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

Then the devil taketh him, &c.— The original word παραλαμβανει, signifies no more than to lead, to take along with one; as in the LXX. Numbers 22:41; Numbers 23:27-28. See Matthew 17:1. That it has no other sense in this place, and also in the eighth verse, is plain from Luke 4:5; Luke 4:9. By the holy city is meant Jerusalem, which is frequently so called. Instead of pinnacle, Dr. Doddridge very properly reads battlement; observing, that though pinnacle agrees very well with the etymology of the Greek word πτερυγιον : yet, according to its use among us, it leads the English reader to imagine, that he stood on the point of a spire. The truth is, that the roof of the temple was flat, and had a ballustrade round it, which in some parts was so exceeding high, that one could hardly bear to look down from it. See Deuteronomy 22:8 and Joseph. Antiq. l. 15. c. 11. Somewhere on the edge of this battlement, we may suppose, was the scene of this temptation. We must not imagine, that the devil took the Lord Jesus Christ, and disposed of him as he would; but only that our blessed Saviour, who yielded to be placed in the temptation, was pleased so far to do what the devil required of him. It is a common thing to say a person does a thing, when he orders or causes it to be done.