The New Testament with Commentary Matthew 4

Jesus tested by Satan

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. 2 And having fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.* 3 And coming to Him the tempter said, “Since you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.”† 4 But in answer He said, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word coming out of God's mouth.’ ”‡ 5 Then the devil takes Him into the holy city§ and sets Him upon the pinnacle of the temple,* 6 and says to Him, “Since you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written:

‘He will give orders to His angels about you,

and they will lift you up on their hands,

lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”†

7 Jesus said to him, “It is also written: ‘You shall not test the Lord your God!’ ”‡ 8 Again the devil takes Him to a very high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.§ 9 And he says to Him, “All these things I will give to you, if You will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus says to him: “Get behind me, Satan!* For it is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.’ ”† 11 Then the devil leaves Him, and then, angels came and began ministering to Him.‡

Jesus chooses Capernaum as His base of operations—27 AD

12 Now hearing that John had been put in prison, Jesus departed into Galilee.§ 13 And leaving Natsareth behind,* He went and took up residence in Capernaum by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali; 14 so that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet should be fulfilled, namely:

15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,

way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations!

16 The people sitting in darkness saw a great light,

and upon those sitting in the place and shadow of death

light has dawned.”†

Jesus calls four fishermen

17 From then on Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has come near.”‡ 18 And walking by the Sea of Galilee He saw two brothers, Simon (the one called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a circular net into the sea (for they were fishermen). 19 And He says to them, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 So leaving the nets immediately they followed Him.§ 21 And going on from there He saw two other brothers, James (the one of Zebedee) and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. And He called them. 22 So leaving the boat and their father immediately they followed Him.*

A tour of Galilee

23 Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every illness among the people. 24 So His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were sick—suffering with various diseases and torments, and being demonized and being moonstruck, and paralytics—and He healed them. 25 So large crowds followed Him—from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and beyond the Jordan.†

*4:2 This episode was ordained by the Holy Spirit. Jesus had to confront Satan when He was physically the weakest He would ever be (40 days without food!). When Satan failed to defeat this weakened Jesus he was probably filled with despair—he now knew that he could never defeat Him. (But he would still try to kill Him.)

†4:3 Satan was not so foolish as to question Jesus' identity, “if”; he was more subtle, “since”.

‡4:4 See Deuteronomy 8:3.

§4:5 ‘The holy city’ was evidently Jerusalem. One is tempted to ask, what was ‘holy’ about it?

*4:5 This is literal; Satan has the power to transport things. Matthew has the correct sequence, whereas Luke inverts the order of tests 2 and 3 (Matthew uses adverbs of sequence, but Luke does not).

†4:6 See Psalm 91:11-12. Satan knows the Bible, and how to twist it.

‡4:7 See Deuteronomy 6:16. The point is to not put God to the test, to not deliberately do something irresponsible with the intention of obliging God to work a miracle to save you.

§4:8 This also is literal and obviously supernatural (since the world is a sphere, even from a satellite one can only see half of it). We have here a master stroke of Satan—Jehovah the Son took on human form in order to recover what the first Adam had lost, and Satan offers it to Him on a silver platter, with just one ‘small’ condition…

*4:10 88% of the Greek manuscripts have “Get behind me…”; in Luke 4:8 at least 97% have “Get behind me…”.

†4:10 See Deuteronomy 6:13. Note that Jesus did not deny his right to make the offer.

‡4:11 The impression one gets is that the angels were not allowed to help Jesus during His direct confrontation with Satan.

§4:12 The early Judean ministry, as recorded in John 1, 2 and 3, ends here.

*4:13 See Luke 4:16-30. Presumably Jesus moved His belongings out of Natsareth at this time.

†4:16 See Isaiah 9:1-2.

‡4:17 Right! The King was walking among them. “Kingdom of the heavens” and “kingdom of God” are synonyms, as can be seen by comparing parallel passages in Mark and Luke. Jesus continues with John's message, since the herald is now out of action.

§4:20 They had employees who could take care of the equipment.

*4:22 All four of these men had spent time with Jesus already, so this was not ‘out of the blue’.

†4:25 Luke 5:1 says that this same crowd was hungry to hear the Word of God, and they did indeed hear the Sermon on the Mount, but Jesus used healing and deliverance to attract the crowd.