Matthew 4:4

γέγραπται. See note ch. Matthew 2:5. Jesus answers by a quotation from Deuteronomy 8:3. The chapter sets forth the teaching of the wilderness. The forty years were to the Jews what the forty days are to Jesus. The Lord God proved Israel ‘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 … that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every [word, omitted in Hebr.] that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.’

Christ’s test of sonship is obedience and entire trust in God who alone is the giver of every good gift. The devil’s test of sonship is supply of bodily wants, external prosperity, &c.

4. The affairs of the synagogue were administered by ten men, of whom three, called ‘Rulers of the Synagogue,’ acted as judges, admitted proselytes and performed other important functions. A fourth was termed the ‘Angel of the Church’ or bishop of the congregation; three others were deacons or almoners. An eighth acted as ‘interpreter,’ rendering the Hebrew into the vernacular; the ninth was the master of the Divinity School, the tenth his interpreter; see ch. Matthew 10:27.

It is interesting to trace in the arrangements of the synagogue the germs of the organization of the Christian Church. This note is chiefly due to Lightfoot Hor. Hebr. ad loc.

αὐτῶν. Often used of the Jews without any definite antecedent, cp. οἱ γραμματεῖς αὐτῶν. Luke 5:30.

νόσον … μαλακίαν. Probably to be distinguished as ‘acute’ and ‘chronic’ diseases, μαλακίαν implying general prostration of the bodily powers. It is not classical in this sense. The word is confined to St Matthew in N.T.

ἐν τῷ λαῷ, i.e. among the Jews.