The Temptation of Jesus
1 Then d Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. e 2 After he had fasted forty days and forty nights, f he was hungry. 3 Then the tempter approached him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” g
4 He answered, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” ,h
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, i 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written:
He will give his angels j orders concerning you,
and they will support you with their hands
so that you will not strike
your foot against a stone.” ,k
7 Jesus told him, “It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God.” ,l
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 And he said to him, “I will give you all these things if you will fall down and worship me.”
10 Then Jesus told him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” ,m
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and began to serve him. n
Ministry in Galilee
12 When he heard that John had been arrested, o he withdrew into Galilee. p 13 He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum q by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
15 Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
along the road by the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles.
16 The people who live in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those living in the land of the shadow of death,
a light has dawned. ,,r
17 From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven s has come near.”
The First Disciples
18 As t he was walking along the Sea of Galilee, u he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter), and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 19 “Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for people.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with Zebedee their father, preparing their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Teaching, Preaching, and Healing
23 Now Jesus began to go all over Galilee, v teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. w 24 Then the news about him spread throughout Syria. x So they brought to him all those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases and intense pains, the demon-possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics. y And he healed them. 25 Large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan. z
4:1–2. The temptation narrative (4:1–11) follows Jesus’s baptism and continues the focus on the preparation for Jesus’s public ministry. Matthew continues to emphasize Jesus’s identity as God’s obedient Son—Jesus as Israel’s representative.
4:3–4. Each of the first two temptations begins with the conditional “If you are the Son of God” (4:3; cf. 4:6). So far, Matthew has used “Son of God” to (1) compare Jesus to Israel, God’s son (cf. Hs 11:1; Mt 2:15), and (2) affirm Jesus’s intimate relationship with God and obedience to God (cf. Is 42:1–3; Mt 3:17. Jewish understandings of “Son of God” language would likely have evoked messianic themes as well, since Israel’s king—and subsequently Israel’s anticipated Messiah—would have been the representative of Israel par excellence (2 Sm 7:12–16).
4:5–7. In the second temptation, the devil entices Jesus to throw himself from the highest point of the Jerusalem temple, citing Ps 91:11–12 as evidence that God will send angels to protect him (4:5–6). Jesus’s reply (4:7) again comes from Deuteronomy, this time Dt 6:16. The verse in Deuteronomy adds, “as you tested him at Massah,” indicating the time when the Israelites questioned God’s provision of water for them (Ex 17:1–7). Jesus, in his refusal to heed the devil’s temptation to test God, provides the contrast to the wilderness experience of Israel.
4:8–11. The final temptation consists of an implicit claim by the devil that all the kingdoms of the world belong to him and that he will give them to Jesus if Jesus will worship him (4:8–9). Matthew shows Jesus drawing from Dt 6:13 in his response (4:10). This call to exclusive allegiance to the Lord is the positive side of the prohibition against testing the Lord that Jesus has already cited (Dt 6:16). Though Israel failed the loyalty test in the wilderness, Matthew shows Jesus to be fully faithful to God through all three wilderness temptations.
4:12–16. Jesus’s return to Galilee comes on the heels of news about John’s imprisonment (4:12). With John’s preparatory work accomplished, Matthew shows Jesus moving from Nazareth to Capernaum, on the Sea of Galilee (4:13), to begin his public ministry (4:17–16:20; cf. 8:5). Matthew includes another fulfillment quotation in 4:14–16. The connection between 4:12 and Is 9:1–2 on the plot level focuses on Jesus’s relocation to Capernaum. Matthew also connects the redemption promised in Is 9—the light dawning in darkness—to Jesus’s ministry in Galilee about to be inaugurated (4:17). Galilee of the first century included both Jews and Gentiles, with a larger Jewish population in the lower Galilean region. Matthew, with Isaiah’s reference to “Galilee of the Gentiles,” hints at the inclusion of all nations in the redemption brought by Jesus (cf. 28:19; also 1:3, 5–6; 2:1–12; 3:9), though the focus of his preresurrection ministry will be Israel (cf. 10:5–6; 15:24).
4:17. Here Matthew provides the centerpiece of Jesus’s proclamation to Israel (for the repentance theme, see 3:2). This summary of Jesus’s message begins with an introductory phrase that is repeated in 16:21, signaling its structural importance for defining the movement of Matthew’s story.
4:18–22. Directly following this inaugural preaching summary, Matthew narrates the call of Jesus’s disciples. Jesus issues a call for these four fishermen to follow him, making the analogy that their work will now involve fishing for people (4:19). The initiative that Jesus shows in this scene contrasts with the conventional practice of a would-be disciple attaching himself to a rabbi. Jesus initiates the relationship, and these fishermen leave their livelihood (4:19, 22) to follow Jesus (see 10:2–4 for the naming of all twelve disciples).
4:23–25. Matthew summarizes Jesus’s ministry by describing his three primary activities: teaching, preaching, and healing (4:23). Preaching “the good news of the kingdom” connects with the summary of Jesus’s preaching at 4:17, while subsequent chapters take up teaching (chaps. 5–7) and healing (chaps. 8–9). This summary is virtually repeated at 9:35, creating a bracket surrounding the narration of Jesus’s Galilean ministry of teaching and healing (4:23–9:35). The crowds respond by bringing their sick to Jesus for healing (4:24), following him from the entire region of Galilee and Judea, including Jerusalem, and even Syria to the north and Perea to the east (4:25).