whether He be the Son of God or not. When addressing man kind, our Lord seldom quoted Scripture, but said, " I say unto you." He says that only in answer to Satan, " It is written ;" i.e., " Whoever I am, I assuredly keep to that which is written." All the statements which He thus advanced were in them selves indisputable : and yet He keeps to that, " it is written" By doing which, He declares that He is the Destined One who should fulfil Scripture ; and at the same time shows the high authority of Scripture itself, irrefragable even to Satan. — oux IK aprw ftovtf} tycirai av^putfog, «XX' sir) wavrl py/tari sKKopiuo/Aivw did. aro- paros &sov, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God) The LXX. (Deut. viii. 3) prefix the definite article 6 to avSpuvog (man), and repeat after &iov (of God) tyfcTai o fa&ptHnf (shall man live). Even in the wilderness, the Israelites had felt the force of these words. The sixth chapter of the same book is cited in ver. 7 and 10 : so that the two paraschae,1 pnnsi and lpy» contain the three sayings propounded to the Israelites in the wilderness, and in the wil derness employed by Christ as a sword against the tempter. At the same season of the year2 at which Moses had uttered them, Jesus employed these sayings against the tempter. — fyffirai, shall live, etc.) Jesus had experienced this during these forty days. It is equally easy to live without bread, or to make bread out of stone. This is truly avrdpxeia,3 constant tranquillity of mind (prcesens animi quies\ to require nothing besides life. Jesus knew that He should live. — avSpwrof man. He does not
1 The Pentateuch is divided into 50 or 54 Paraschioth, or larger sections, according as the Jewish lunar year is simple or intercalary; one of which sections was read in the synagogue every Sabbath-day. This division many of the Jews suppose to have been appointed by Moses ; but it is by others attributed, and with greater probability, to Ezra. These paraschioth were, as in the instances referred to by Bengel, called by the Hebrew words with which they happened to begin ; they were further subdivided into smaller sections, termed Siderim, or orders — (I. B.)
2 GRESWELL gives, as the date of our Lord's being led up into the wilder ness (v. 1), Sebat 28, Jan. 24, Fer. 1 (i.e. Sunday); and of Satan's coming to Him (v. 3), Veader 9. Martii 5, Fer. 6 (i.e. Friday). — See his Harmonia Evangelica. — (I. B.)
3 Literally, self-siifficingHess — a word which sometimes signifies independ ence, at other times has the force of entire contentedness. — (I. B.)