Luke 4:3

If thou be the Son of God Doubtless an allusion to the divine Voice at His baptism (Luke 3:22). The same words were tauntingly addressed to our Lord on the Cross (Matthew 27:40). The Greek strictlymeans "Assuming that Thou art," but in Hellenistic Greek words and phrases are not always used with their earlier delicate accuracy.

command this stone The Greek implies that the suggestion called direct attention to a particular stone. In this desert there are loaf-shaped fossils known to early travellers as lapides judaici, and to geologists as septaria. Some of these siliceous accretions assume the shape of fruit, and are known as -Elijah's melons" (Stanley, Sin. and Pal.154). They were popularly regarded as petrified fruits of the Cities of the Plain. Such deceptive semblances would intensify the pangs of hunger, and add to the temptation the additional torture of an excited imagination. (See a sketch of such a septariumin the Illustrated Edition of my Life of Christ, p. 99.)

that it be made bread Rather, that it may become a loaf. The subtle malignity of the temptation is indescribable. It was a temptation to "the lust" (i. e. the desire) "of the flesh;" a temptation to gratify a natural and blameless appetite; an appeal to free-will and self-will, closely analogous to the devil's first temptation of the race. -You may; you can; it will be pleasant: why not?" (Genesis 3:1-15). But it did not come in an undisguisedly sensuous form, but with the suggestive semblance of Scriptural sanctions (1 Kings 19:8; Deuteronomy 8:16; Psalms 78:19).