Luke 4:2-4

Context
4:2 where for forty days he endured temptations¹ from the devil. He² ate nothing³ during those days, and when they were completed,⁴ he was famished. 4:3 The devil said to him, “If⁵ you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”⁶ 4:4 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man⁷ does not live by bread alone.’”⁸

[4:2] ¹tn 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.

[4:2] ²tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[4:2] ³sn 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.

[4:2] ⁴tn The Greek word here is συντελεσθείσων (suntelesqeiswn) from the verb συντελέω (suntelew).

[4:3] ⁵tn This is a first class condition: “If (and let’s assume that you are) the Son of God…”

[4:3] ⁶tn Grk “say to this stone that it should become bread.”

[4:4] ⁹tn 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.

[4:4] ¹⁰tc Most mss (A [D] Θ Ψ [0102] Ë^1,13 33 Ï latt) complete the citation with ἀλλ᾿ ἐπὶ παντὶ ῥήματι θεοῦ (ajll’ ejpi panti rJhmati qeou, “but by every word from God”), an assimilation to Matt 4:4 (which is a quotation of Deut 8:3). The shorter reading is found in א B L W 1241 pc sa. There is no good reason why scribes would omit the rest of the quotation here. The shorter reading, on both internal and external grounds, should be considered the original wording in Luke.