Matthew 4:6 - Exposition

If thou be the Son of God ( Matthew 4:3 , note). For it is written . Psalms 91:11 , Psalms 91:12 , verbally from the LXX ., but omitting the clause, "to keep thee in all thy ways." Luke omits only "in all thy ways." The clause, according to either record, was omitted possibly because the devil shrank from reminding Jesus of "ways" which he need not take; more probably because ' ways" hardly fitted this case (cf. Weiss). Trench, following St. Bernard, says that the omission of the clause alters the whole character of the quotation, considering that "ways" implies ways appointed by God. But this appears to be strained. The devil, appealing to Jesus' consciousness of abiding communion with God ( Psalms 91:1 ), bids him enjoy to the full the promise of God's protection. There is no thought here of a "miracle of display" to the multitudes who were assembled, "as a matter of course," on the temple area (Meyer; cf. even Trench). Neither the devil's solicitation nor our Lord's reply hint at anything else than Divine protection. If it be urged that for this any one of the many precipices by the Dead Sea, e.g. those of the Quamntana (verse 1, note) itself, would have been sufficient, the answer may be found in the fact that at the temple, the seat of God's special manifestation, God's special protection might be looked for. There is a slight doubt whether the ὅτι after γέγραπται is recitative (Westcott and Hort, and most) or part of the quotation (Rheims, Meyer, Weiss). In favour of the latter view is the fact that the recitative ὅτι is not used elsewhere in this section (verses 4, 7, 10), but as in Luke 4:10 it can hardly be other than recitative (for another ὅτι is inserted before "on their hands"), the probability is that it was recitative in the oral source, and therefore recitative here. In their hands ; Revised Version, on ; ἐπὶ χειρῶν . The thought is not so much of surrounding care as of physical support through space. Lest at any time ; Revised Version, lest haply ; and so always, for "in the New Testament use of rids particle ( μή ποτέ ) the notion of time usual to ποτέ seems to recede before that of contingency" (Thayer).