Matthew 4:3 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

When the tempter came to him, he said, &c.— We may infer from Mark 1:13 that during the forty days which Jesus spent in the wilderness, he was exposed to several other temptations besides those mentioned here; and therefore Dr. Doddridge very well translates and paraphrases the passage thus; "Just at that time, when he was very hungry, and entirely unprovided with food, the tempter coming to him, in a visible form, putting on a human appearance (as one that desired to inquire farther into the evidence of his mission) said, if thou art the Son of God, &c." It is only in the original, If thou be Son of God, without any article; but it seems to be properlyinserted in our version, because the miracle which the devil required of Jesus, was not that he might shew himself to be a child of God, but the Son of God; that is to say, the Messiah. The Jews were persuaded that the Messiah was to be the Son of God; and they commonly applied to him the 7th verse of the 2nd Psalm, and the 14th verse of the 7th chapter of the 2nd book of Samuel. By comparing several passages in the New Testament, it appears, that in the language of the Jews, the words Messiah and Son of God were of the same import. See Matthew 26:63.Luke 17:37. John 1:41; John 1:44-45 and Matthew 16:16 compared with Mark 8:29. Luke 9:20. Christ was tempted in all things, Hebrews 4:15 and as the things which solicit us to sin may be referred to three kinds, pleasures, honours, and riches, (1 John 2:16.) Christ, being tempted by all these, came off victorious. When he refused to command the stones to become bread, he shewed his conquest over pleasure, or the animal appetite; when he cast not himself down from the temple, he shewed his triumph over vainglory; and in the third temptation, expressing his contempt of the goods of this world, he shewed that nothing in this life could conquer his piety and integrity. See Beausobre and Lenfant, and Wetstein. We may read the last words, Command these stones to become bread.