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John Baptist said concerning Christ, He must increase, but I must decrease; and so it proved. For, after John had baptized Christ, and borne his testimony to him, we hear little more of his ministry; he had done what he came to do, and thenceforward there is as much talk of Jesus as ever there had been of John. As the rising Sun advances, the morning star disappears. Concerning Jesus Christ we have in this chapter, I. The temptation he underwent, the triple assault the tempter made upon him, and the repulse he gave to each assault, Mt 4:1-11. II. The teaching work he undertook, the places he preached in (Mt 4:12-16), and the subject he preached on, Mt 4:17. III. His calling of disciples, Peter and Andrew, James and John, Mt 4:18-22. IV. His curing diseases (Mt 4:23,24), and the great resort of the people to him, both to be taught and to be healed.

Jesus, in the wilderness, is tempted by Satan, Matthew 4:1-11. He goes into Galilee, Matthew 4:12; and Capernaum, Matthew 4:13. The prophecy which was thus fulfilled, Matthew 4:14-16. He begins to preach publicly, Matthew 4:17. Calls Simon Peter, and his brother Andrew, Matthew 4:18-20. Calls also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Matthew 4:21, Matthew 4:22. Preaches and works miracles throughout Galilee, Matthew 4:23. Becomes famous in Syria, and is followed by multitudes from various quarters, among whom he works a great variety of miracles, Matthew 4:24, Matthew 4:25.

CHAPTER 4.

THE TEMPTATION, AND THE BEGINNING OF THE GALILEAN MINISTRY.

It is in every way credible that the baptism of Jesus with its connected incidents should be followed by a season of moral trial, or, to express it more generally, by a period of retirement for earnest thought on the future career so solemnly inaugurated. Retirement for prayer and meditation was a habit with Jesus, and it was never more likely to be put in practice than now. He had left home under a powerful impulse with the Jordan and baptism in view. The baptism was a decisive act. Whatever more it might mean, it meant farewell to the past life of obscurity and consecration to a new, high, unique vocation. It remained now to realise by reflection what this calling, to which He had been set apart by John and by heavenly omens, involved in idea, execution, and experience. It was a large, deep, difficult subject of study. Under powerful spiritual constraints Jesus had taken a great leap in the dark, if one may dare to say so. What wonder if, in the season of reflection, temptations arose to doubt, shrinking, regret, strong inclination to look back and return to Nazareth?

In this experience Jesus was alone inwardly as well as outwardly. No clear, adequate account could be given of it. It could only be faintly shadowed forth in symbol or in parable. One can understand how in one Gospel (Mk.) no attempt is made to describe the Temptation, but the fact is simply stated. And it is much more important to grasp the fact as a great reality in Christ’s inner experience than to maintain anxiously the literal truth of the representation in Matt. and Luke. In the fight of faith and unbelief over the supernatural element in the story all sense of the inward psychological reality may be lost, and nothing remain but an external, miraculous, theatrical transaction which utterly fails to impress the lesson that Jesus was veritably tempted as we are, severely and for a length of time, before the opening of His public career, in a representative manner anticipating the experiences of later date. All attempts to dispose summarily of the whole matter by reference to similar temptation legends in the case of other religious initiators like Buddha are to be deprecated. Nor should one readily take up with the theory that the detailed account of the Temptation in Matt. and Luke is simply a composition suggested by O. T. parallels or by reflection on the critical points in Christ’s subsequent history. (So Holtzmann in H. C.) We should rather regard it as having its ultimate source in an attempt by Jesus to convey to His disciples some faint idea of what He had gone through.

CHAPTER 4

Matthew 4:4. ὁ ἄνθρωπ.] Elz., Scholz omit the ὁ. It might easily have been added from the LXX. in Deuteronomy 8:3, where, however, it is wanting in several witnesses; but as the article is superfluous, and the witnesses in its favour greatly preponderate, there are decisive reasons for retaining it.

ἐπὶ παντί] ἐν παντί is found in C D, 13, 21, 59, 124, 300; approved by Griesb., adopted by Fritzsche, Lachm., Tisch. Rightly; ἐπί was just as easily suggested by the first clause of the sentence by itself as by the reading of the LXX., which is attested by preponderating witnesses.

Matthew 4:5. ἵστησιν] B C D Z א, 1, 33: ἔστησεν. Recommended by Griesb., adopted by Lachm. and Tisch. 8. The aorist interrupts and disturbs the representation as present, and has been introduced from Luke 4:9.

Matthew 4:6. λέγει] Lachm., but upon very slight authority, reads εἶπεν, which is not to be adopted, even in Matthew 4:9, instead of λέγει, with Lachm. and Tisch. 8, after B C D Z א and Curss. It is taken from Luke.

Matthew 4:10. ὀπίσω μου] is wanting in Elz., deleted also by Fritzsche and Tisch. 8, bracketed by Lachm. The witnesses are greatly divided, and the preponderance is uncertain (against it: B C* K P S V Δ א, Curss., Or. Ir. and other Fathers, and several Verss., among which Syr. Vulg.; in favour: C** D E L M U T Z, and several Curss., Justin., and many Fathers and Verss., amongst which is It.). An old insertion from Matthew 16:13, where the circumstance that Peter is there the person addressed, might cause the less difficulty that he also is called Satan. In Luke 4:8, ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου σατ. is also an interpolation.

Matthew 4:12. ὁ Ἰησοῦς] is wanting in B C* D Z א, 16, 33, 61, Copt. Aeth. Or. Eus. Aug. The omission is approved by Griesbach. Rightly; the addition of the subject suggested itself the more easily that a new section begins in Matthew 4:12. Comp. Matthew 4:18. Deleted also by Tisch.

Matthew 4:18. δέ]. Elz. adds ὁ Ἰησοῦς, against decisive testimony. Comp. on Matthew 4:12.

Matthew 4:23. ὅλην τ. Γαλιλ.] Lachm.: ὅλῃ τ. Γαλιλαίᾳ, without evidence, as not merely C but B also has ἐν ὅλῃ τ. Γαλ., which Tisch. has adopted, 8th ed. א* has merely ἐν τῇ Γαλ. The reading of Tisch. 8 is to be adopted; the Received reading is a change made to harmonize with the more common construction.

Mt 4:1-11.

TEMPTATION OF CHRIST. ( =

Mr 1:12, 13; Lu 4:1-13).

1. Then--an indefinite note of sequence. But Mark's word

(Mr 1:12)

fixes what we should have presumed was meant, that it was "immediately" after His baptism; and with this agrees the statement of Luke

(Lu 4:1).

was Jesus led up--that is, from the low Jordan valley to some more elevated spot.

of the Spirit--that blessed Spirit immediately before spoken of as descending upon Him at His baptism, and abiding upon Him. Luke, connecting these two scenes, as if the one were but the sequel of the other, says, "Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led," &c. Mark's expression has a startling sharpness about it--"Immediately the Spirit driveth Him"

(Mr 1:12),

"putteth," or "hurrieth Him forth," or "impelleth Him." (See the same word in

Mr 1:43; 5:40; Mt 9:25; 13:52; Joh 10:4).

The thought thus strongly expressed is the mighty constraining impulse of the Spirit under which He went; while Matthew's more gentle expression, "was led up," intimates how purely voluntary on His own part this action was.

into the wilderness--probably the wild Judean desert. The particular spot which tradition has fixed upon has hence got the name of Quarantana or Quarantaria, from the forty days--"an almost perpendicular wall of rock twelve or fifteen hundred feet above the plain" [ROBINSON, Palestine]. The supposition of those who incline to place the temptation amongst the mountains of Moab is, we think, very improbable.

to be tempted--The Greek word (peirazein) means simply to try or make proof of; and when ascribed to God in His dealings with men, it means, and can mean no more than this. Thus,

Ge 22:1,

"It came to pass that God did tempt Abraham," or put his faith to a severe proof. (See

De 8:2).

But for the most part in Scripture the word is used in a bad sense, and means to entice, solicit, or provoke to sin. Hence the name here given to the wicked one--"the tempter"

(Mt 4:3).

Accordingly "to be tempted" here is to be understood both ways. The Spirit conducted Him into the wilderness simply to have His faith tried; but as the agent in this trial was to be the wicked one, whose whole object would be to seduce Him from His allegiance to God, it was a temptation in the bad sense of the term. The unworthy inference which some would draw from this is energetically repelled by an apostle

(Jas 1:13-17).

of the devil--The word signifies a slanderer--one who casts imputations upon another. Hence that other name given him

(Re 12:10),

"The accuser of the brethren, who accuseth them before our God day and night." Mark

(Mr 1:13)

says, "He was forty days tempted of Satan," a word signifying an adversary, one who lies in wait for, or sets himself in opposition to another. These and other names of the same fallen spirit point to different features in his character or operations. What was the high design of this? First, as we judge, to give our Lord a taste of what lay before Him in the work He had undertaken; next, to make trial of the glorious equipment for it which He had just received; further, to give Him encouragement, by the victory now to be won, to go forward spoiling principalities and powers, until at length He should make a show of them openly, triumphing over them in His cross: that the tempter, too, might get a taste, at the very outset, of the new kind of material in man which he would find he had here to deal with; finally, that He might acquire experimental ability "to succor them that are tempted"

(Heb 2:18).

The temptation evidently embraced two stages: the one continuing throughout the forty days' fast; the other, at the conclusion of that period.

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit - Led up by the Spirit. Luke says Luke 4:1 that Jesus was "full of the Holy Spirit;" and it was by his influence, therefore, that he went into the desert to be tempted. It was not done by presumption on the part of Jesus, nor was it for a mere display of his power in resisting temptation; but it was evidently that it might be seen that his holiness was such that he could not be seduced from allegiance to God. 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; that there was a kind and a degree of holiness which no art or power could estrange from allegiance. Mark Mar 1:12 says that this occurred "immediately" after his baptism; that is, in his case, as not unfrequently happens, the great temptation followed immediately the remarkable manifestation of the divine approbation and favor. In the clearest manifestations of the divine favor to us we may not be far from most powerful temptations, and then may be the time when it is necessary to be most carefully on our guard.

Into the wilderness - See the notes at Matthew 3:1.

To be tempted - The word "tempt," in the original, means to try, to endeavor, to attempt to do a thing; then, to try the nature of a thing, as metals by fire; then, to test moral qualities by trying them, to see how they will endure; then, to endeavor to draw people away from virtue by suggesting motives to evil. This is the meaning here, and this is now the established sense of the word in the English language.

The devil - This word originally means an adversary, or an accuser; then, any one opposed to us; then, an enemy of any kind. It is given in the Scriptures, by way of eminence, to the leader of evil angels - a being characterized as full of subtlety, envy, art, and hatred of mankind. He is known, also, by the name Satan, Job 1:6-12; Matthew 12:26; Beelzebub, Matthew 12:24; the old Serpent, Revelation 12:9; and the Prince of the power of the air, Ephesians 2:2. The name is once given to women 1 Timothy 3:11; "Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers;" in the original, devils.

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit - This transaction appears to have taken place immediately after Christ's baptism; and this bringing up of Christ was through the influence of the Spirit of God; that Spirit which had rested upon him in his baptism.

To be tempted - The first act of the ministry of Jesus Christ was a combat with Satan. Does not this receive light from Genesis 3:17. I will put enmity between the woman's seed and thy seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.