Matthew 4:5

Then the devil taketh him up ,.... This was done, not in a visionary way, but really and truly: Satan, by divine permission, and with the consent of Christ, which shows his great humiliation and condescension, had power over his body, to move it from place to place; in some such like manner as the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, Acts 8:39 he took him up, raised him above ground, and carried him through the air, "into, the holy city": this was Jerusalem; for Luke expressly says,

he brought him to Jerusalem , Luke 4:9 called so, because of the presence, worship, and service of God, which had been in it, though then in a great measure gone; and according to the common notions of the Jews, who say F2 Bemidbar Rabba, fol. 183. 4. & Maimon. Hilch. Beth. Habechirah, c. 7. sect. 14. & 6. 16. Jerusalem was more holy than any other cities in the land, and that because of the Shekinah. The inscription on one side of their shekels was ירושלם עיר הקדש , "Jerusalem, the holy city" F3 Waserus de Antiq. Numm. Heb. l. 2. c. 5. . Satan frequents all sorts of places; men are no where free from his temptations; Christ himself was not in the holy city, no nor in the holy temple; hither also he had him,

and setteth him upon a pinnacle , or "wing of the temple". In this place F4 Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 2. c. 23. the Jews set James, the brother of Christ, and from it cast him down headlong: this was the ακρον "the summit", or "top" of it; and intends either the roof encompassed with battlements, to keep persons from falling off; or the top of the porch before the temple, which was 120 cubits high; or the top of the royal gallery, built by Herod, which was of such an height, that if a man looked down from it, he soon became dizzy F5 Joseph. Antiq. Jud. l. 15. c. 14. . The view Satan had in setting him here appears in the next verse.