Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Matthew 4:1

Τότε, then, implying close connection with the events recorded in last chapter, especially the descent of the Spirit. ἀνήχθη, was led up, into the higher, more solitary region of the wilderness, the haunt of wild beasts (Mark 1:13) rather than of men. ὑπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος. The divine Spirit has to do with our darker experience as well as with our bright, joyous ones. He is with the sons of God in their conflicts with doubt not less than in their moments of noble impulse and heroic resolve. The same Spirit who brought Jesus from Nazareth to the Jordan afterward led Him to the scene of trial. The theory of desertion hinted at by Calvin and adopted by Olshausen is based on a superficial view of religious experience. God's Spirit is never more with a man than in his spiritual struggles. Jesus was mightily impelled by the Spirit at this time (cf. Mk.'s ἐκβάλλει). And as the power exerted was not physical but moral, the fact points to intense mental preoccupation. πειρασθῆναι, to be tempted, not necessarily covering the whole experience of those days, but noting a specially important phase: to be tempted inter alia. πειράζω : a later form for πειράω, in classic Greek, primary meaning to attempt, to try to do a thing (vide for this use Acts 9:26; Acts 16:7; Acts 24:6); then in an ethical sense common in O. T. and N. T., to try or tempt either with good or with bad intent, associated in some texts (e.g., 2 Corinthians 13:5) with δοκιμάζω, kindred in meaning. Note the omission of τοῦ before infinitive. ὑπὸ τ. διαβόλου : in later Jewish theology the devil is the agent in all temptation with evil design. In the earlier period the line of separation between the divine and the diabolic was not so carefully defined. In 2 Samuel 24:11 God tempts David to number the people; in 1 Chronicles 21:1 it is Satan.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Matthew 4:1

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