badge is honest about what can be computed.

Deuteronomy 8:3 · Deuteronomy 6:16 · Deuteronomy 6:13

basis: Explicit, verbatim citation of the Septuagint of Deuteronomy 8:3; 6:16; 6:13, recorded by Ellicott, Barnes, JFB, Poole, Gill, Cambridge and Pulpit alike. Cross-Testament (Greek New Testament to Hebrew Old Testament), so no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed and no verbal tier may be scored, despite the quotation being explicit.

Psalm 91 quoted with four words missing structural / thematic: confirmed

Matthew 4:6 reproduces Psalm 91:11-12 in the Septuagint's own wording, minus the clause to keep thee in all thy ways. JFB confirms the textual state: "The quotation is, precisely as it stands in the Hebrew and the Septuagint, save that after the first clause the words, 'to keep thee in all thy ways,' are here omitted." Luke, as Pulpit notes, omits only "in all thy ways." What the omission means is genuinely contested in the sources. Cambridge: "The omission distorts the meaning of the original." Benson, Poole and Henry concur, Henry flatly: "Satan misquoted the words." JFB and Pulpit dissent, JFB holding "the sense of it is precisely the same whether the clause in question be inserted or not," and Pulpit judging Trench's reading "strained." Cambridge adds that "The Psalmist himself probably quotes Proverbs 3:23." As with the Deuteronomy answers, this is a Greek New Testament text citing a Hebrew psalm, so no verbal tier is available here.

Psalm 91:11-12 · Proverbs 3:23

basis: Explicit citation of Psalm 91:11-12 (LXX wording, one clause omitted), attested as such by JFB, Cambridge, Benson, Poole, Henry and Pulpit. The Proverbs 3:23 link is Cambridge's own suggestion about the Psalmist's source, not a claim of this unit. Cross-Testament, so shared Strong's lexemes cannot be computed and the verbal tier is unavailable.

Forty years, forty days: Israel tried in the wilderness typological

The shape of the unit tracks Israel's wilderness generation, and the sources say so before we do. Cambridge reads Jesus tempted "As the Son of Abraham following the fortunes of his race, tempted in the wilderness as the Hebrews were tempted. A thought present implicitly in our Lord's answers." JFB develops the whole first reply as an argument from Israel's case: "if Israel spent, not forty days, but forty years in a waste, howling wilderness... on purpose to prove to every age that human support depends not upon bread, but upon God's unfailing word." The three texts quoted all come from Moses' rehearsal of that very failure, and the sin named at Deuteronomy 6:16 is Massah, where the people demanded proof (Exodus 17:1-7). ⚙ Where Israel murmured for bread, demanded a sign, and turned to a golden calf, the Son answers hunger, height and empire from the book that records those three failures. That reading is figural and ancient, but the badge stays typological rather than verbal because it is a pattern claim across two lexicons.

Deuteronomy 8:2 · Exodus 17:1-7 · Exodus 32:4

basis: Ancient and widely held: Cambridge names Jesus as "the Son of Abraham following the fortunes of his race," JFB argues the first answer from Israel's forty years, Pulpit cites Exodus 32:4 at v. 9. Figural correspondence between Israel's forty years and the Son's forty days, not a verbal link; cross-Testament, so no shared lexeme is computable.

"Let us not test Christ": Paul on the same wilderness structural / thematic: confirmed

1 Corinthians 10:9 warns the church not to do the thing Deuteronomy 6:16 forbade and Matthew 4:7 quotes, and it sets the warning in the wilderness narrative Paul has been rehearsing since 10:1. The Verifier records the shared Greek root G3985 πειράζω between that verse and this unit. ⚙ The lexeme is not rare (34 verses), and Paul does not quote Matthew, so the link is a shared root inside a shared wilderness motif rather than a citation. We tier it structural on that basis and claim nothing more: it shows that the apostolic church read Israel's testing in the desert as the standing warning it also is in this unit.

1 Corinthians 10:9

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G3985 πειράζω (34 vv, not rare) with G5259 ὑπό (200 vv). Both New Testament, so a verbal tier is technically permitted, but the lexeme is too common to carry one; downgraded to structural, with the shared wilderness-testing motif as the real basis.

"The devil" and "tested ten days": the accuser named across the canon structural / thematic: confirmed

The title Matthew uses four times in this unit, διάβολος (G1228, in 35 verses), reappears at Revelation 12:9 ("that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan") and Revelation 2:10, where the same accuser "is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested" (G3985 πειράζω, with a span of days). Barnes gathers the canonical names at v. 1: Satan (Job 1:6-12), Beelzebub, the old Serpent (Revelation 12:9), the Prince of the power of the air. ⚙ The shared vocabulary is real but common; what it shows is that the tester of the Son and the tester of His churches are named with the same two words, and that the second is measured in days as the first was.

Revelation 12:9 · Revelation 2:10

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1228 διάβολος (35 vv) and, at Revelation 2:10, G3985 πειράζω (34 vv) and G2250 ἡμέρα (368 vv). New Testament to New Testament, but no rare lexeme, so the tier stays structural rather than verbal.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Second Adam, tried where the first was tried ancient/widely-held

Barnes states the reading plainly at v. 1: "When the first Adam was created he was subjected to the temptation of the devil, and he fell and involved the race in ruin: it was not improper that the second Adam, the Redeemer of the race, should be subjected to temptation, in order that it might be seen that there was no power that could alienate him from God." Cambridge lists it second among four: Jesus tempted "As the second Adam regaining for man what the first Adam lost for man." Gill notes at v. 3 that the tempter "might hope the rather to succeed in this temptation... because he had carried his point with our first parents, by tempting them to eat of the forbidden fruit." ⚙ The differences are as instructive as the parallel, and Ellicott flags one himself while arguing against a mythical origin for the narrative: had the story been built out of Genesis 3, "we should have expected the recurrence of the same symbolism, of the serpent and the trees." A garden with every tree, and a man who ate; a desert with no bread, and a man who would not.

Genesis 3:1-6 · Romans 5:19 · 1 Corinthians 15:45

The true Israel, obedient on the same ground ancient/widely-held

Every answer comes from Moses' account of the wilderness generation, and the commentators read that as deliberate. Cambridge: tempted "As the Son of Abraham following the fortunes of his race, tempted in the wilderness as the Hebrews were tempted. A thought present implicitly in our Lord's answers." JFB expands the first reply into exactly that argument from Israel's forty years, and Pulpit, citing Wisdom 16:26 as a Jewish reading of the manna, shows how the Deuteronomy text was already understood as teaching dependence rather than diet. ⚙ Where the nation demanded bread, demanded a sign at Massah, and made a visible god at Sinai, the Son declines all three in the same order and from the same book. The Gospel then moves at once to Galilee and the announcement of a kingdom (Matthew 4:17) that the tempter had just offered to hand over without a cross.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3 · Exodus 17:7 · Hosea 11:1 · Matthew 2:15

The merciful High Priest: tested, and therefore able to help ancient/widely-held

Benson lists five reasons for the temptation and gives the fourth apostolic warrant: "That Christ might become a merciful and faithful high priest, one who can succour his people in time of need... The apostle assigns this reason expressly, Hebrews 2:17-18." Poole reaches the same text from the hunger of v. 2: He was hungry "to show that he was truly man, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin, Hebrews 4:15." Gill says the leading into the wilderness was "that he might have a heart as man, as well as power, as God, to succour them that are tempted." Henry turns it toward the tempted reader: "It is a comfort to us that Christ suffered, being tempted; for thus it appears that our temptations, if not yielded to, are not sins, they are afflictions only." ⚙ This is the unit's pastoral center, and it is not our invention: four independent commentators reach Hebrews from four different verses.

Hebrews 2:17-18 · Hebrews 4:15 · Hebrews 5:8

The Stronger One entering the strong man's house ancient/widely-held

Cambridge reads the desert setting as an invasion: "The desert unpeopled by men was thought to be the abode of demons. So Jesus meets the evil spirit in his own domains, the Stronger One coming upon the strong man who keepeth his palace (Luke 11:21-22)." JFB lists among the purposes of the conflict that Christ should be encouraged "to go forward spoiling principalities and powers, until at length He should make a show of them openly, triumphing over them in His cross," and Gill that the enemy might "expect, in a short time, the ruin of his kingdom by him." ⚙ The offer of the kingdoms is answered not by a counter-argument about ownership but by a dismissal and a text, and Matthew's own Gospel closes the circle on a mountain where all authority in heaven and on earth is given, not traded for. Pulpit makes that connection at v. 10 explicitly. The tier of this reading is figural, the attestation ancient.

Luke 11:21-22 · Colossians 2:15 · Hebrews 2:14 · Matthew 28:18

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)
  • 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. Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible; the Greek surface forms, transliterations, Strong's numbers and parses are the Berean interlinear as supplied in the brief. Commentary excerpts are verbatim public-domain text from the named authors, resolved from anchors rather than retyped.

What is genuinely uncertain in this unit. (1) How the narrative reached Matthew. Ellicott lays out the options at length and argues it must trace to Jesus' own account, since "It could not have come, directly or indirectly, from an eye-witness"; Cambridge says the same more briefly. That is an inference, not a datum. (2) Whether the transports were bodily, visionary or parabolic. Gill argues for real bodily transport; Barnes denies it on lexical grounds; Ellicott suspends judgment with 2 Corinthians 12:2; Pulpit holds that a purely mental removal would make the temptation unreal. We record the disagreement and take no side. (3) The location of the mountain and the identity of the pinnacle. Unknown. Cambridge: "It is idle to ask what this mountain was." Barnes, JFB, Gill and Pulpit each nominate different candidates for the πτερύγιον. (4) The order of the temptations. Matthew and Luke differ; JFB, Pulpit and Ellicott (as reported at v. 5) argue for Matthew's order from the "Get thee hence" at v. 10; Godet and, per Pulpit, Ellicott elsewhere, prefer Luke's. (5) Whether the omitted clause of Psalm 91:11 changes the sense. Cambridge, Benson, Poole and Henry say yes; JFB and Pulpit say no. (6) The scope of "all the kingdoms of the world." Barnes limits it to Palestine and its neighbours; Gill insists on the whole earth.

What is not uncertain. The three citations are Deuteronomy 8:3, 6:16 and 6:13, and the tempter's is Psalm 91:11-12. Every commentator in the brief names them identically.

On the badges. Threads touching Deuteronomy and the Psalms are tiered structural or typological, never verbal, even though the quotations are explicit and verbatim: a Greek New Testament verse and a Hebrew Old Testament verse share no Strong's lexicon, so no shared lexeme can be computed and no verbal claim can be scored. Verbal tiers here are reserved for Greek to Greek links carrying a rare lexeme (πτερύγιον in 2 verses, ἐκπειράζω in 4, προσκόπτω in 8). The 1 Corinthians 10:9 and Revelation links are New Testament to New Testament but rest on common lexemes, so they were deliberately downgraded to structural.

Marked as machine synthesis. Every ⚙ paragraph, the sola reading and the pullquote are this tool's own fallible work, offered to be tested. Where a ⚙ observation extends a sourced fact (the προσκόπτω inversion in thread two, the Israel-failure sequence in the typological thread), the body says so in place.

✦ = 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)