III. Historical Character of the Scene. — As the bap- tism of our Lord cannot have been for him the token of repentance and intended reformation which it was for
sinful men, so does our Lord's sinlessness affect the nat- ure of his temptation, for it was the trial of one who could not possibly have fallen. This makes a complete conception of tlie temptation impossible for minds where- in temptation is always associated with the possibility of sin. But while we must be content with an incom- plete conception, we must avoid the wrong conceptions that are often substituted for it. Tlie popular view of this undoubted portion of our Saviour's history is that it is a narrative of outward transactions; that our Saviour, immediately after his baptism, was conducted by the Spirit into the wilderness — either the desolate and mountainous region now called Quarantania by the people of Palestine (Kitto, Phi/s. IJist. p. 39, 40), or the great desert of Arabia, mentioned in Deut. viii, 15; xxxii, 10; Hos. xiii, 5; Jer. ii, G, etc. — where the devil tempted him in person, appeared to him in a visible form, spoke to him in an audible voice, removed him to the summit "of an exceeding high mountain,'' and to the top of " a pinnacle of the Temple at Jerusalem ;" whereas the view taken by many learned commenta- tors, ancient and modern, is that it is the narrative of a vision, which was designed to " sujjply that ideal expe- rience of temptation, or trial, which it was provided in the divine counsels for our Lord to receive previously to entering upon the actual trials and difficulties of his ministry" (Bishop Maltby, Sennons [Lond. 1822], ii, 276). Farmer also considers it a " divine vision," and endeavors with much learning and ingenuity to "illus- trate the wise and benevolent intention of its various scenes as symbolical predictions and representations of the principal trials attending Christ's public ministry" {Inquiry into the Nature and Desiyn ofChrist''s Tempta- tion [Lond. 1776, 8vo], preface).
On behalf of the popular interpretation, it is urged that the accounts given by the evangelists convey no intimation that they refer to a vision ; that the feeling of hunger could not have been merely ideal; that a vis- ion of forty days' continuance is incredible; that Moses, who was a type of Christ, saw no "visions," and that hence it may be concluded Christ did not; that it is highly probable there would be a personal conflict be- tween Christ and Satan when the former entered on his ministry. Satan had ruined the first Adam, and might hope to prevail with the second (Trollope, J?jrt/eria [Lond. 1830], i, 46). Why, too, say others, was our Lord taken up into a mountain to see a vision? As reasonably might Paul have taken the Corinthians into a mountain to "show them the more excellent wa)' of charity" (I Cor. xii, 31).
On the contrary side, it is rejoined that the evangel- ists do really describe the temptation as a vision. Mat- thew says, di'i]x^>] f'V f?)i' tpi]f.iov inro rov TrvEi'ixaToc; Mark, to Trvivj-ta nvriv tKj5ctK\u; and Luke,7}-y{ro iv t(;} irvEVj-iaTi. Do these phrases mean no more than that Jesus went by the guidance or impulse of the Spirit to a particular locality? Do thej' not rather import that Christ was brought into the wilderness under the full in- fluence of the proplietic spirit making suitable revelations to his mind? With regard to the hunger, the proph- ets are represented as experiencing bodily sensations in their visions (Ezek. iii,3; Rev. x, 10). Further argu- ments, derived from an unauthorized application of types, are precarious — that the first Adam really had no j)ersonal encounter with Satan ; that all the purposes of our Lord's temptation might be answered by a vis- ion, for, whatever might be the mode, the effect was in- tended to be produced upon his mind and moral feel- ings, like Peter's vision concerning Cornelius, etc. (Acts x, 11-17); that commentators least given to speculate allow that the temptation during the first forty days was carried on by mental suggestion onl}', and that the visible part of the temptation began "when the tempt- er came to him" (Matt, iv, 3 ; Luke iv, 3 ; Scott, ad loc.) ; that with regard to Christ's being " taken up into an exceeding high mountain," Ezekiel savs ( xl, 2 ), " in the visions of God brought he me intc the land of Is-
TEMPTATION OF CHRIST 2V0 TEMPTATION OF CHPtlST