Chú giải Kinh Thánh

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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And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

Then came unto him the tempter — ο πειραζων . So called, because he politicly feels our pulses which way they beat, and accordingly fits us a penny worth. He sets a wedge of gold before covetous Achan, a courtesan Cozbi before a voluptuous Zimri, a fair preferment before an ambitious Absalom: and finds well that a fit object is half a victory. So dealt his agents with those ancient Christians, επρισθησαν, επειρασθησαν , they "were sawn asunder, they were tempted," saith the apostle, Hebrews 11:37 to wit, with the proffers of preferment, would they but have renounced their religion and done sacrifice to an idol. So the Pope tempted Luther with wealth and honour. But all in vain; he turned him to God, Et valde protestatus sum, saith he, me nolle sic satiari ab eo, he said flat, that God should not put him off with these low things. (Melch. Adam.) Here was a man full of the spirit of Christ. The tempter came to Christ, but found nothing in him; that matter was not malleable. In vain shall the devil strike fire if we find not tinder; in vain shall he knock at the door if we look not out to him at the window. Let us but divorce the flesh from the world, and the devil can do us no hurt. Ita cave tibi, ut caveas teipsum. From that naughty man myself, good Lord, deliver me, said one.

If thou be the Son of God — As the devil quarrelled and questioned the law given in Paradise as nought, or naught; so doth he hear the voice from heaven as a mere imposture. And this he did out of deep and desperate malice; for he could not be ignorant nor doubtful. Neither is his dealing otherwise with us (many times), who are too ready (at his instigation) to doubt our spiritual sonship. We need not help the tempter, by holding it a duty to doubt; this is to light a candle before the devil, as we use to speak. Rather let us settle and secure this, that we are indeed the sons of God and heirs of heaven, by passing through the narrow womb of repentance, that we may be born again, and by getting an effectual faith, the property whereof is to adopt as well as to justify; viz. ratione obiecti, by means of Christ the object upon whom faith layeth hold, and into whom it engrafts the believer after an unspeakable manner. Now ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, Galatians 3:26 ; John 1:12 , who hath both laid down the price of this greatest privilege, Hebrews 9:15 ; Galatians 4:5 , and sealed it up to us by his Spirit, crying, "Abba, Father," in our hearts, whatever Satan or our own misgiving hearts object to the contrary, Galatians 4:6 ; Romans 8:15 ; Ephesians 1:13 .

Command that these stones be made bread — And so distrust the providence of God for relieving thy body in this hunger; help thyself by working a preposterous miracle, in this point of God’s providence for this present life. Satan troubled David and Jeremiah, and so he doth many good souls at this day, who can sooner trust God with their souls than with their bodies; and for a crown than for a crust, as those disciples, Matthew 16:8 .

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4. But he answered and said, It is written--

(De 8:3).

Man shall not live by bread alone--more emphatically, as in the Greek, "Not by bread alone shall man live."

but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God--Of all passages in Old Testament Scripture, none could have been pitched upon more apposite, perhaps not one so apposite, to our Lord's purpose. "The Lord . . . led thee (said Moses to Israel, at the close of their journeyings) these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no. And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only," &c., "Now, if Israel spent, not forty days, but forty years in a waste, howling wilderness, where there were no means of human subsistence, not starving, but divinely provided for, on purpose to prove to every age that human support depends not upon bread, but upon God's unfailing word of promise and pledge of all needful providential care, am I, distrusting this word of God, and despairing of relief, to take the law into My own hand? True, the Son of God is able enough to turn stones into bread: but what the Son of God is able to do is not the present question, but what is man's duty under want of the necessaries of life. And as Israel's condition in the wilderness did not justify their unbelieving murmurings and frequent desperation, so neither would Mine warrant the exercise of the power of the Son of God in snatching despairingly at unwarranted relief. As man, therefore, I will await divine supply, nothing doubting that at the fitting time it will arrive." The second temptation in this Gospel is in Luke's the third. That Matthew's order is the right one will appear, we think, quite clearly in the sequel.

But he answered and said ... - In reply to this artful temptation Christ answered by a quotation from the Old Testament. The passage is found in Deuteronomy 8:3. In that place the discourse is respecting manna. Moses says that the Lord humbled the people, and fed them with manna, an unusual kind of food, that they might learn that man did not live by bread only, but that there were other things to support life, and that everything which God had commanded was proper for this. The term "word," used in this place, means very often, in Hebrew, thing, and clearly in this place has that meaning. Neither Moses nor our Saviour had any reference to spiritual food, or to the doctrines necessary to support the faith of believers; but they simply meant that God could support life by other things than bread; that man was to live, not by that only, but by every other thing which proceeded out of his mouth; that is, which he chose to command people to eat. The substance of his answer, then, is: "It is not so imperiously necessary that I should have bread as to make a miracle proper to procure it. Life depends on the will of God. He can support it in other ways as well as by bread. He has created other things to be eaten, and man may live by everything that his Maker has commanded." And from this temptation we may learn:

1. That Satan often takes advantage of our circumstances and wants to tempt us. The poor, the hungry, and the naked he often tempts to repine and complain, and to be dishonest in order to supply their necessities.

2. Satan's temptations are often the strongest immediately after we have been remarkably favored. Jesus had just been called the Son of God, and Satan took this opportunity to try him. He often attempts to fill us with pride and vain self-conceit when we have been favored with any peace of mind, or any new view of God, and endeavors to urge us to do something which may bring us low and lead us to sin.

3. His temptations are plausible. They often seem to be only urging us to do what is good and proper. They seem even to urge us to promote the glory of God, and to honor him. We are not to think, therefore, that because a thing may seem to be good in itself, that therefore it is to be done. Some of the most powerful temptations of Satan occur when he seems to be urging us to do what shall be for the glory of God.

4. We are to meet the temptations of Satan, as the Saviour did, with the plain and positive declarations of Scripture. We are to inquire whether the thing is commanded, and whether, therefore, it is right to do it, and not trust to our own feelings, or even our wishes, in the matter.

But by (or, upon, επι) every word - Ρημα, in Greek, answers to דבר dabar in Hebrew, which means not only a word spoken, but also thing, purpose, appointment, etc. Our Lord's meaning seems to be this: God purposes the welfare of his creatures - all his appointments are calculated to promote this end. Some of them may appear to man to have a contrary tendency; but even fasting itself, when used in consequence of a Divine injunction, becomes a mean of supporting that life which it seems naturally calculated to impair or destroy.

But he answered and said, it is written,.... The passage referred to, and cited, is in Deuteronomy 8:3 the manner of citing it is what was common and usual with the Jews; and is often to be met with in the Talmudic writings; who, when they produce any passage of scripture, say "as it is written". The meaning of this scripture is; not that as the body lives by bread, so the soul lives by the word of God, and doctrines of the Gospel; though this is a certain truth: or that man lives by obedience to the commands of God, as was promised to the Israelites in the wilderness, and in the land of Canaan; but that God, in satisfying man's hunger, and in supporting and preserving his life, is not tied to bread only, but can make use of other means, and order whatever he pleases to answer these ends; as, by raining manna from heaven, which is mentioned in the passage cited; and therefore there was no occasion to change the nature of things, to turn stones into bread; since that was not so absolutely necessary to the sustenance of life, as that it could not be maintained without it. Our Lord hereby expresses 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; whereby he overcame this temptation of Satan. Christ, in this, and some following citations, bears a testimony to, and establishes the authority of the sacred writings; and though he was full of the Holy Ghost, makes them the rule of his conduct; which ought to be observed against those, who, under a pretence of the Spirit, deny the scriptures to be the only rule of faith and practice and at the same time points out to us the safest and best method of opposing Satan's temptations; namely, by applying to, and making use of the word of God.

So also Luke 4:4. There is no better answering the tempter than by opposing the precepts of holy writ to his motions to sin. The word is called the sword of the Spirit, Ephesians 6:17. The papists, therefore, denying people the use of the word, disarm them as to the spiritual combat.

It is written Deu 8:3. Though man ordinarily liveth by common bread, such food as men usually eat, yet God’s power is not restrained, he can uphold the life of man when that is wanting, as he supported the Israelites by manna (to which that text relates); nor is God obliged to create any extraordinary means, for his power, which is seen in creating such means, can produce the same effect without such means if it pleaseth him. His power must be seen in creating the means, and in upholding the proper power and faculty of the means, in order to their end; why cannot he by the same power produce the effect without any such means?

Verse 4. - It is written. Our Lord's three quotations are from Deuteronomy 8:3; Deuteronomy 6:16, 13. Some portion of Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 11:13-21, because included in the Sh'ma) was the first part of Scripture taught a Jewish child. Possibly, though there is no evidence upon the subject, the neighbouring portions were often added. If they had been in our Lord's case, such a recurrence of them to his mind in his present state of exhaustion is in complete accord with psychological probability. Man... God (Deuteronomy 8:3, LXX.). As we could not accept Weiss's interpretation of the object of the devil's temptation, so neither can we accept his interpretation of our Lord's reply, that it is equivalent to "Not by means either natural or supernatural, is man's life really sustained, but by exact obedience to God's command." Our Lord quotes the passage in its primary meaning, which was fully applicable to the present occasion. It is equivalent to "Man lives, not necessarily by natural means, but by even supernatural means, if God so wishes." "The creative word, the ῤῆμα Θεοῦ, which alone imparts to the bread its sustaining power, can sustain, even as he is confident that in the present need it will sustain, apart from the bread" (Trench, 'Studies,' p. 35). The words of Deuteronomy are paraphrased in Wisd. 16:26, where the author, in a thoroughly Jewish exposition, enumerates the lessons taught by the giving of the manna. "It was altered... that thy children, O Lord, whom thou lovest, might know that it is not the growing of fruits that nourisheth man; but that it is thy Word, which preserveth them that put their trust in thee." By every word. Ἐπί (Textus Receptus; Westcott and Hort) is doubtless right. The alteration to ἐν (Lath-mann, Tregelles) is probably due to a tendency towards the simple expression of means, but perhaps to the feeling that life, especially spiritual life, is maintained rather in a sphere than on a basis (cf. Romans 10:5; Galatians 3:12).