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Mat_4:8 f. Πάσας … κόσμου ] ëÌÈìÎîÇîÌÀìÀëåÉú äÈàÈøÆõ , Ezr_1:2. Not a hyperbolical expression: amplissimum terrarum tractum, but actually all the kingdoms of the world, Luk_4:5. The devil could indeed regard only all heathen lands as his disposable possession (Luk_4:6; Lightfoot, p. 1088; Eisenmenger, entd. Judenth. II. p. 820 ff.); but even unto those remote heathen lands, and beyond, and far beyond the small country of Palestine, has the marvellous height of the mountain enabled the eye to look; the Holy Land, with the temple and the peculiar people of God, certainly belonged besides to the Son of God as a matter of course; therefore to explain it away as omnes Palaestinae regiones (Krebs, Loesner, Fischer, Gratz) is quite away from the point.
ἐὰν πες … μοι ] If Thou wilt have cast Thyself down before me as Thy master, and thereby have manifested Thy homage (Mat_2:2) to me. By the fulfilment of this demand the devil would have made Jesus unfaithful to Himself, and would have secured his own world-rule over Him. Where the mountain in question is to be sought for (according to Michaelis, it was Nebo; according to others, the Mount of Olives, Tabor, Moriah, Horeb) is, considering the miraculous nature of the scene (Luk_4:5 : ἐν στιγμῇ χρόνου ), not even to be asked; just as little is δείκνυσιν to be rationalized as if it denoted not merely the actual pointing, but also the verbis demonstrare (Kuinoel, Glöckler); the δόξα αὐτῶν , moreover, is the external splendour of the kingdoms that lay before His eye.