Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Mark 1:13

τεσσεράκοντα ἡμέρας. Vulg. adds et quadraginta noctibus from Matthew 4:2. Mt. mentions the nights to show that the fasting was continuous; but Mk does not mention fasting. Mk and Lk. indicate that temptations continued throughout the forty days; cf. Exodus 34:28 of Moses, and 1 Kings 19:8 of Elijah. Mt. might lead us to suppose that they did not begin till acute hunger was felt.

πειραζόμενος. In N.T. the verb is often used of the attacks of the evil one, a use not found in LXX., in which God’s trying man, or man’s trying God, is the usual meaning. Often in N.T. “try” or “test” would be a better rendering than “tempt.” Here, as in Mark 1:5; Mark 1:39, we have a leading idea expressed by a participle.

ὑπὸ τοῦ σατανᾶ. Mt. and Lk. say ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου, a word more widely used in N.T. than Σατανᾶς, but not found in Mk. “Satan” (= “Adversary”) is found in all four Gospels, Acts, Pauline Epp. and Revelation. Cf. Job 1:6; Job 2:1; 1 Chronicles 21:1; Zechariah 3:1. Here the Adversary of God and man begins his conflict with ὁ ἰσχυρότερος αὐτοῦ (Luke 11:22) about the method of overcoming the world. Mk thinks it unnecessary to state which was victor.

ἦν μετὰ τῶν θηρίων. Short as Mk’s narrative is, he here gives a particular which is not in Mt. or Lk. The wild beasts indicate the solitariness of the place, διὰ τὴν ἄγαν ἐρημίαν τοῦ τόπου (Euthym.), rather than a special terror. One who knew Himself to be the Messiah would not be afraid of being killed by wild animals. That the beasts are meant to suggest a Paradise for the Second Adam is an idea alien from the context. They intimate the absence of human beings (Isaiah 13:21), and hence the need of Angels. Still less need we suppose that here there is confusion between two similar Hebrew words, one of which means “wild beasts” and the other “fast,” so that “wild beasts” here becomes “hungered” in Mt. and Lk. Least of all that there is here any borrowing from Buddha’s fasting or the temptation of Zarathustra. “Such ideas can only occur to those who will not try first of all to find in the story its own explanation” (Clemen). See p. 92.

διηκόνουν. Cf. Mark 1:31; Mark 15:41. The imperf. seems to imply that the Angelic ministrations, like the Satanic assaults, continued throughout Mt. places both at the end. Bede’s antithesis is hardly right: inter bestias commoratur ut homo, sed ministerio utitur angelico ut Deus. It was as man that He needed the support of Angels (Luke 22:43). There is a striking parallel in the Testaments (Naph. viii. 4): “And the devil shall fly from you, [And the wild beasts shall fear you,] And the Lord shall love you, [And the Angels shall cleave to you].” But the words in brackets are not found in all texts. Christian interpolations are freq. in the Testaments.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Mark 1:13

Old Testament

New Testament