4:1 Then 1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River 2 and was led by the Spirit 3 in 4 the wilderness, 5 4:2 where for forty days he endured temptations 6 from the devil. He 7 ate nothing 8 during those days, and when they were completed, 9 he was famished. 4:3 The devil said to him, “If 10 you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 11 4:4 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man 12 does not live by bread alone.’” 13
4:5 Then 14 the devil 15 led him up 16 to a high place 17 and showed him in a flash all the kingdoms of the world.
1 tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate continuity with the previous topic.
2 tn “River” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity.
3 sn The double mention of the Spirit in this verse makes it clear that the temptation was neither the fault of Jesus nor an accident.
4 tc Most
5 tn Or “desert.”
6 tn Grk “in the desert, for forty days being tempted.” The participle πειραζόμενος (peirazomeno") has been translated as an adverbial clause in English to avoid a run-on sentence with a second “and.” Here the present participle suggests a period of forty days of testing. Three samples of the end of the testing are given in the following verses.
7 tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
8 sn The reference to Jesus eating nothing could well be an idiom meaning that he ate only what the desert provided; see Exod 34:28. A desert fast simply meant eating only what one could obtain in the desert. The parallel in Matt 4:2 speaks only of Jesus fasting.
9 tn The Greek word here is συντελεσθείσων (suntelesqeiswn) from the verb συντελέω (suntelew).
10 tn This is a first class condition: “If (and let’s assume that you are) the Son of God…”
11 tn Grk “say to this stone that it should become bread.”
12 tn Or “a person.” The Greek word ὁ ἄνθρωπος (Jo anqrwpo") is used generically for humanity. The translation “man” is used because the emphasis in Jesus’ response seems to be on his dependence on God as a man.
13 tc Most
14 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
15 tn Grk “he.”
16 tc Most
17 tn “A high place” is not in the Greek text but has been supplied for clarity.