John Bengel Commentary - Matthew 4:5 - 4:5

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

John Bengel Commentary - Matthew 4:5 - 4:5


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Mat 4:5. Τότε, then) St Matthew describes the attempts of Satan in the order of time in which they were made; see Gnomon on Mat 4:8; Mat 4:10 : St Luke observes a gradation in the places, and mentions successively (Luk 4:1; Luk 4:5; Luk 4:9) the desert, the mountain, the temple; which change of order, not only harmless but beneficial, is a proof that the one evangelist did not copy from the other. Perhaps, also, the tempter assailed our Lord with something of the third temptation before the second, and appeared in various disguises.-παραλαμβάνει, taketh along with him[138]) An abbreviated mode of expression[139] for he takes and leads. The same word is used with the same force, in Luk 4:8. St Luke, Luk 4:9; Luk 4:5, uses the words ἤγαγεν, led [Him],-ἀναγαγὼν, leading [Him] up. A marvellous power was granted to the tempter, until our Lord says to him, in Mat 4:10, “Depart.” “It is not to be wondered at,” says Gregory, “that Christ should permit Himself to be led about by the Devil, since He permitted Himself to be crucified by the Devil’s members.” Satan tempts everywhere.-Cf. on the change of place, Num 23:13; Num 23:27. Christ was tempted everywhere, in all places where afterwards He was to exercise His office.-εἰς τὴν ἁγίαν πόλιν, into the holy city) where an angelic guard might have seemed especially to be expected.-ἐπὶ upon) Our Lord was as truly on the pinnacle, and on the mountain, as He was in the desert.-πτερύγιον, pinnacle) to which the ascent was far more easy than the descent from it. What this pinnacle was, antiquarians doubt.[140] Christ was tempted by height and depth.

[138] See Blomfield in loc.-(I. B.)

[139] See Appendix on Concisa Oratio.-Ed.

[140] τὸ πτερύγιον. The article τὸ indicates something single of its kind; and, therefore, πτερύγιον cannot mean a porticus or corridor; nor would there be any special eminence in πτερύγιον so understood. It rather signifies the apex of the fastigium, ἀέτωμα, or tympanum of the Temple. Cf. the use of the word (τὸ πτερύγιον τοῦ ιερου), also τοῦ ναοῦ, by Hegesippus (in Euseb. ii. 23, and Routh, R. S. i. 210, 339), in his account of the martyrdom of St James. There, also, it is evidently a pointed eminence; and it would seem that a person there standing, would be visible and audible to a large concourse of people, such as we may suppose collected in the court of the Israelites.”-Wordsworth in loc. “The general opinion, that our Lord was placed on Herod’s royal portico, described Jos. Ant. xv. 11, 5, is probably right. That portico overhung the ravine of Kedron from a dizzy height.”-Alford in loc. Various other suppositions have been speciously supported and illustrated.-(I. B.)