Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · Matthew 第4章

Matthew 4:1. Then was Jesus led up, &c.— Then, that is to say, immediately after his baptism, was Jesus led, or borne by a strong impulse of the Spirit on his mind, (see Luke 4:14.) into the wilderness: which Mr. Maundrel is of opinion was the wilderness near Jordan; a miserable and horrid place, according to his account, consisting of high barren mountains; so that it looks as if nature had suffered some violent convulsions there. Our Lord probably was assaulted in the northern part of it, near the sea of Galilee; because he is said, Luk 4:1 to be returning, or going back to Nazareth, whence he came to be baptized. See Mark 1:9. Hither Christ retired to prepare himself for the discharge of his great office; and hence obtained so much the greater glory, that he conquered the devil in a wilderness, who subdued our first parents in paradise, where with joint strength they ought to have resisted him, and might easily have overcome him. Christ, the second Adam, was to remedy all the evils of the fall. The original word διαβολου signifies properly a slanderer, or a false accuser, and answers to the Hebrew Satan: it is found in the Scripture only in the singular number, and signifies that evil spirit who tempted our first parents; and who is represented in the sacred writings as the head of the rebellious angels, and the adversary of all good men. See 1 Thessalonians 3:5. 1 Peter 5:8. The existence of good and bad spirits, is the plain doctrine of Scripture; and we must be perfect Sadducees, to doubt or deny the being of either, upon the faith and credit of the divine word. It may be proper just to observe, than an ingenious writer has endeavoured to shew that this very remarkable transaction was not real, but visionary; grounding his arguments upon the many difficulties which occur to our understandings in the literal account of it. I conceive that by the same arguments it would be easy to prove almost any part of the sacred history to be visionary. There is no intimation of any thing of this sort in the sacred historians; the detail of facts is plain, and in their usual manner: it is positively said, that Jesus was led up, that he fasted, that he hungered, &c. &c. Nor does there appear any thing in the letter whereupon to ground the idea, that what is here related was not real. That the whole event was most wonderful and extraordinary, we readily allow; and may as readily allow, that from the very short narration we have of it, it is not possible for us to enter completely into the whole meaning and purport of it. But this should be no objection against our receiving and acknowledging the truth of the fact; which, the more miraculous it is, the more it requires the submission of our faith, and the humble adoration of our minds. See more on Mat 4:8 and Farmer's Inquiry into the Temptation of Christ.

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Matthew 4:2. And when he had fasted forty days— So much greater was Jesus than Adam. Jesus, worn down by fasting and hunger, oppressed with want, and in a wild howling wilderness, overcame the devil; by whom Adam was overcome in full strength, and abounding with all things. It was usual for persons to prepare themselves for any sacred office by fasting, and prayers so intense, as to cause a neglect of common food. See Acts 13:3; Acts 14:23. The number forty is remarkably distinguished in Scripture: Moses and Elijah fasted forty days. See also 3 John 1:3; 3 John 1:33 John 1:3:4.Ezekiel 4:6; Ezekiel 4:6. It is a very just remark of Dr. Whitby, that to institute, or pretend to keep a fast for forty days, in imitation of this example of our Lord, is to place morality in numbers, and introduce an endless heap of superstitious follies; for it is certain, that so great and so long abstinence is inconsistent with the frailty of our nature, and so can be no duty. Better is the note of Theophylact and others, that "we are then especially to expect temptations, when we are in straits and exigencies, from which we see no ordinary way of deliverance;" which was here the case with Christ.

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Matthew 4:3. When the tempter came to him, he said, &c.— We may infer from Mar 1:13 that during the forty days which Jesus spent in the wilderness, he was exposed to several other temptations besides those mentioned here; and therefore Dr. Doddridge very well translates and paraphrases the passage thus; "Just at that time, when he was very hungry, and entirely unprovided with food, the tempter coming to him, in a visible form, putting on a human appearance (as one that desired to inquire farther into the evidence of his mission) said, if thou art the Son of God, &c." It is only in the original, If thou be Son of God, without any article; but it seems to be properlyinserted in our version, because the miracle which the devil required of Jesus, was not that he might shew himself to be a child of God, but the Son of God; that is to say, the Messiah. The Jews were persuaded that the Messiah was to be the Son of God; and they commonly applied to him the 7th verse of the 2nd Psalm, and the 14th verse of the 7th chapter of the 2nd book of Samuel. By comparing several passages in the New Testament, it appears, that in the language of the Jews, the words Messiah and Son of God were of the same import. See Matthew 26:63.Luke 17:37; Luke 17:37. John 1:41; Joh 1:44-45 and Mat 16:16 compared with Mark 8:29. Luke 9:20. Christ was tempted in all things, Heb 4:15 and as the things which solicit us to sin may be referred to three kinds, pleasures, honours, and riches, (1 John 2:16.) Christ, being tempted by all these, came off victorious. When he refused to command the stones to become bread, he shewed his conquest over pleasure, or the animal appetite; when he cast not himself down from the temple, he shewed his triumph over vainglory; and in the third temptation, expressing his contempt of the goods of this world, he shewed that nothing in this life could conquer his piety and integrity. See Beausobre and Lenfant, and Wetstein. We may read the last words, Command these stones to become bread.

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Matthew 4:4. But by every word, &c.— But by every thing which the mouth of God shall ordain. Prussian Testament. The original, to which our version is agreeable, is a Hebrew expression, taken from Deuteronomy 8:3. Whatever proceedeth out of the mouth, is the same as whatever God appoints or commands. Word is not in the Hebrew, but only in the LXX, whom the evangelist has here followed. Dr. Heylin is of opinion, that the diabolical temptation did not, perhaps could not begin, till after Jesus had fasted forty days; and then, when the first fervours in the new state he was entered upon were considerably abated; when his new abilities of body and mind were greatly exhausted by so long an abstinence; when nature languished, and hunger called for the needful repair of food; then the tempter found access to him. It should be observed, that in the style of Scripture, feeding, feasting, and fasting, are applicable to the mind as well as to the body. The mind has its hunger and thirst. It feeds and ruminates on thought; and when it fails of a due supply, it palls, and sickens, and starves for want of food. Now the forlorn wilderness was as barren of what could recreate the mind, as of what could feed the body. Here Jesus sojourned, in perpetual silence and solitude, with no entertainment of sense, no secular occupation, no external objects to employ the imagination. His fast there was total; total, I mean, as to the animal part, which, wasted with long want of necessary refreshment, at last pined with hunger; and this hunger would probably be attended with dejection of spirits, or other disorders, which debilitate the mind, and lay it open to temptation. It was then the tempter came to him, and said, if, &c. So the evangelist briefly relates the substance of this first temptation; which certainly was then displayed with all the colourings of reason; and which, by way of illustration, and only to shew what might be suggested on the occasion, may be thus represented: "If you really are the Son of God, and the voice you imagine to have heard from heaven be no delusion, assert your prerogative: do not let a Son of God starve; vindicate your sonship, and justify your Father's goodness, who has not given you the miraculous powers you think yourself endowed with for nothing. If these powers are to be used, when so reasonablyas now? Can any one want them more? Can any one deserve them better than you do? Consider what you owe to yourself and your Father's glory, if you be indeed his Son. His Spirit, as you deem, led you into this inhospitable wilderness;—for what?—To perish here?—and so to frustrate all the prophesies which you conceive yourself destined to accomplish, and deprive men of the salvation you undertake to earn for them?—For your own sake, for their sake, for the sake of your Father's glory, which is so highly interested in your preservation, hearken to the just calls of nature in you: speak but the word; bid these words become bread." Jesus answered, Man, &c. The quotation is very apposite: for it is taken from Deuteronomy, where Moses, recapitulating to the Jews the hardships and temptations with which they had been exercised in the desert, the more effectually to remind them of the great lesson that he was to inculcate, says, Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee [the original here is the same word, which, in other places, is rendered, to tempt thee,] to know what was in thine heart; whether thou wouldst keep his commandments, or no: and he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna [a food before unknown], that he might make thee know, that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord, &c.; that is to say, by whatever God appoints, or by whatever way he pleases. This answer, we see, was fully to the purpose, and so decisive as not to admit of a reply; yet the adversary, though baffled, did not desist, but renewed the attack with a second temptation: whereby it should seem, that he hoped to take advantage from the total resignation wherewith Jesus confided in the divine protection, so as to drive him into some excess. See Houbigant on Deuteronomy 8:3.

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Matthew 4:5. Then the devil taketh him, &c.— The original word παραλαμβανει, signifies no more than to lead, to take along with one; as in the LXX. Numbers 22:41; Numbers 23:27-28. See Matthew 17:1. That it has no other sense in this place, and also in the eighth verse, is plain from Luke 4:5; Luke 4:9. By the holy city is meant Jerusalem, which is frequently so called. Instead of pinnacle, Dr. Doddridge very properly reads battlement; observing, that though pinnacle agrees very well with the etymology of the Greek word πτερυγιον : yet, according to its use among us, it leads the English reader to imagine, that he stood on the point of a spire. The truth is, that the roof of the temple was flat, and had a ballustrade round it, which in some parts was so exceeding high, that one could hardly bear to look down from it. See Deu 22:8 and Joseph. Antiq. l. 15. c. 11. Somewhere on the edge of this battlement, we may suppose, was the scene of this temptation. We must not imagine, that the devil took the Lord Jesus Christ, and disposed of him as he would; but only that our blessed Saviour, who yielded to be placed in the temptation, was pleased so far to do what the devil required of him. It is a common thing to say a person does a thing, when he orders or causes it to be done.

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Matthew 4:6. If thou be the Son of God— The Jews were undoubtedly right in thinking that the Messiah is spoken of by Daniel, Daniel 7:13-14. But they fell into a gross mistake, when, interpreting that passage literally, they believed the Messiah would actually come in the clouds of heaven, and wrest the kingdom from the Romans.

See Matthew 24:30. The Pharisees, however, had the destruction of the Romans and the miraculous erection of a temporal empire in view, when they required our Lord to shew them a sign from heaven; Matthew 16:1. And the people in general were so strongly impressed with the belief of it, that they overlooked all the proper proofs of Christ's mission, and rejected him, because he did not confirm it by that sign, John 7:27. Howbeit we know this man whence he is; but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is: "No man knoweth from what particular place he shall first come:" for the doctors thought that though the Messiah was to be born at Bethlehem, he was immediately to be conveyed thence, and concealed, till Elijah the Tishbite came from heaven, and prepared matters for his reception; after which he was to be manifested in a miraculous manner: and as they expected that the Messiah was to come in the clouds of heaven, they thought his first appearance was to be in the temple; grounding this opinion on Malachi 3:1.Psalms 110:2; Psalms 110:2.Isaiah 2:3; Isaiah 2:3. Now the second temptation, considered in the light of this popular error, had considerable strength in it; for the tempter's meaning was, "Since thou art the Son of God, thou shouldst cast thyself down from this battlement into the courts below, where the numerous worshippers, seeing thee borne up by angels, will immediately acknowledge thee as the Messiah coming to them in the clouds of heaven: for it is written, he shall give his angels charge, &c." Had not this been the devil's meaning, there was not the least reason for carrying Jesus to Jerusalem, and setting him on the battlements of the temple. He might as well have bidden him cast himself down from any precipice in the wilderness, or from the turret of any neighbouring town; where the interposition of angels in his preservation, would have been as conspicuous a proof to himself of his Messiahship as in the holy city of Jerusalem. It may be objected indeed, that the text cited by no means promises a visible interposition of ministering spirits for the preservation of the Messiah, as this sense of the temptation seems to require. But the answer is, that there was nothing to hinder the father of lies from putting an artful gloss upon a text of Scripture in order to delude; as if he had said, "Since God hath promised that his angels shall bear good men up in their hands, and particularly the Messiah, he may therefore well expect the favour, if he be the Son of God, and especially when it is necessary for the erecting of his kingdom."—And farther, the tempter's argument would have the more weight, if, as is probable, he was now transformed into an angel of light, and feigned a willingness to assist Jesus in the undertaking. See Macknight, Sherlock on Prophesy, appendix, p. 304 and the notes on Psalms 91:11.

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Matthew 4:7. It is written again— Or also. So παλιν here elegantly signifies, in opposition to the quotation that the tempter had made, which was indeed very imperfect: but many, after St. Jerome, have observed, that Satan made his advantage of quoting Scripture imperfectly and by scraps. The cause of truth, and sometimes of common sense, has suffered a great deal by those who have followed his example. Jesus repels his attack by Scripture also; which, like that cited in his former answer, again relates to the children of Israel, exercised in circumstances not unlike his own, in the wilderness, when, murmuring and impatient for want of water, as they had been before for want of food, they tempted the Lord, saying, Is Jehovah among us, or not? See Exodus 17:7. They questioned his presence with them, and wanted proofs of it by a new miracle. To tempt, is to try; and the trial they would make argued their doubt and distrust. See the note on Deuteronomy 6:16. The perfect faith of Jesus excluded all diffidence, and therefore would not admit any act on his part whereby to put the divine goodness to the test, since he already had the fullest assurance of it, "I will not provoke God, either by acting otherwise than he has appointed, or by requiring proofs of his power and veracity, after such as are sufficient, and have already been given." See Heylin, and Wetstein.

But Dr. Campbell reads, Thou shalt not make trial of, instead of, Thou shalt not tempt. What we commonly mean, says he, by the word tempting, does not suit the sense of the Greek word in this passage. The English word means properly either to solicit to evil, or to provoke; whereas the import of the Greek verb in this and several other places is to assay, to try, to put to the proof. It is thus the word is used, Gen 22:1 where God is said to have tempted Abraham, commanding him to offer up his son Isaac for a burnt-offering. God did not solicit the patriarch to evil, for, in this sense, as the apostle James tells us, chap. Mat 1:13 he neither can be tempted, nor tempteth any man. But God tried Abraham, as the word ought manifestly to have been rendered, putting his faith and obedience to the proof. His ready compliance, so far from being evil, was an evidence of the highest faithand the sublimest virtue. And on the present occasion, it was God's love to his only Son and faithfulness in the performance of his promise, that the devil desired our Lord, by throwing himself headlong from a precipice, to make trial of.

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Matthew 4:8. Again, the devil taketh him, &c.— The adversary, enraged, as it should seem, with his ill success in the two former attempts, casts off all disguise in this. He speaks no more of Son of God; but desperate, and thence impudent and audacious, he offers at once his whole stock of gaudy trumperies, all worldly power, dominion, and glory, and arrogantly sets the price at which they are to be purchased. Le Clerc is of the same opinion with the author referred to on Mat 4:1 that what is here related, may more safely be conceived to have happened to Christ in a vision or dream, than really; but this, says Dr. Whitby, is a vain dream and a vision of his own brain; and that which robs us of all the practical improvement of our Lord's temptation. For, why should Christ have been led into a wilderness to have this dream or vision? Did he fast only in a vision forty days and forty nights? Or, why is it said, that he afterwards was hungry? Why is it said, that the devil spake to him, set him on a pinnacle, upon a high mountain, &c. &c.? and looks it not far more odd to give the devil power over the fancy of our Lord, to raise such imaginations in him, and suggest such dreams to him, than barely to give him that power over our Lord's body, which neither did nor could do him any hurt? I observe again, that as God caused Moses to see the whole land of promise from the top of Nebo, either by strengthening his eyes to see it thence, or else by representing it to him as it were in a large plan or map in all the valleys round about him; so might the devil, in the valleys round about that high mountain upon which Christ stood, make a large draught of the stately edifices, guards and attendants of kings, appearing in their splendour, visible to the eyes of Christ; which appearance could not be so well made to him, or advantageously seen, had he been in a plain. Wetstein is of opinion, that the devil might point out the kingdoms of the world to him in some such manner as this; "Turn thine eyes to the east, there is the kingdom of the Persians, to whom thy ancestors were subject, and the kingdom of Arabia, rich in gold, in frankincense and myrrh: Turn to the south, there is the kingdom of Egypt, where the descendants of the patriarchs suffered so long and severe a servitude: Turn to the west, there you see Tyre and the isles, abounding in merchandize and wealth; you see Rome, the queen and empress of the world: On the north, you see Syria, whose king Antiochus once profaned the temple, and brought such evils on the Jews; you see Galilee, whose fertility you know, and where you have hitherto lived in obscurity." Thus the devil pointed out to Jesus the kingdoms of the world, and their grandeur. Macknight, with several others, is of opinion, that this prospect was confined to the land of promise; and that the mountain of Nebo, whence Moses had a prospect of the whole land, was very probably that from which the devil shewed our blessed Saviour all the kingdoms of the world, that is, the whole of promise; for so the word is used, in the literal sense at least, of Romans 4:13. The land of promise, in its largest signification, reached from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, east and west, and from Egypt on the south to beyond Sidon north-wards, Deuteronomy 11:24. In Joshua's time, that extent of country contained thirty distinct principalities, besides the Philistines and Sidonians, as Spanheim observes; and even in our Lord's time it comprehended several kingdoms, some of which are mentioned Luke 3:1. All these the devil pointed out to Jesus in the temptation; taking particular notice of their glory; that is, their great and opulent cities, their rich fields, their hills covered with wood and cattle, their rivers rolling through fertile valleys, and washing the cities as they passed along; and promised to put him in possession of the whole instantly, if he would fall down and worship him. By confining this prospect to the land of promise the third temptation in Dr. Macknight's judgment had a peculiar force. The devil, that he might know whether Jesus was the Messiah, offered to give him all the kingdoms of the land to which the Messiah, as such, had a peculiar right; see Psalms 2:8; Psalms 72:8. He hoped thus to have enticed him to commit idolatry; thinking that, if he was not the Messiah, he would eagerly embrace this, as the speediest way of accomplishing his design.

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Matthew 4:11. Ministered unto him— The Greek word διακονειν signifies to serve or wait upon in general, and so to wait at table. See chap. Matthew 8:15.Luke 17:8; Luke 17:8; Luke 17:37. As one celestial spirit might have been abundantly sufficient for the relief of our Lord's necessities, it is reasonable to suppose, that the appearance of a number of them upon this occasion was to do him the more illustrious honour, after this horrible combat with Satan, to which, for wise and good reasons, he was pleased to condescend. See Doddridge, and the Inferences.

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Matthew 4:12. Now when Jesus had heard, &c.— John the Baptist was not imprisoned till after the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Between these two events, there happened what is related in the three first chapters of St. John's Gospel. It is commonly supposed, that the ministry of John the Baptist lasted but about eighteen months at most, and that he was in prison a year after Christ's baptism. We will just transcribe out of St. John's Gospel, for the sake of connection, what is here omitted in the history of Christ. He went from Nazareth into Judaea, where he was baptized by John, Mark 1:9. From Judaea he returned into Galilee, John 1:43; John 2:1. He went again into Judaea, and there celebrated the passover at Jerusalem, John 2:13. He baptized in Judaea while John was baptizing at Enon, John 3:22. All this time John was at liberty, ib. Matthew 4:24.; but the Pharisees having conspired against Jesus, Joh 4:1-3 and Jesus hearing that John had been put into prison by Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, Mar 1:14 he went again into Galilee. See Beausobre and Lenfant. Instead of, he departed, in this verse, we may read, he retired.

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Matthew 4:13. And leaving Nazareth— Namely, when they had wholly rejected his word, and even attempted to kill him. See Luk 4:29 and for an explanation of the next verses, the note on Isa 9:1-2 and Mede's works, p. 101, 102. Christ chose Capernaum for the place of his residence, as being a large city, and where he was likely to bring numbers of people to the knowledge of his Gospel. See chap. Matthew 11:23. For an account of the lake of Gennesareth, and the fruitfulness of the neighbouring country, see Josephus, Jewish War, b. iii. c. 18.

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Matthew 4:14. That it might be fulfilled which— Whereby was fulfilled that which. Matthew 4:15. By the way of the sea, beyond Jordan] Situate on the Jordan, near the sea. Campbell. By the way of the sea is rather an indefinite and obscure expression. What is here called sea is properly not a sea, but a lake. It was customary with the Hebrews to denominate a large extent of water, though fresh water, and encompassed with land, by the name sea. It was on this sea, that Capernaum, and some other towns of note, were situated. Here also Peter and Andrew, James and John, before they were called to the apostleship, exercised the occupation of fishermen. The sea of Galilee and the sea of Tiberias are become in scripture-style so much like proper names, that it might look affected to change them for the lake of Galilee and the lake of Tiberias. Besides, where it can conveniently be done, these small differences in phraseology which diversify the styles of the evangelists in the original, ought to be preserved in the translation.

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Matthew 4:17. From that time, &c.— Namely of his departure into Galilee. Jesus had already preached at Jerusalem and in other parts of Judaea: see Joh 4:3 and the note on Matthew 4:12. But St. Matthew, having omitted this part of the evangelical history, dates the beginning of Christ's ministry from his preaching in Galilee. John the Baptist gave notice that the coming of the Messiah was at hand: the Lord Jesus Christ declares that he is come; and orders his apostles to publish the same great truth to the world. See Beausobre and Lenfant. Though Christ, as legislator and Lord, could have commanded his subjects, yet he chose rather, by the milder methods of persuasion, to teach and instruct them. See Mat 4:23 and on chap. Matthew 5:11-12. It is the peculiar business of Christ to establish the kingdom of heaven in the hearts of men. Yet he himself begins his preaching in thesame words with John the Baptist, because the repentance whichJohn taught, still was and ever will be the necessary preparation for that inward kingdom. But that phrase is not only used with regard to the individuals in whom this kingdom is to be established, but also with regard to the Christian church,—the whole body of believers. In the former sense, it is opposed to repentance; in the latter, to the Mosaic dispensation. See more in Heylin, p. 42

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Matthew 4:18. And Jesus, walking, &c.— Respecting the calling of Peter, &c. see the notes on Mark 1:0. Instead of fishers, we may read, fishermen. It appears from John 1:35; Joh 1:51 that they had already acknowledged Jesus for the Messiah, upon the testimony of John the Baptist.

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Matthew 4:23. Synagogues— This is a general word, which in its originalmeaning signifies both civil and ecclesiastical assemblies, and also the places where these assemblies were kept. Here, as also chap. Mat 13:54 and almost all through the New Testament, it is taken for the places or buildings where the Jews met to pray, and to hear the interpretation of the law and the prophets; and this is a common acceptation of the word synagogue. It is manifest from Act 15:21 that there had been of a long time synagogues in each city, and that the Jews were accustomed to meet therein every Sabbath-day. These synagogues had several heads and officers, who performed different functions: that of the scribes was to teach and instruct the congregation; but it is evident from Act 13:15 that after the reading of the law and the prophets, the heads of the synagogue desired such learned and grave persons as happened to be there to make a discourse to the people; and by virtue of this custom it was, that the Lord Jesus Christ and St. Paul were allowed to preach in the synagogues: Acts 9:20; Acts 14:1. See Beausobre and Lenfant, and the authors referred to on chap. Matthew 3:7. Respecting the different diseases, possessions, &c. mentioned in this and the next verse, we shall have occasion to speak more particularly when we come to those miracles of our Lord, where they are distinctly described. The Gospel, that is to say, the glad tidings, or joyous message, is the proper name of our religion, and will be amply verified as such to all who cordially embrace it. See Heylin, and more on this subject in the Inferences.

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Matthew 4:24. Torments, &c.— Pains; demoniacs, lunatics, and paralytics.

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