Matthew 4:1

τότε. The εὐθὺς of St Mark 1:12 points still more clearly to the significant nearness of the Temptation to the Baptism.

ἀνήχθη … ὑπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος. The agency of the Spirit of God is named in each of the Synoptists. St Mark uses the strong expression ‘the Spirit driveth him forth.’ St Luke uses the preposition ἐν (in) denoting the influence in which Jesus passed into the wilderness.

εἰς τὴν ἔρημον. See note on ch. Matthew 3:1, but the locality of the temptation is not known.

The desert as the scene of the temptation has a peculiar significance. It was the waste and waterless tract (ἄνυδροι τόποι, ch. Matthew 12:43) which unpeopled by men was thought to be the abode of demons. So Jesus meets the evil spirit in his own domains, the Stronger One coming upon the strong man who keepeth his palace (Luke 11:21-22). The retirement preparatory to the great work may be compared with that of Elijah and of Paul. It is perhaps an invariable experience in deeply religious lives to be taken into the desert of their own hearts and there to meet and resist the temptations that assailed Christ.

πειρασθῆναι. The final infinitive is very usual with St Matthew. In the other Synoptic Gospels the purpose is not expressly noted.

τοῦ διαβόλου. The Hebrew word ‘Satan’ of which διάβολος is a rendering means ‘one who meets or opposes,’ ‘an adversary.’ διάβολος had originally the same meaning. Thus διαβάλλειν in the LXX. = ‘to meet,’ cp. Numbers 22:22; Numbers 22:32, ἀνέστη ὁ ἄγγελος τοῦ θεοῦ διαβαλεῖν αὐτόν, and ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἐξῆλθον εἰς διαβολήν σου.

To this original meaning of διάβολος the classical force of διαβάλλειν and its derivatives added the ideas of (1) deceiving, (2) calumniating, (3) accusing. In Revelation 20:2, we find both the Greek and Hebrew forms—ὅς ἐστιν διάβολος καὶ Σατανᾶς—a proof that the meanings of the two words, synonymous at first, had already been severed, and one among many instances of the influence of translation on religious ideas.

1. Divine service was held in the synagogue on the Sabbath and also on the second and fifth day of each week.