Mark 1:13 - Clarke's commentary and critical notes on the Bible

And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him. With the wild beasts - This is a curious circumstance, which is mentioned by none of the other evangelists; and seems to intimate that he was in the most remote, unfrequented, and savage part of the desert; which, together with the diabolic influence, tended to render the whole scene the more horrid. Perhaps this very circumstance is mentioned, as emblematical of that savage and brutal cruelty with which he was persecuted to death by the Jews and Gentiles, instigated thereto by the malice of Satan.