Wilderness. k Deut. viii. 3. Jerusalem. 1 Ps. xci. 11. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, Luke iv. 4. That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Matt. iv. 4. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, Matt. iv. 5. and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, Matt. iv. 6. cast thyself down from hence : Luke iv. 9.. For it is written, He shall give his angels Luke iv. 10. charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest Luke iv. 11. at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said unto him, Luke iv. 12. m Deut.vi. 16. It is written again, m Thou shalt not tempt the Matt. iv. 7. Lord thy God. Quarantania. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceed- Matt. iv. 8. ing high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; in a moment of time 52. Luke iv. 5. radise, (Gen. v. 29.) lasted for forty days-and so long were the rains descending, that the sin and its history might be recognised in the punishment. When the Israelites searched the land of Canaan, the second Paradise, they had a foretaste of it for forty days, (Numb. xiv. 33, 34.) and the people who murmured at the evil report of those faithless messengers were condemned to wander forty years (a year for a day) in the wilderness.-(Jones's Works, vol. iii. p. 173.) To which may be added many other symbolical coincidences. Moses, as the founder, and the great lawgiver, of the Jewish Church, fasted twice forty days and forty nights on Mount Horeb, when he first received the tables of the law, and after they had been broken and were again restored. Elijah also, the reformer of the Jewish Church, by the same superhuman power, after he had crossed the river Jordan, fasted for the same number of days, and in the same wilderness, as Moses had formerly done. Are these mere coincidences? Is it not rather probable that Christ, who came to fulfil the law to the uttermost, and to establish on it a more perfect dispensation, should be appointed to give the same evidence of his divine mission, and to undergo the same preparation as his typical predecessors had already fulfilled. $2 Those who reject the literal interpretation of the account of our Lord's temptation, have laid great weight on this phrase," in a moment of time," v σтιуμй xpóvov, as demonstrating the whole scene to be a vision. The real state of the case seems, however, to be, that the tempter conveyed, or took, or accompanied, our Lord to the mountain, and shewing him in a moment of time the kingdoms of Judæa, which were then before him, suggested to him at the same moment the superior glory of all the other governments and dominions of the earth, the greatest of which (the Roman empire,) was then at the height of its power. Bishop Porteus remarks on this passage, that Abbé Mariti, describ Luke iv. 6. Luke iv. 6. Luke iv. 7. And the devil said unto him, And saith unto him, All these things will I give All this power will I give thee, and the glory of If thou therefore wilt worship me, Matt. iv. 9. Luke iv. 8. Matt. iv. 11. Luke iv. 13. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, And when the devil 53 had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. ing this mountain, speaks of it as extremely high, and commanding the most beautiful prospect imaginable. It overlooks the mountains of Arabia, the country of Gilead, the country of the Ammonites, the plains of Moab, the plain of Jericho, the river Jordan, and the whole extent of the Dead Sea. These various domains the Tempter might shew to our Lord distinctly, and might also at the same time point out, (for so the original word sometimes signifies,) and direct our Lord's eye towards several other regions that lay beyond them, which might comprehend all the principal kingdoms of the eastern world. According to tradition, the mountain on which our Saviour was tempted is called Quarantania. Maundrell describes it as, exceedingly high, and difficult of ascent, having a small chapel at the top, and another about half way up, on a prominent part of a rock. Near this latter are several caves and holes, originally used by hermits, and by some even of this day, during the period of Lent, in imitation of the example of our blessed Saviour. The words of the Evangelists are so clear and distinct, in their account of this transaction, and it was so evidently a premeditated scheme on the part of Satan, availing himself of the first symptom of human weakness, beginning his attack at the moment that our Saviour" was an hungered;" that, had we no other evidence, there can be no reasonable grounds for considering the temptation in any other point of view than as a real contest. The temptation of Christ, as well as that of our first parents, must be considered as a real scene. We are not justified in making our present experience the criterion of truth, and rejecting the positive testimony of Revelation, on account of theoretical difficulties. The whole question concerning the origin and continuance of evil, is involved in insuperable mystery. But we may with as much propriety deny the origin of evil, as refuse to believe in its rémedy: which it cannot be irrational to conclude would be, in some manner, correspondent to the disease. Till the next stage of our being has developed the unrevealed mysteries of the Deity who made mankind, we must be contented, like obedient children, to believe much that we cannot yet understand. 43 The Evil Spirit in this temptation is called by the three names, which unit. edly characterise him as the destroyer of man. He is at once their enemy (Σατανᾶς), their accuser (ὁ Διάβολος), and their tempter (ὁ πειράζων). Quarantania. *Or fall down before me. Quarantania. And [he] was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him. Mark i. 13. and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him; Matt. iv. 11. ON THE DIFFERENCE IN THE Order of THE TEMPTATIONS AS RELATED 54 In this history of the temptation, St. Matthew's order is, 1. "Command that these stones be made bread." 2. "Cast thyself down from the temple." 3. "I will give thee all thou seest from this high mountain, if thou wilt fall down and worship me."-St. Luke's order is, the first temptation the same as St. Matthew; the third temptation is placed by him for the second, and the second for the third. But St. Luke does not affirm this order. He has only kai ȧvayaywv, ver. 5; and xai hyayev, ver. 9. Whereas St. Matthew uses particles, which seem to fix his order; as, rórɛ, ver. 5; and wáλiv, ver. 8. Le Clerc says, "Hoc repugnantia haberi non potest, cum neuter evangelistarum profiteatur se, hâc in re, ordinem temporis accurate secutum."-Newcome's Notes to his Harmony, p. 6, fol. edit. Dublin, 1778. Possibly the reason of the difference in the order of the account of the temptations given us in these two Evangelists, may be in some measure ascertained from a consideration of the respective purposes for which they originally composed their Gospels. St. Matthew wrote for the Jews of Judæa. The title of "King" was the most usual name given to the Messiah by the Jews. "Vulgatissimum est hoc nomen Messiæ, quem Judæi ubique vocant, n'wan bb,” says Schoetgenius, Horæ Hebr. vol. i. p. 13, and instances abound throughout his book. But he was not only considered as king of Israel, but king over all the world. Thus we read (Zohar Genes. fol. 128, col. 509, ad verba, Genes. xlix. 11, ex versione Sommeri, p. 96, apud Schoetgen, vol. ii. p. 638-9.) "So the king Messias will shew favour to Israel, but he will be a terror to all people who profess not the true religion." St. Matthew, therefore, seems to point out to his Jewish readers, that Jesus, who was the true spiritual Messiah, first conquered all desire for the luxuries of life. He then refused to declare himself by any useless though stupendous miracle, the expected king of Israel, by proving himself, at an unfit time, and in an unsuitable manner, the Messiah they expected: for his course was that of toil and suffering, of neglected and lowly poverty and scorn, till the time came for the establishment of his spiritual kingdom. In repulsing the third temptation, he shewed his contempt of all worldly power, and wisdom, and distinction, till the promised period when the converted Heathen should be given him for his spiritual inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for his spiritual possession. The Evangelist thus preserves the climax. He ascends from one gradation of virtue to another, and shews how our Lord, by resisting the tempter, attained to that height of excellence which ought to impress the mind with the greatest veneration. St. Luke wrote for the Gentiles of Achaia. He places before them the same triumph of Christ, and teaches the same doctrine; that he conquered the desire of the pleasures of this life, the love of temporal dominion over the world at large, and all the dazzling glories and triumphs to which that dominion led. But he teaches this doctrine in the manner the most likely to impress the minds of his Gentile readers; for which purpose he changes the order to preserve the appropriate climax, and the gradation of the power of the temptation. Christ MATT. iv. 1, and part of ver. 4. 6. 7. 10. 1 Then was a Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness. conquered the desires of the appetite: this was the first temptation. In the second he was offered that which the Gentiles esteemed the highest point of human happiness, universal dominion over all the kingdoms of the world. And, lastly, he was invited to throw himself from the pinnacle of the temple, and to receive at once all those divine honours which the Heathen paid to their gods, for such a demonstration of divine power would have been immortalized, and would have placed him above all their other deities. It is well known in what high estimation temporal ambition and sovereignty were at that time held by the unconverted Pagans. The well known compliments which Horace, in various passages, pays to Augustus or the Quos inter Augustus recumbens Præsens divus habebitur Carm. lib. iii. Od. 35. Carm. lib. iii. Od. 5. were not merely expressions of flattery which had only a courtly meaning; but they may be considered as conveying the real opinion which the Heathen world entertained of those who obtained universal empire; they esteemed such as gods, and actually, as all ancient history proves, paid them homage, and offered sacrifices to them, and to their statues, as to gods. St. Luke, therefore, represents our Lord, not only as rejecting the sovereignty over the world, but as refusing to obtain, by a mere exertion of his power, all the servile homage, and flattering pomp, attendant on such an elevation. This, in the opinion of a Heathen, would be the highest test of virtue. The inference in both instances would be the same; he who performed all the great works recorded in the Evangelists, alike contemned and declined those objects, which, in the opinion of both Jew or Gentile, were the most highly to be prized and valued. From the narrative of the temptation they would learn that Christ was the Lord and giver of greater and more estimable blessings than the luxuries, the honours, or the most enviable distinctions and advantages of this life. Thus will the accounts of the two Evangelists be reconciled. Both relate the same facts, both enforce the same doctrine; the order is different, because each considered the opinions and modes of thinking prevalent among those they addressed, and were anxious to impart the greatest interest to their narrative. It will be observed, that this interpretation is submitted to the reader, on the supposition that the popular interpretation of the πάσας τὰς βασιλείας τοῦ Kóσμov, (Matt. iv. 8.) be the correct reading; that it is rightly rendered, "the kingdoms of this world;" and that consequently the corresponding phrase in St. Luke, ráoas ràs baσideias rñs oikovμévns, (Luke iv. 5.) must have the same signification, and is not to be referred principally to the kingdoms into which Judæa was at that time divided. The reading proposed by Michaelis in this passage appears conjectural, and Archbishop Laurence has endeavoured to prove it unfounded. It is however so curious, that I shall append to this note both the remarks of the learned German, and the objections of his critic. The reader will then be able to decide. Quarantania. n Mark i. 12, &c. Luke iv. 1, &c. Quarantania. 4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, Deut. viii. 3. but by every word— p Ps. xci. 11. 6 for it is written, P He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7 Jesus said unto him 10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, q Deut. vi. 13. q Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. x. 20. LUKE iv. part of ver. 2. 3. 5. 9. 2 -and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. 3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God— 3 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world 9 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down Michaelis is labouring to prove that the Gospel of St. Matthew was composed in Hebrew, and derives one argument in support of his opinion, from Matt. iv. 8. The tempter conducts Christ to the top of a lofty mountain, and shews him πάσας τὰς βασιλείας τοῦ κόσμου. If we take this in a literal sense, the thing is impossible: if it was a mere illusion, there was no necessity for ascending a lofty mountain. Here then it appears, that some word was used in the Hebrew original, which was capable of more than one translation: perhaps y, which signifies "the land," as well as "the earth :" or ban, which, as well as dikaμivη, may denote the land of Palestine: or, thirdly, which is perhaps the most probable conjecture, it is not unlikely that St. Matthew wrote *axn maban bɔ, that is, "all the kingdoms of the Holy Land," and that the translator mistook ay for xay, which in the Septuagint is sometimes rendered by kóσμoç. It is even possible, as y signifies literally "beauty," and Kóσμog has likewise this sense, that the translation in question was occasioned by a too literal adherence to the original. Now all the kingdoms which existed in Palestine in the time of Christ, could be seen from the top of Mount Nebo. St. Matthew, therefore, meant all the kingdoms of Palestine, which his translator converted into all the kingdoms of the world.-Marsh's Michaelis, vol. iii. part 1. p. 155. Archbishop Laurence contends, however, that there is no adequate proof that the Gospel of St. Matthew was compiled in the Hebrew language, and that no arguments can, or ought to be, founded on conjectures of this nature. In reply to this remark of Michaelis, he observes that is used for Palestine only in four instances, three times by Daniel, and once by Jeremiah, and each time metaphorically, as "the pleasant or agreeable land;" and that the Seventy do not thus translate it either literally or metaphorically: and it is not likely that an appellation of this peculiar description would have been adopted in a plain narrative. Neither could xóopos, in the sense of " the world," be put for way, the proper meaning of which is "an army," and which is only translated cóσμog by the LXX, when the host of heaven is mentioned; or for 2y, in its literal signification of "beauty, honour, and glory." But it is not necessary to interpret the word kooμog, in the sense of "the world." In Rom. iv. 13, the expression Kλnpovoμòv të kóoμ8, is interpreted by Beza, of the "land of Ca |