Chú giải Kinh Thánh

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.

Matthew 4:1-11. Temptation of Jesus. Mark 1:12 f.; Luke 4:1 ff.; Alex. Schweizer, exeg. hist. Darstellung d. Versuchsgesch. in s. Kritik d. Gegensätze zw. Rationalism, u. Supernat. 1833; P. Ewald, d. Versuch. Christi mit Bezugnahme auf d. Versuch. d. Protoplasten. 1838; Kohlschütter in the Sächs. Stud. 1843; Ullmann, Sündlosigk. Jesu, ed. 7, 1863; Graul in Guericke’s Zeitschr. 1844, 3; Pfeiffer in the Deutsch. Zeitschr. 1851, No. 36; Koenemann (purely dogmatic) in Guericke’s Zeitschr. 1850, p. 586 ff.; Laufs in the Stud. u. Krit. 1853, p. 355 ff.; Nebe, d. Versuch. d. Hernn e. äussere Thatsache, 1857; v. Engelhardt, de Jesu Chr. tentatione, 1858; Held in Hilgenfeld’s Zeitschr. 1866, p. 384 ff.; Haupt in the Stud. u. Krit. 1871, p. 209 ff.; Pfleiderer in Hilgenfeld’s Zeitschr. 1870, p. 188 ff.

The narrative in Matthew (and Luke) is a later development of the tradition, the older and still undeveloped form of which is to be found in Mark.

τότε] when the Holy Spirit had descended upon Him.

ἀνήχθη] He was led upwards, i.e. from the lower ground of the river bank to the higher lying wilderness. Luke 2:22; Luke 22:66.

τὴν ἔρημον] the same wilderness of Judea spoken of in ch. 3. According to the tradition, we are to think of the very rugged wilderness of Quarantania (wilderness of Jericho, Joshua 16:1), Robinson, Pal. II. p. 552; Schubert, Reise, III. p. 73; Raumer, p. 47. But in that case a more precise, distinctive designation must have been given; and Mark 1:13, ἦν μετὰ τῶν θηρίων, is a point which has a sufficient basis in the idea of the wilderness in general. Nothing in the text points to the wilderness of Sinai (Chemnitz, Clericus, Michaelis, Nebe).

ὑπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος] by the Holy Spirit, which He had received at His baptism. ἀνήχθη) does not indicate (Acts 8:39; 2 Kings 2:16) that He was transported in a miraculous, involuntary manner, but by the power of the Spirit, which is expressed still more strongly in Mark 1:12. Others (Bertholdt, Paulus, Glöckler) understand Jesus’ own spirit, Paulus regarding it as an ecstatic condition. This would be opposed to the context (Matthew 3:16), and to the view of the matter taken by the Synoptics, which, in Luke 4:1, is expressed without any doubt whatever by the words πνεύματος ἁγίου πλήρης. Euth. Zigabenus well remarks: ἐκδίδωσιν ἑαυτὸν μετά τὸ βάπτισμα τῷ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι καὶ ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ ἄγεται πρὸς ὃ ἂν ἐκεῖνο κελεύῃ, καὶ ἀνάγεται εἰς τὴν ἔρημον ἐπὶ τῷ πολεμηθῆναι ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου.

πειρας θῆναι] designates the purpose for which the Spirit impelled Jesus to go into the wilderness: πειράζειν, to put to the proof, receives its more precise definition in each case from the connection. Here: whether the Messiah is to be brought to take an unrighteous step which conflicts with His calling and the will of God.

ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου] In what shape the devil appeared to Him, the text does not say; and the view of the evangelist as to that is left undetermined. Yet the appearance must be conceived of as being directly devilish, not at all as taking place in the form of an angel of light (Ambrose, Menken), or even of a man.

REMARK.

The two opposed principles, ὑπὸ τοῦ πν. and ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβ., are essentially related to one another; and the whole position of the history, moreover, immediately after the descent of the Spirit on Jesus, proves that it is the victory of Jesus, filled with the Spirit (Luke 4:1-2), over the devil, which is to be set forth. It appears from this how erroneous is the invention of Olshausen, that the condition of Jesus in the wilderness was that of one who had been abandoned by the fulness of the Spirit. The opinion of Calvin is similar, although more cautiously expressed, Matthew 4:11 : “Interdum Dei gratia, quamvis praesens esset, eum secundum carnis sensum latuit.”

Matthew 4:2. Νηστεύσας] to be taken absolutely. Luke 4:2. Comp. Deuteronomy 9:9; Exodus 34:28; 1 Kings 19:8. It is explained, without reason, by Kuiuoel, Kuhn, and many others in the sense of deprivation of the usual means of nourishment. This relative meaning, which, if presented by the context, would be admissible (Kuhn, L. J. I. p. 364 ff.), is here, however, where even the nights are mentioned as well as the days, contradicted by the context, the supernatural character of the history, the intentionally definite statement of Luke (Matthew 4:2), and the types of Moses and Elijah. It is just as irrelevant to change the forty days as a sacred number into an indefinite measure of time (Köster); or, as a round number, into several days (Neander, Krabbe). That, moreover, the forty days’ fast became the occasion of the temptation, cannot appear as out of keeping (Strauss, de Wette) with the object, but, according to Matthew 4:1, was contained in the design of the Spirit.

ὕστερον] of itself superfluous, indicates, however, the circumstance that the hunger did not attack Him until He had fasted. Bengel: “Hactenus non tarn fuerat tentatio, quam ad eam praeparatio.” Comp. the similar usage of εἶτα and ἔπειτα after participles by classical writers, Stallbaum, ad Plat. Phaed. p. 70 E.

Matthew 4:3. Ὁ πειράζων Part, present taken substantively. See on Matthew 2:20. Here: the devil. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 3:5.

εἰ] does not indicate that Satan had doubts of Jesus being the Son of God (Origen, Wolf, Bengel), or was not aware of it (Ignat. Phil. interpol. 9), comp. Matthew 28:20; but the problematical expression was to incite Jesus to enter upon the unreasonable demand, and to prove Himself the Son of God. Euth. Zigabenus: ᾤετο, ὅτι παρακνισθήσεται τῷ λόγῳ, καθάπερ ὀνειδισθεὶς ἐπὶ τῷ μὴ εἶναι υἱὸς θεοῦ.

υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ] See Matthew 3:17. The devil makes use of this designation of the Messiah, not because he deemed Jesus to be only a man, who υἱοθετήθη τῷ θεῷ διὰ τὰς ἀρετὰς αὐτοῦ (Euth. Zigabenus), or because he had become doubtful, owing to the hungering of Jesus, of His divinity, which had been attested at His baptism (Chrysostom); but because Jesus’ supernatural relation to God is well known to him, whilst he himself, as the principle opposed to God, has to combat the manifestation and activity of the divine. Observe that by the position of the words the emphasis lies on υἱός: if Thou standest to God in the relation of Son.

εἰπὲ, ἵνα] ἵνα after verbs of commanding, entreaty, and desire, and the like, does not stand in the sense of the infinitive, as is commonly assumed (Winer, de Wette, Bleek), in opposition to the necessary conception of the words, but is, as it always is, an expression of the purpose, in order that, the mistaking of which proceeds from this, that it is not usual in the German language to express the object, of the command, and so on, in the form of a purpose. Here: speak (utter a command) in order that these stones, and so on. Comp. Matthew 20:21. The oldest examples from Greek writers after ἐθέλειν, ὄφρα, in Hom. Il. i. 133 (see Nägelsbach thereon), occur in Herodotus and Demosthenes. See Schaefer, ad Dem. 279. 8 : ἀξιοῦν, ἵνα βοηθήσῃ; Kühner, II. 2, p. 519.

οἱ λίθοι οὗτοι] comp. Matthew 3:9.

ἄρτος] Bread, in the proper sense; not, like לֶחֶם, food in general. Comp. Matthew 7:9.

The Son of God must free Himself from the state of hunger, which is unbecoming His dignity, by an act similar to the divine creation, and thus employ His divine power for His own advantage. The tempter introduces his lever into the immediate situation of the moment.

Matthew 4:4. Deuteronomy 8:3, after the LXX., contains the words of Moses addressed to the Israelites, which have reference to the divinely-supplied manna. Note how Jesus repels each one of the three temptations, simply with the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17).

ἐπʼ ἄρτῳ] the preservation of life does not depend upon bread alone. Examples of ζῆν ἐπί in Kypke, Obss. I. p. 14 f.; Markland, ad Max. Tyr. Diss. Matthew 27:6; Bergler, ad Alciphr. p. 294, This construction is a common one in classical writers with ἐκ, ἀπό, or the simple dative.

ζήσεται] The future tense designates in Deuteronomy 1:1, and in LXX. as well as here, simply the future, that which will happen, the case which will occur under given circumstances. So also in classical writers in general sentences. Dissen, ad Dem. de cor. p. 369.

ὁ ἄνθρωπος] universal: Man. So in the original text and in the LXX.; there is the less reason to depart from this, and to explain it: de insigni illo homine, that is, Messiah (Fritzsche), as the application of the universal statement to Himself on the part of Jesus was a matter of course.

ῥήματι Word, in its proper sense. By every statement which proceeds from the mouth of God, that is, through every command which is uttered by God, by which the preservation of life is effected in an extraordinary, supernatural manner (without ἄρτος).[388] Comp. Wis 16:26. ῥῆμα is not res (רָּבָר), not even in Matthew 18:16, Luke 2:15, Acts 5:32, 1Ma 5:37, since ἘΚΠΟΡ. ΔΙᾺ ΣΤΟΜ. ΘΕΟῦ necessarily points to the meaning of word, declaration, which, however, is not to be explained, with Fritzscbe (comp. Usteri and Ullmann): omni mandato divino peragendo.

[388] Amongst the Israelites it was effected by means of the manna; therefore we must not say with Euth. Zigabenus: πᾶν ῥῆμα ἐκπορευόμενον διὰ στόματος θεοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν πεινῶντα δίκην τροφῆς συνέχει τὴν ζωὴν αὐτοῦ. Comp. Chrysostom: δύναται ὁ θεὸς καὶ ῥήματι θρέψαι τὸν πεινῶντα, Pfleiderer also refers it to the power of spiritual nourishment contained in the divine word; as also Calovius, who says: “Revocat a verbo potentiae, quo lapides erant in panem convertendi, ad verbum gratiae, cui adhaerentes vivent, etiamsi pane careant.”

Matthew 4:5. Παραλαμβ] he takes Him with him, 1Ma 3:37; 1Ma 4:1, and frequently in Greek writers.

τὴν ἁγίαν πόλιν] עִיר הַקֹּרֶשׁ, Isaiah 48:2; Isaiah 52:1; Nehemiah 11:1. Jerusalem, the city of God, on account of the national temple, Matthew 5:35, Matthew 27:53; Luke 4:9; Sir 36:13; Sir 49:6; Josephus, Antt. iv. 4. 4; Lightfoot, Hor. p. 43; Ottii Spicileg. p. 9. Even at the present day it is called by the Arabs: the place of the Sanctuary, or the Holy City [El Kuds]. Hamelsveld, biol. Geogr. I. p. 204 ff.; Rosenmüller, Morgenl. in loc. The designation has something solemn in contrast to the devil.

ἵστησιν] not “auctor erat, ut Christus (with him) illuc se conferret” (Kuinoel, Fritzsche), but: he places Him, which implies the involuntary nature of the act on the part of Jesus, and the power on the part of the devil. Comp. Euseb. H. E. ii. 23 : ἔστησαν … τὸν Ἰάκωβον ἐπὶ τὸ πτερύγιον τοῦ ναοῦ. A more precise determination of what is certainly a miraculous occurrence (conceived of by Jerome as a carrying away through the air) is not given in the text, which, however, does not permit us to think of it as something internal taking. place in the condition of a trance (Olshausen). Comp. Acts 8:38.

τὸ πτερύγιον τοῦ ἱεροῦ] the little wing of the temple[389] is sought for by many on the temple building itself, so that it is either its battlement (Luther, Beza, Grotius), that is, the parapet surrounding the roof, or the ridge (Fritzsche, Winer), or the gable, pediment (Vulgate: pinnaculum; Paulus, Bleek), the two latter from their wing shape (Λ), or roof generally (Keim, and older expositors. See especially Krebs on the passage), that is indicated. But, apart from this, that the roofing of the temple house, according to Josephus, Antt. v. 5. 6, vi. 5. 1, was furnished on the top with pointed stakes as a protection against birds, and, moreover, on account of the extreme sacredness of the place, would hardly he selected by tradition as the spot where the devil stationed himself, the τοῦ ἱεροῦ is opposed to it, which does not, like ΝΑΌς, designate the main building of the temple, properly speaking, but the whole area of the temple with its buildings. See Tittmann, Synon. p. 178 f. The view, therefore, of those is to be preferred who, with Euth. Zigabenus, Olearins, Reland, Valckenaer, seek the πτερύγιον in an outbuilding of the temple area; where, however, it is again doubtful whether Solomon’s portico or the στοὰ βασιλική, the former (Josephus, Antt. xx. 9. 7) on the east side, the latter (Josephus, Antt. xv. 11. 5) on the south, both standing on an abrupt precipice, is intended. Wetstein and Michaelis prefer the former; Kuinoel, Bretschneider, B. Crusius, Arnoldi, the latter. In favour of the latter is the description of the giddy look down from this portico given in Josephus: εἴ τις ἀπʼ ἄκρου τοῦ ταύτης τέγους ἄμφω συντιθεὶς τὰ βάθη διοπτεύει, σκοτοδινιᾶν, οὐκ ἐξικνουμένης τῆς ὄψεως εἰς ἀμέτρητον τὸν βυθόν. In Hegesippus, quoted by Eus. ii. 23 (where James preaches downwards from the ΠΤΕΡΎΓΙΟΝ ΤΟῦ ΝΑΟῦ, and the scribes then go up and throw him down), it is not the gable, but the pinnacle, the balustrade of the temple building, which formed a projection (ἀκρωτήριον), that we are to think of. Comp. Hesychius: ΠΤΕΡΎΓΙΟΝ· ἈΚΡΩΤΉΡΙΟΝ. The article denotes that the locality where the occurrence took place was well known.

[389] Amongst the Greeks (Strabo, Plutarch, the Scholiasts), πτερόν, wing, is specially used in an architectural sense. See the Lexica, also Müller, Archäol. § 220. 3. On πτέρυξ in this sense, comp. Poll. vii. 121; on πτερύγιον, Joseph. Antt. xv. 11. 5; on πτέρωμα, Vitruv. iii. 3. 9.

REMARK.

The second temptation in Matthew is the third in Luke. The transposition was made with a view to the order in which the localities succeeded each other. But in a climactic point of view, how inappropriate is the order in which it occurs in Luke, and how appropriate is that in Matthew,[390] whose greater originality must here also be maintained against Schnecken burger and Krafft. The variation itself, however, is not removed by the circumstance that Matthew only continues the narrative with τότε and ΠΆΛΙΝ (Ebrard), but it remains and is unessential.

[390] Luther: At the first temptation, the devil appeared as a black one; at the second, where he puts forth a word of Scripture, a light, white one; at the third, “quite as a divinely majestic devil, who comes out straightway, indeed, as if he were God Himself.”

Matthew 4:6. In Psalm 91:11-12, according to the LXX., it is God’s providential care for the pious in general that is spoken of. Here the tempter, who now himself grasps the weapon of Scripture, which had just been used against him, cunningly applies the typical expressions in the Psalms (the figure is borrowed from maternal anxiety) strictly to the Messiah.

ὅτι], not the recitative, but a part of the passage.

The Son of God, in reliance on the divine protection, must undertake a daring miracle of display in order to win over the masses for Himself. For the multitudes, with a view to influencing whom this miracle is proposed, are understood to be, as a matter of course, on the temple area; and therefore we are not to assume, with Kohlschütter, Ullmann, Engelhardt, that it was only an exhibition of divine favour and protection, and no public spectacle, which was aimed at. On that view no sufficient reason is shown why Jesus is brought from the wilderness to the most populous centre of the metropolis. Euth. Zigabenus strikingly remarks: διὰ κενοδοξίας ἑλεῖν αὐτὸν ἐπιχειρεῖ.

Matthew 4:7. Πάλιν] rursus, never signifies in the N. T., not even in 2 Corinthians 10:7, Galatians 5:3, 1 John 2:8, at quoque, e diverso, a meaning which it frequently has in classic writers (Ellendt, Lex. Soph. II. p. 485), as Erasmus, Er. Schmid, Schleusner, B. Crusius, have interpreted it; but here means, on the other hand, looking back to the γέγραπται of the devil in Matthew 4:6, and introducing another passage of Scripture as something which again has been written; comp. Matthew 5:33. Bengel well says: Scriptura per scripturam interpretanda et concilianda.

οὐκ ἐκπειράσεις] future, as in Matthew 1:21; the compound strengthens the meaning; comp. on 1 Corinthians 10:9.

The meaning is: “Do not let it be a question whether God will save thee from dangers on which thou hast entered uncalled.”

Flacius: Si habuisset expressum mandatum dei, non fuisset tentatio. Deuteronomy 6:16 (LXX.), comp. Exodus 17:2.