St Luke Chapter IV : Verses 3-4
Contents
- Luke iv. 3-4. Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text & Latin text (Vulgate).
- Annotations
- Douay-Rheims 1582 text
Luke iv. 3-4.
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| Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word of God. J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
Dixit autem illi diabolus : Si Filius Dei es, dic lapidi huic ut panis fiat.
4 And Jesus answered him: It is written, that Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word of God.
Et respondit ad illum Jesus : Scriptum est : Quia non in solo pane vivit homo, sed in omni verbo Dei.
Annotations
[These notes are adapted from the commentary by Cornelius A Lapide on Chapter IV of St Matthew's Gospel. The verse numbers are, however, from St Luke's Gospel.]
3. the devil. St Matthew has: the tempter. Not because he is the only tempter, but because he is the first and chief among tempters. For they mistake who say that all temptation comes from Satan. Some temptations arise out of our own carnal will and frailness, and some from the world, i.e., from worldly and carnal men.
[Ed. Cf. the traditional “trinity” of temptations: the world, the flesh and the devil. Supportive texts from Sacred Scripture include:
For this is not wisdom, descending from above: but earthly, sensual, devilish.
non est enim ista sapientia desursum descendens : sed terrena, animalis, diabolica. (James iii. 15.)
Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit that now worketh on the children of unbelief: In which also we all conversed in time past, in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of our thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest:
in quibus aliquando ambulastis secundum saeculum mundi hujus, secundum principem potestatis aeris hujus, spiritus, qui nunc operatur in filios diffidentiae, in quibus et nos omnes aliquando conversati sumus in desideriis carnis nostrae, facientes voluntatem carnis et cogitationum, et eramus natura filii irae, sicut et ceteri. (Ephes. ii. 2-3.)]
So S. Chrysostom (Hom. 54 in Acta), “Many sin without the devil. He does not do everything: many things even come of our slothfulness alone.” The devil, however, often rouses concupiscence in us by representing to the imagination things to be lusted after, and thus inflaming the sensual appetite. In the same way he stirs up the world, i.e., worldly and carnal men, to tempt us by persecuting us, or by enticing us to their follies. So he is called the tempter, κατʼ ἐξοχήν. Note here the craft of the devil, how he tempts every one by that to which he has a propensity, or in which he is weak. As fowlers and hunters lay in snares for wild birds and beasts various sorts of food such as each prefer, so also the devil offers the pleasures of the table to such as are prone to gluttony, to those who are full he offers ease and sloth, to the proud he offers honours, to the contentious lawsuits and strifes, to the avaricious usury, fraud, iniquitous bargains, and so on. (S. Gregory, lib. 14, Moral. c. 7.)
3. If thou be, &c. The devil had heard the Father’s Voice at the Baptism of Christ—Thou art my beloved Son; yet forasmuch as he saw Him in some respects like a poor, weak, ordinary mortal, and being for that reason in doubt whether He were the very Son of God by nature, the WORD itself of the Father, or only a very eminent Son of God by adoption, he tempts Christ, and asks Him to turn stones into bread, that by His performance of the miracle, or inability to perform it, he might determine what kind of Son of God he was. For as by the Word of God all things had been created in the beginning, so by the same Word might stones be suddenly and instantly converted into bread. If therefore Christ had done this, the devil would have believed that He was the WORD of God.
Angels indeed are able to turn stones into bread, but not suddenly and directly, but by degrees and indirectly, by applying active energies to passive objects, with many previous actions, alterations, and conversions; but if Christ could not have done what He was asked, and had said that He could not, and that this was a Divine work, and peculiar to God, the devil would have urged, “Then thou art not the WORD of God, nor His SON by nature.”
It is a probable opinion of many theologians that the sin and pride of Lucifer in heaven were, that when God revealed to him that the Son of God would assume man’s nature, and bade him submit himself to Christ as man, he became envious of Christ, that a man forsooth should be preferred to himself, who was the most glorious angel, and that a man should be taken up into hypostatic union with the WORD. Of this honour he was himself ambitious, and so rebelled against Christ and God. When therefore he saw this man called the Son of God by John the Baptist and the Father, he wished to find out if He were really God’s Son, that he might pour out upon Him his pristine envy, fury, and indignation. So Suarez. This was Satan’s cross, gnawing and tormenting his proud mind. But he conceals all this, veils it beneath the cloak of charity, that he wished to succour Christ in His hunger. Wherefore it is probable that the devil did not abruptly and without preface say to Christ, If thou be, &c., but first saluted Him kindly, and insinuated himself by some such bland words as these,
“What, my lord, are you doing here alone? I saw you baptized of late in Jordan: I heard a voice come down to you from heaven, This is my Son. I should be glad to know whether you are truly the Son of God by nature, or only His adopted Son by grace. I observe also that you are utterly spent with hunger after your fast of forty days. If then you are the Son of God, relieve your hunger, convert these stones into loaves of bread. This for you were most easy.”
Wherefore what S. Chrysostom says in this place is not so probable—that the devil endeavoured to tempt Christ to unbelief. Somewhat as though he had said thus:—“It is true you heard a voice at your baptism, This is my Son, but do not imagine yourself to be the Son of God, or, if you are, turn these stones into bread.” For it would have been folly to try to persuade Christ to believe that He was not the Son of God, if He was indeed His Son, and knew that He was.
The devil wished also, by this temptation, to entice Christ to make a vain boast of his power, and to distrust the aid of God His Father. “Your Father has for forty days been unmindful of you; He has not given you food. Now then, take care of yourself.”
There was also a temptation to gluttony. For the temptation to gluttony, in this case, would have been, on account of hunger to yield to the devil, to acquiesce in his persuasions, and work a miracle. For this were directly contrary to religion, which forbids all commerce with Satan. Indirectly, it were contrary to temperance. Calvin, therefore, is wrong in denying that Christ was tempted to gluttony.
Hear S. Gregory (Hom. 16 in Evang.), where He teaches that Christ was assailed by a threefold temptation—viz., gluttony, vain glory, and avarice—because Adam had been attacked and vanquished by the same temptations:
“He tempted him to gluttony when he showed him the fruit of the forbidden tree, and persuaded him to eat.
He tempted him to vain glory when he said, ‘Ye shall be as gods.’
He tempted him to covetousness when he added, ‘knowing good and evil.’ For avarice is not only of money, but also of greatness. For that is rightly called avarice where loftiness above measure is ambitiously desired.
Christ was assailed by the same temptations, but overcame them:
by gluttony, when the devil said, ‘say to this stone that it be made bread.;’[the flesh]
by vain glory, ‘If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself from hence.’[the acclamation of the world]
by covetousness of magnificence, when he showed Him all the kingdoms of the world.” [the devil: If thou therefore wilt adore before me, all shall be thine.]
4. It is written, that Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word of God. &c. The Greek and the Vulgate have, in every word [Quia non in solo pane vivit homo, sed in omni verbo Dei.] This is by enallage [The substitution of one grammatical form for another, e.g. of singular for plural, of present for past tense, etc.] of the preposition, in every, for from every, as the Vulgate translates in Deut. viii. 3, the passage which Christ here quotes. The Hebrew is, “upon every thing which goeth forth from the mouth of the Lord shall man live”—that is to say, on whatsoever thing the Lord shall command, or order for the sustentation of life, man shall live and be nourished, as He fed the Jews for forty years without bread, with manna from heaven (the discourse in Deut. viii. 3 is upon this manna), and fed Moses, Elias, and Christ for forty days by His word, and by His power, preserving nature. Thus, too, God nourished the Abbot John for three years with the Eucharist alone, which he was accustomed to receive every Lord’s day, when an angel said to him, “Christ is thy true food.” Palladius (in Lausiaca, c. 61) attests this. So, too, God nourished S. Mary o Egypt, for nearly forty-seven years, in the desert, without earthly food, feeding her with tears and heavenly joys. So He fed the Magdalen with nothing save angelic music, seven times a day repeated.
Of this Petrarch sings—
“As pass the weary hours away,Seven times is sung the angels’ lay,Seven times in each revolving day.”
So the great S. Sabas, says the author of his life, kept abstinence through all times of fasting, tasting no food whatever, save that on Saturdays and Sundays he received the holy sacrament.
Mystically, every faithful Christian lives by every word of God:—
1. By receiving Christ, who is God’s Eternal Word, and who, being made man, nourishes us by His doctrine, His grace, and His example. And we, by receiving Himself, by receiving His Flesh, receive His Godhead in the Eucharist.
2. God gives the words of sacred Scripture, which feed by illuminating and inflaming the mind.
3. He feeds us by prayers and holy inspiration.
Tropologically, S. Gregory (Hom. 16 in Evang.) here admires the meekness of Christ.
“Consider how great is the patience of God, and how great our impatience. If we be injured, or provoked by any wrong, we are moved with wrath, and either revenge ourselves as far as we can, or threaten when we are not able. Behold, the Lord endured the onset of the devil, and answered him nothing save words of meekness. He endures him whom He might have punished.”
Douay-Rheims : 1582 text
3. And the Diuel ſaid to him: If thou be the Sonne of God, ſay to this ſtone that it be made bread.4. And IESVS made anſwer vnto him: It is written, That not in bread alone ſhal man liue, but in euery word of God.
+ + +
SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.
The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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