Luke 4:5 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The devil, taking him up into an high mountain, &c.— This temptation is placed the last of the three in St. Matthew.To reconcile the evangelists, it is observed, that St. Matthew recites the temptations according to the order in which they occurred; for he plainly affirms this order by the particle then, Luke 4:5 and again, Luke 4:8 and at the conclusion of the temptation (relating to Christ's casting himself down from the pinnacle or wing of the temple) that then the devil left him. In this order, considering the natural temper of the Jews, they appear to rise progressively in strength one above another; St. Matthew therefore having preserved the true order of the temptations, St. Luke must be supposed to have passed it over, as a thing not verymaterial: and the supposition may be admitted without weakening his authority in the least; for he connects the temptations only by the particle και, which imports, that he was tempted so and so, without marking the time or order of the temptations as St. Matthew does. If the reader be of a different opinion, he must suppose, with Toinard, that the temptation to idolatry was twice proposed, once before Jesus went with the devil to the temple, as the order observed by St. Luke may imply; and again when he was returning from the temple, to receive new testimonies from the Baptist and make disciples at Jordan, the devil taking him a second time into the mountain for that purpose. As it seems unlikely that the devil should have shewed Christ the kingdoms of the earth in a moment, strictly speaking, some would place a comma at world, referring the words in a moment to the celerity with which Christ was carried to the mountain: The devil, taking him up into an high mountain in a moment of time, shewed him, &c.