The absence of the article before mi; has given rise to the idea that the temptations were not Messianic. Against this it has been jiointed out that the predicate is regularly anarthrous. Rut Middleton (Gr. Article, p. G2) shows that 'we sometimes find that the predicate of the £<>, has the Article, where^ the subject is a personal pronoun or demonstrative, iyi, a-u, oZto;,' etc. This rule is borne out by NT usage : see Mt 1616 266^' 271', Mk 31' etc. For this and other reasons we should expect the Article here, if the meaning were, ' If thou art the Son of God,
* ' It is only by travelling that one becomes aware how uni- versal is the application of the number 40 to the features of Oriental architecture. If there is a famous building with some- thing over a score of columns, or a town with a like number of minarets, it will be stvled the hall of 40 eolunms or the citv of 40 towers ' (Arthur Arnold in Academii, 12 March 1881). ' " Forty " means " many " ' (Angus, Bible Uaiidbook).
716
TEMPTATIOIi
TESTAMENT
or, the Christ.' The meaning rather is, ' If thou art God's Son ' [the emphatic place being given to wo?, s/ uioi u r. tiii>ij\, if this relationship to God be the determining element in your life. But this by no means excludes reference to His Messianic dignity, it rather implies it. It was as God's Son He had been hailed at His baptism proclaiming His Messianic vocation, and fitly, because Divme Sonship was that out of which the Messiahship sprang, and which underlay the whole vocation of Jesus as the Christ.
First temptation. — The first temptation was to use for His own comfort and preservation the powers committed to Him as Messiah. The cir- cumstances in which He found Himself lent im- mense force to the appeal. He found Himself faint and ready to perish. What a fiasco would His Messianic calling seem if He died here in the wilderness, and how easy apparently the means of relief : ' Say the word. ' ' How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done ! ' Once only in His life can He have suffered more acutely from this same temptation : only when He knew He could command twelve legions of angels to His aid, only when He was taunted, ' He saved others, him- self he cannot save.' The use He might legiti- mately make of His powers as God's Son must once for ali be settled : and He settles it by recognizing that having taken human nature He must accept human conditions, and elevate human life not by facing life's temptations on wholly different terms from the normal, but by accepting the whole human conflict : ' Man lives — and I, being man, therefore live — not by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.' He accepted absolutely the human condition with its entire dependence on God. Duty was more than food. His life was to be ruled by intima- tions of God's will, not by fear of death by starvation. He, like all other men, was in God's hand.
Second temptation. — The second temptation was to establish the Messianic claim by the performance of some astounding feat, such as leaping from the roof of the wing of the temple into the crowded courts below. Once for all our Lord had to settle by what metiiods His claim could be made good. That which the people so frequently demanded, ' a sign,' must have suggested itself as a possible means of convincing them. And it was an easy means, for was it not written in the book He had pondered as His best guide : ' He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest haply thou dash thy foot against a stone' (Ps QP"-)? Were these words not prepared for this Messianic manifesta- tion ? Could the people, ever craving for signs, be in any other way led to accept Him as God's messenger? Might not His whole mission fail, might He not miss the accomplishment of God's purpose, if He did not condescend to the weak- ness of His countrymen and grant them a sign? But now, as always. He saw the incongruity and insufficiency of such signs : ' an evil and ad- ulterous generation seeketh a sign, and no sign shall be given to it' (Mt 12^9 ||). But that which settles the matter in His own mind is the con- sideration that to attempt the performance of any such feat would be a tempting of God. He rebuts the temptation with the words, ' Thou shalt not tempt tiie Lord tiiy God.' He perceived that He had no right to expect the protection of God in any course biit the highest, in any course which His own conscience told Him was a short cut to His end. To abandon the region of man's actual needs and work wonders not for their relief and as the revelation of God's love, but for mere display, was. He felt, to trespass the Father's intentions. He could not count upon the Father's countenance and help if He departed in the slightest degree from His own highest ideal. Spiritual ends must be