To tempt is to try, either in the sense of attempting^ or of putting to the test, with a good or evil intent. God is said to tempt his people, when he puts their faith and patience to the test for the sake of exercising and strengthening those graces, Heb. 11, 17. Satan and evil men are said to tempt others, when they put their virtue to the test with the design of se- ducing them into sin, Gal. 6, 1. James 1, 3. Matt. 4, 1, &c. Men are said to tempt God when they put his patience, fideli- ty or power to the test. Acts 5, 9. Matt. 4, 7. Heb. 3, 9. It was thus the Israelites tempted him in the wilderness. They tried his forbearance, they provoked him. The exhortation is that we should not thus tempt Christ. This supposes that Christ has authority over us, that he is our moral governor to whom we are responsible, and who has the power to punish those who incur his displeasure. In other words, the passage assumes that we stand in the relation to Christ which rational creatures can sustain to God alone. Christ, therefore, is God. Whether the Corinthians are warned against tempting Christ by their impatience and discontent, as the Israelites did in the particular case here referred to ; or whether they are cautioned against putting his fidehty to the test by running unnecessa- rily into danger (see Matt. 4, 7), is uncertain. Probably the former.
As some of them also tempted. As Christ is mentioned in the immediate context, it is most natural to supply the pro- noun him. ' Let us not tempt Christ, as they tempted him."* This is not only the most natural explanation, but it is sus- tained by a reference to v. 4, and by the analogy of Scripture, as the Bible elsewhere teaches that the leader of the Israelites was the Son of God. It is only on theological grounds, that is, to get rid of the authority of the passage as a proof of our Lord's divinity, that others interpret the passage thus, ' Let us not tempt Christ, as they tempted God.' It is only one form of the argument, however, which is thus met. For according to this view the passage still teaches that we sustain the rela- tion to Christ which the Israelites sustained to God. Afid were destroyed of serpents. Num. 21, 6. The people pro- voked God by their complaints and by their regretting their deliverance out of Egypt. " And the Lord sent fiery serpents
sions, and by Chrysostom and other Fathers. It is retained, therefore, by the majority of editors. As the more difficult reading it is the more likely to be the original one. The temptation was strong to change xp'^t*^" iitito tvpioUf but no one would b© disposed to put the former word for the latter.