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Mar_1:12-13. See on Mat_4:1-11; Luk_4:1 ff.
ἐκβάλλει ] He drives, urges Him forth; more graphic than the ἀνήχθη of Matthew and the ἤγετο of Luk_4:1. The sense of force and urgency is implied also in Mat_9:38. Observe the frequent use of the vividly realizing praesens historicus.
And He was there ( ἐκεῖ , see the critical remarks) in the desert (whither the Spirit had driven Him), i.e. in that region of the desert, during forty days, being tempted by Satan,—a manifest difference of Mark (comp. also Luke) from Matthew, with whom it is not till after forty days that the temptations begin. Evasive interpretations are to be found in Krabbe, Ebrard, and others.
καὶ ἦν μετὰ τῶν θηρίων ] and He was with the wild beasts. This is usually[51] taken as merely a graphic picture (according to de Wette: “a marvellous contrast” to the angels) of the awful solitude (Virg. Aen. iii. 646, and see Wetstein in loc.); but how remote would such a poetic representation be from the simple narrative! No, according to Mark, Jesus is to be conceived as really surrounded by the wild beasts of the desert. He is threatened in a twofold manner; Satan tempts Him, and the wild beasts encompass Him. The typical reference, according to which Christ is held to appear as the renewer of Paradise (Gen_1:26; Usteri in the Stud. u. Krit. 1834, p. 789; Gfrörer, Olshausen, comp. Bengel, and also Baur, Evang. pp. 540, 564; Hilgenfeld, Evang. p. 126; Schenkel, Holtzmann), is not indicated by anything in the text, and is foreign to it. The desert and the forty days remind us of Moses (Exo_24:18; Exo_34:28; Deu_9:9; Deu_9:18), not of Adam.
οἱ ἄγγελοι ] The article denotes the category.
ΔΙΗΚΌΝΟΥΝ ΑὐΤῷ ] There is no occasion at all, from the connection in Mark, to understand this of the ministering with food, as in Matthew; nor does the expression presuppose the representation of Matthew (Weiss). On the contrary, we must simply abide by the view that, according to Mark, is meant the help which gives protection against Satan and the wild beasts. There is in this respect also a difference from Matthew, that in the latter Gospel the angels do not appear until after the termination of the temptations.
The narrative of Christ’s temptation (regarding it, see on Mat_4:11, Remark) appears in Mark in its oldest, almost still germinal, form. It is remarkable, indeed, that in the further development of the evangelic history (in Matthew and Luke) the wonderful element ἦν μετὰ τῶν θηρίων (which, according to Hilgenfeld, merely serves to colour and embellish the meagre extract), should have remained unnoticed. But the entire interest attached itself to Satan and to his anti-Messianic agency. The brevity[52] with which Mark relates the temptation, and which quite corresponds[53] to the still undeveloped summary beginning of the tradition, is alleged by Baur to proceed from the circumstance that with Mark the matter still lay outside of the historical sphere. Against this we may decisively urge the very fact that he narrates it at all, and places the ἀρχὴ τοῦ εὐαγγ . earlier. Comp. Köstlin, p. 322.
[51] So also von Engelhardt (de Jesu Christi tentatione, Dorp. 1858, p. 5).
[52] For the idea that κ . οἱ ἀγγ . διηκ . αὐτῷ . is only the closing sentence of an originally longer narration (Weisse, Evangelienfr. p. 163) is fanciful. Only the short, compact account is in harmony with all that surrounds it. Weisse supposes that something has dropped out also after ver. 5 or 6, and after ver. 8.
[53] How awkwardly Mark would here have epitomized, if he had worked as an epitomizer! How, in particular, would he have left unnoticed the rich moral contents of the narrative in Matthew and Luke! Schleiermacher and de Wette reproach him with doing so. Comp. also Bleek.