Chapter 4

Chapter 4. — On the Temptation of Christ. On the Calling of Peter, and Andrew, and the Sons of Zebedee

¹ Then was Jesus led up into the wilderness by the Spirit. Teaching us that after baptism we must expect temptations, he is led up by the Holy Spirit; for he did nothing without the Spirit. And he is led up into the wilderness, that he might show us that the devil tempts us then, when he finds us alone, and not helped by one another. We must, then, not rashly trust in ourselves.

² To be tempted by the devil. He is called “devil” (diabolos) who slandered (diabalōn) God to Adam. For he said to him that God envies you. And now too he slanders [our] nature to us.

³ And having fasted. He fasted, that he might show that fasting is a great thing against temptations, just as luxury is the leader of sin.

⁴ Forty days and forty nights. He fasts as many [days] as both Moses and Elijah; for had they been more, the incarnation would have seemed an illusion.

⁵ Afterward he hungered. When he gave way to nature, then he also hungered, that he might give the devil occasion to approach and to grapple with him through hunger, and so [Christ] might throw him, and cast him down, and grant the victory to us.

⁶ And the tempter, coming to him, said: If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves. The robber had heard the voice from heaven. Again he saw him hungering, and was thereafter in doubt how the Son of God hungers; for this reason, then, he tempts him, that he might learn. And he flatters him, thinking to undermine him, in saying:

⁷ If you are the Son of God. But you will say: And what sin was there in making the stones loaves? Hear, then, that to listen to the devil in this is a sin. And besides: he did not say, Let this stone become a loaf, but, The stones, wishing to lead Christ into excess. For one loaf altogether suffices the hungry man; for this reason Christ did not listen to him.

⁸ But he answering said: It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The testimony is from the Pentateuch; for it is the saying of Moses, since indeed the Hebrews too were fed by the manna, which was not bread, but [came] through the word of God, fulfilling every need of the Hebrews, and becoming all that anyone desired to eat. For whether the Jew desired fish, or egg, or cheese, the manna afforded him such a taste.

⁹ Then the devil takes him into the holy city, and sets him upon the pinnacle of the temple. Some part of the temple, such as the things called by us “double-sloped”; for they look like wings.

¹⁰ And says to him: If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down. For it is written, that he shall give his angels charge concerning you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest at any time you dash your foot against a stone. If you are the Son of God—he all but says this: I do not believe the voice from the heavens; nevertheless you, if you are the Son of God, show me. And yet, O foul one, if he were the Son of God, would he have cast himself down? It is of your cruelty, this, to cast down the demon-possessed; but of God, to save. And it is not written,

¹¹ In their hands they shall bear you up, concerning Christ, but concerning the saints, who have need of angelic help. But Christ has no need, being God.

¹² Jesus said to him: Again it is written: You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Gently does Christ repel him, teaching us through meekness to conquer the demons.

¹³ Again the devil takes him to an exceedingly high mountain, and shows him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and says to him: All these things will I give you, if you fall down and worship me. Some indeed suppose the “high mountain” [to be] the passion of the love of money, to which the enemy is eager to lead Jesus up; but they do not suppose rightly. For the devil appeared to him perceptibly; for the Lord did not admit thoughts—God forbid. Perceptibly, then, he showed him on the mountain all the kingdoms, setting these before his eyes in appearance, and,

¹⁴ All these things will I give you, he says. For he reckons the world as his own, out of pride; and this he says now also to the covetous, so that those who worship him, they possess these things.

¹⁵ Then Jesus says to him: Get behind me, Satan; for it is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. The Lord is angry at him, when he saw him appropriating the things of God, and saying:

¹⁶ All these things will I give you, as his own. And learn how the Scriptures profit; for the Lord from them silenced the enemy.

¹⁷ Then the devil leaves him; and lo, angels came and ministered to him. The Lord conquered the three temptations: that of gluttony, that of vainglory, and that of the love of money, that is, the love of wealth. For these are the rulers of the passions; having conquered these, then, [he conquered] the others much more. Whence Luke says that he accomplished every temptation, having accomplished the chief heads of the temptations. Whence also angels minister to him, that it might be shown that to us also, after the victory, angels will minister. For all things Christ both does and shows for our sake; since to him, as God, the angels ever minister.

¹⁸ And Jesus, having heard that John was delivered up, withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali. Jesus withdraws, instructing us not to cast ourselves into dangers. And he withdraws into Galilee, which means “the rolling-down.” For the gentiles were rolling down into sin. And he dwells there in Capernaum, which is “house of consolation”; for in order to make the gentiles a house of the Comforter, for this he came down. And Zebulun is interpreted “night-place”; and Naphtali, “broadening.” The gentiles, then, had both night and broadening in [their] life. For they did not walk the narrow way, but that which leads to destruction.

¹⁹ That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the gentiles; the people that sat in darkness saw a great light; and to those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up to them. “By the way of the sea,” instead of, lying toward the way of the sea. And the “great light” [is] the Gospel. For the law too is a light; but a small one. And the “shadow of death” [is] sin; for it is a likeness and a shadowy outline of death. For just as death [deadens] the body, so this deadens the soul. And the light has sprung up to us. For we did not seek it, but it appeared to us, as though it had pursued us.

²⁰ From that time Jesus began to preach and to say. From the time John was bound, Jesus began to preach. For he waited for John first to bear witness concerning him, and to prepare a way for him, by which he was about to come, just as servants prepare beforehand for their masters. For the Lord, being equal to the Father, had himself also a prophet, John, just as his Father and God had the prophets before John—or rather, those too belong to both the Father and the Son.

²¹ Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is also Christ, and it is also the blessed life. For whenever someone conducts himself as an angel on earth, is he not then heavenly? So that in each of us is the kingdom of heaven, if we live angelically.

²² And walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea (for they were fishermen), and he says to them. These had been disciples of John. And while John was yet living, they came to Christ. But when they saw John bound, they returned again to fishing, and so Christ, coming, fishes for them, saying:

²³ Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they, immediately leaving their nets, followed him. You see—obedient men, immediately they followed him. Whence it is clear that this is a second calling. For having been taught beforehand by Christ, then having left him, they readily followed again when they saw him.

²⁴ And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father. A very great virtue, to support their father in his old age, and to be nourished from just labors.

²⁵ Mending their nets. For they were poor, and for this reason, being unable to buy new ones, they patched the old.

²⁶ And they, immediately leaving the boat and their father, followed him. It appears that Zebedee did not believe, and for this reason they left him. You see when one must leave [his] father: when he hinders [him] from virtue and godliness. And these, seeing the former ones following, fittingly followed, imitating those.

²⁷ And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom. That he might show that he is not contrary to the law, he enters into the synagogues of the Hebrews.

²⁸ And healing every disease and every sickness among the people. He begins with the signs, that he might confirm the things he teaches. And disease is chronic suffering; sickness, the temporary disorder of the body.

²⁹ And his fame went out into all Syria, and they brought to him all who were sick with divers diseases and beset with torments, and those possessed of demons, and lunatics, and paralytics, and he healed them. Christ did not demand faith from any of those brought, since this very thing was [a mark] of faith, to bring them from afar. And by “lunatics” he means the demon-possessed. For the demon, wishing to sow among men [the notion] that the stars are malefactors, watched for the moon when it was full, and then attacked, that the moon might seem the cause of the suffering, and the creation of God might be slandered, just as the Manichaeans too were deceived.

³⁰ And great multitudes followed him from Galilee, and Decapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.