Lukas 4:3-8

4:3 The devil said to him, “If ¹  you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” ²  4:4 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man ³  does not live by bread alone.’” ⁴ 

4:5 Then ⁵  the devil ⁶  led him up ⁷  to a high place ⁸  and showed him in a flash all the kingdoms of the world. 4:6 And he ⁹  said to him, “To you ¹⁰  I will grant this whole realm ¹¹  – and the glory that goes along with it, ¹²  for it has been relinquished ¹³  to me, and I can give it to anyone I wish. 4:7 So then, if ¹⁴  you will worship ¹⁵  me, all this will be ¹⁶  yours.” 4:8 Jesus ¹⁷  answered him, ¹⁸  “It is written, ‘You are to worship ¹⁹  the Lord ²⁰  your God and serve only him.’” ²¹ 

[4:3]  ¹ tn This is a first class condition: “If (and let’s assume that you are) the Son of God…”

[4:3]  ² tn Grk “say to this stone that it should become bread.”

[4:4]  ³ 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.

[4:4]  ⁴ tc 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.

[4:4]  sn A quotation from Deut 8:3. Jesus will live by doing God’s will, and will take no shortcuts.

[4:5]  ⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[4:5]  sn The order of Luke’s temptations differs from Matthew’s at this point as numbers two and three are reversed. It is slightly more likely that Luke has made the change to put the Jerusalem temptation last, as Jerusalem is so important to Luke’s later account. The temporal markers in Matthew’s account are also slightly more specific.

[4:5]  ⁶ tn Grk “he.”

[4:5]  ⁷ tc Most mss (א¹ A [D W] Θ Ψ 0102 Ë^1,[13] 33 700 2542 Ï it) refer to Jesus being taken up “to a high mountain” (with many of these also explicitly adding “the devil”) here in parallel with Matt 4:8, but both scribal harmonization to that text and the pedigree of the witnesses for the shorter reading (א* B L 1241 pc) is the reason it should be omitted from Luke.

[4:5]  ⁸ tn “A high place” is not in the Greek text but has been supplied for clarity.

[4:6]  ⁹ tn Grk “And the devil.”

[4:6]  ¹⁰ sn In Greek, this phrase is in an emphatic position. In effect, the devil is tempting Jesus by saying, “Look what you can have!”

[4:6]  ¹¹ tn Or “authority.” BDAG 353 s.v. ἐξουσία 6 suggests, concerning this passage, that the term means “the sphere in which the power is exercised, domain.” Cf. also Luke 22:53; 23:7; Acts 26:18; Eph 2:2.

[4:6]  ¹² tn The addendum referring to the glory of the kingdoms of the world forms something of an afterthought, as the following pronoun (“it”) makes clear, for the singular refers to the realm itself.

[4:6]  ¹³ tn For the translation of παραδέδοται (paradedotai) see L&N 57.77. The devil is erroneously implying that God has given him such authority with the additional capability of sharing the honor.

[4:7]  ¹⁴ tn This is a third class condition: “If you worship me (and I am not saying whether you will or will not)…”

[4:7]  ¹⁵ tn Or “will prostrate yourself in worship before…” The verb προσκυνέω (proskunew) can allude not only to the act of worship but the position of the worshiper. See L&N 53.56.

[4:7]  ¹⁶ tn One could translate this phrase “it will all be yours.” The sense is the same, but the translation given is a touch more emphatic and more likely to catch the force of the offer.

[4:8]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “And Jesus.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[4:8]  ¹⁸ tc Most mss, especially the later ones (A Θ Ψ 0102 ˹³ Ï it), have “Get behind me, Satan!” at the beginning of the quotation. This roughly parallels Matt 4:10 (though the Lukan mss add ὀπίσω μου to read ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου, σατανᾶ [{upage opisw mou, satana]); for this reason the words are suspect as a later addition to make the two accounts agree more precisely. A similar situation occurred in v. 5.

[4:8]  ¹⁹ tn Or “You will prostrate yourself in worship before…” The verb προσκυνέω (proskunew) can allude not only to the act of worship but the position of the worshiper. See L&N 53.56.

[4:8]  ²⁰ tc Most later mss (A Θ 0102 Ï) alter the word order by moving the verb forward in the quotation. This alteration removes the emphasis from “the Lord your God” as the one to receive worship (as opposed to Satan) by moving it away from the beginning of the quotation.

[4:8]  sn In the form of the quotation in the Greek text found in the best mss, it is the unique sovereignty of the Lord that has the emphatic position.

[4:8]  ²¹ sn A quotation from Deut 6:13. The word “only” is an interpretive expansion not found in either the Hebrew or Greek (LXX) text of the OT.