The temptation of Christ is a biblical narrative detailed in the gospels of Matthew,, NRSV Mark,, NRSV and Luke., NRSV After being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus was tempted by the devil after 40 days and nights of fasting in the Judaean Desert. At the time, Satan came to Jesus and tried to tempt him. With Jesus refusing each temptation, Satan then departed and Jesus returned to Galilee to begin his ministry.
The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews also refers to Jesus having been tempted "in every way that we are, except without sin"., , Common English Bible. Mark's account is very brief, merely noting the event. Matthew and Luke describe the temptations by recounting the details of the conversations between Jesus and Satan. The temptation of Christ is not explicitly mentioned in the Gospel of John but in this gospel Jesus does refer to the Devil, "the prince of this world", having no power over him. In church calendars of many Christian denominations, Jesus' forty day period of fasting in the Judaean Desert is remembered during the season of Lent, during which many Christians fast, pray and give alms to the poor.
Literary genre Discussion of status as a parable Discussion of the literary genre includes whether what is represented is a history, a parable, a myth, or compound of various genres. This relates to the reality of the encounter.Fairbairn, Andrew Martin. "The Temptation of Christ", Studies in the life of Christ 1876 V. "How is the Temptation of Christ to be understood? …was its reality actual, a veritable face-to-face, with personalities no less real that they represented universal interests, and, by their conflict, determined universal issues?" Sometimes the temptation narrative is taken as a parable, reading that Jesus in his ministry told this narrative to audiences relating his inner experience in the form of a parable.Evans, William. Epochs in the life of Christ 1916 "Sometimes the temptation narrative is looked upon as being parabolic… that Jesus was simply stating His inner experience in the form of a parable." Or it is autobiographical,Cadbury, Henry Jesus: what manner of man 1947 "…the temptation narrative is often selected as autobiographical." regarding what sort of Messiah Jesus intended to be.Mercer, Samuel Alfred Browne and Lewis, Leicester C., Anglican Theological Review, Vol. 12, 1930 "…looked upon himself as Messiah; hence the problem of the temptation narrative is "what sort of Messiah did he think himself to be?" Writers including William Barclay have pointed to the fact that there is "no mountain high enough in all the world to see the whole world" as indication of the non-literal nature of the event, and that the narrative portrays what was going on inside Jesus' mind.Barclay, Discovering Jesus p. 22. Dominican theologian Thomas Aquinas explained, "In regard to the words, 'He showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them,' we are not to understand that He saw the very kingdoms, with the cities and inhabitants, their gold and silver: but that the devil pointed out the quarters in which each kingdom or city lay, and set forth to Him in words their glory and estate."
The debate on the literality of the temptations goes back at least to the 18th-century discussion of George Benson and Hugh Farmer.Farmer, Hugh. An inquiry into the nature and design of Christ's temptation in the wilderness, p. 133.
The Catholic understanding is that the temptation of Christ was a literal and physical event. "Despite the difficulties urged, …against the historical character of the three temptations of Jesus, as recorded by St. Matthew and St. Luke, it is plain that these sacred writers intended to describe an actual and visible approach of Satan, to chronicle an actual shifting of places, etc., and that the traditional view, which maintains the objective nature of Christ's temptations, is the only one meeting all the requirements of the Gospel narrative.".
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
Use of Old Testament references The account of Matthew uses language from the Old Testament. The imagery would be familiar to Matthew's contemporary readers. In the Septuagint Greek version of Zechariah 3 the name Iesous and term diabolos are identical to the Greek terms of Matthew 4.Hagner, Donald A., "Matthew 1–13", Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 33a, 1993 Matthew presents the three scriptural passages cited by Jesus (, , and ) not in their order in the Book of Deuteronomy, but in the sequence of the trials of Israel as they wandered in the desert, as recorded in the Book of Exodus.Gibson, Jeffrey B., Temptations of Jesus in Early Christianity 2004, p. 95 Luke's account is similar, though his inversion of the second and third temptations "represents a more natural geographic movement, from the wilderness to the temple".Collins, Raymond F., The Temptation of Jesus, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Doubleday, 1992 Luke's closing statement that the devil "departed from him until an opportune time", English Standard Version may provide a narrative link to the immediately following attempt at Nazareth to throw Jesus down from a high place,Nolland, John. "Luke 1:1–9:20", Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 35a, 1989 or may anticipate a role for Satan in the Passion (cf. Luke 22:3).Conzelmann, Hans. The Theology of St. Luke (trans. G. Buswell), New York, 1960 p. 28
Matthew and Luke narratives
Fasting traditionally presaged a great spiritual struggle.Hill, David. The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981 Elijah and Moses in the Old Testament fasted 40 days and nights, and thus Jesus doing the same invites comparison to these events. In Judaism, "the practice of fasting connected the body and its physical needs with less tangible values, such as self-denial and repentance." At the time, 40 was less a specific number and more a general expression for any large figure.Clarke, Howard W. The Gospel of Matthew and its Readers: A Historical Introduction to the First Gospel. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003. Fasting may not mean a complete abstinence from food; consequently, Jesus may have been surviving on the sparse food that could be obtained in the desert.France, R.T. The Gospel According to Matthew: an Introduction and Commentary. Leicester: Inter-Varsity, 1985.Gundry, Robert H. Matthew: a Commentary on his Literary and Theological Art. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1982. On the other hand, the synoptic gospel of Luke specifies that "He ate nothing" which, based on the plain reading of the text, suggests complete abstinence of food.
Mark does not provide details, but in Matthew and Luke "the tempter" (, ho peirazōn)Matthew 4:3 or "the devil" (, ho diabolos) tempts Jesus to: Make bread out of stones to relieve his own hunger Jump from a pinnacle and rely on angels to break his fall. The narratives of both Luke and Matthew have Satan quote Psalm 91:11–12 to indicate that God had promised this assistance. Worship the tempter in return for all the kingdoms of the world.
The Temptations Stones to bread The temptation of bread out of stones occurs in the same desert setting where Jesus had been fasting, with a spot on Mount Quarantania traditionally being considered the exact location. The desert was seen as outside the bounds of society and as the home of demons such as Azazel (Leviticus 16:10). Robert H. Gundry states that the desert is likely an allusion to the wilderness through which the Israelites wandered during the Exodus, and more specifically to Moses. Jesus' struggle against hunger in the face of Satan points to his representative role of the Israelites, but he does not fail God in his urge for hunger. This temptation may have been Jesus' last, aiming towards his hunger.
In response to Satan's suggestion, Jesus replies, "It is written: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (a reference to Deuteronomy 8:3)., New American Bible Only in Matthew's gospel is this entire sentence written.
Pinnacle of the temple This is the second temptation mentioned in Matthew and the third temptation listed in Luke.
Most Christians consider that holy city refers undoubtedly to Jerusalem and the temple to which the pinnacle belongs is thus identified as the Temple in Jerusalem. Gospel of Matthew refers to "the temple" 17 times without ever adding "in Jerusalem". That Luke's version of the story clearly identifies the location as Jerusalem may be due to Theophilus' unfamiliarity with Judaism.Joseph A. Fitzmyer The Gospel According to Luke I–IX: Introduction, Translation, and Notes The Anchor Bible, Vol. 28, Doubleday 1982.
What is meant by the word traditionally translated as pinnacle is not entirely clear since the Greek diminutive form pterugion ("little wing") is not extant in other architectural contexts.LSJ entry pterugion See also Joachim Jeremias, "Die ,Zinne‘ des Tempels (Mt. 4,5; Lk. 4,9)," Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina 59.3/4 (1936): 195–208 (for an English translation of this article, click here). Though the form pterux ("large wing") is used for the point of a building by Pollianus,Pollianus Epigrammaticus 7.121, 2C AD in Anthologia Graeca. Schweizer feels that little tower or parapet would be more accurate, and the New Jerusalem Bible does use the translation "parapet". The only surviving Jewish parallel to the temptation uses the standard word šbyt "roof" not "wing": "Our Rabbis related that in the hour when the Messiah shall be revealed he shall come and stand on the roof (šbyt) of the temple." (Peshiqta Rabbati 62 c–d)Rivka Ulmer, A Synoptic Edition of Pesiqta Rabbati Based upon All Extant. Manuscripts and the Editio Princeps. South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism 155, 1995 The term is preserved as "wing" in Syriac translations of the Greek.Shlomo Pines – "The Jewish Christians of the Early Centuries of Christianity According to a New Source" – Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Vol. II, No. 13 1966 – Footnote 196 If the last solution were allowed, it would perhaps mean that, as far as this word is concerned, the quotation from the Gospel given in our text was translated from an Aramaic (i.e., most probably but not certainly a Syriac) rendering of the Gospel, which was not translated from the Greek." ...The Peshitta, which seems mindful of the etymology of the Greek Term, renders this by the word kenpa whose first meaning is wing. However, an older Syriac translation (The Four Gospels in Syriac Transcribed from the Sinaitic Palimpsest [edited by R.L. Bensley, J. Rendel Harris & F.C. Burkitt], Cambridge 1894) has – while using in Matthew iv : 5 (p. 7) the same word as the Peshitta – in Luke iv:9 (p. 145) the translation qarna, a word whose first meaning is horn, but which also means 'angle'. There is accordingly a possibility of a second solution, namely, that the Arabic q.r.ya should be read (the emendation would be a very slight one), qurna, which signifies 'projecting angle'."
Gundry lists three sites at the Jerusalem temple that would fit this description: On the top of the temple's main tower, above the sanctuary proper, some 180 feet above ground, the location that artists and others using the traditional translation generally set the story. Atop the lintel of the main gateway into the temple, the most prominent position where the pair could easily have been seen.Robert H. Gundry A Survey of the New Testament: 1994 4th Edition 2009 "... But Jesus resists these temptations, and the third temptation as well, by citing Scripture. ... the temple courts dropping off into the Kidron Valley, to the lintel atop the temple gate, or to the roof of the temple proper." A tower on the southeast corner of the outer wall that looks down into the Kidron Valley. In later Christian tradition this is the tower from which James the brother of Jesus was said by Hegesippus to have been thrown by way of execution.