Jesus’
temptation in the wilderness, as recorded in Matthew 4:1-11/Luke 4:1-13/Mark
1:12-13 is, alongside Jude 9, the best text to use to show that the New
Testament affirms the existence of an external supernatural person called “Satan,”
contra Christadelphians who, as a tenet of their faith, reject that there is
such a supernatural person (on this and related issues, see Listing of Articles on Christadelphian Issues).
Commenting
on Matt 4:1-11, Michel Heiser offered the following about the temptation and why it took place vis-à-vis its
theological significance:
That Satan tempts Jesus in the desert
wilderness is not arbitrary. The Greek term translated “wilderness” (erēmos) is used in the Septuagint
translation of the destination of the goat for Azazel (Lev 16:10) and the desolate
place described by Isaiah that was home to preternatural creatures associated
with evil spirits (Isa 13:9). Fitzmyer observes, “By the ‘desert’ the
wilderness of Judea is meant, perhaps as place of contact with God (see Hos 2:14-15),
but more so as an abode of wild beasts and demons (Lev 16:10; Isa 13:21; 34:14;
Tob 8:3). This double aspect of the desert thus confronts Jesus (Joseph A.
Fitzmyer, The Gospel according to Luke
I-IX: Introduction, Translation, and Notes [AYB; New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press, 1970], 514). Allison’s focused comments on the association with
supernatural evil are especially appropriate:
In the temptation narratives Jesus confronts
Satan in the wilderness. In Luke 8:29 we are told that the Gerasene demoniac was
driven into the desert by a demon. And in Matthew 12:43-45 and its parallel
Luke 11:24-26 the unclean spirit who has been cast out “passes through
waterless places.” These texts are illumined by the Jewish belief that the
wilderness, being beyond the bounds of society, is the haunt of evil spirits
(see Lev 16:10; Isa 13:21; 1 Enoch 10:4-5;
Tob 8:3, 4; 4 Macc 18:8; 2 Apoc. Bar.
10:8). The idea dominated later Christian monasticism. (D.C. Allison Jr., “Mountain
and Wilderness,” Dictionary of Jesus and
the Gospels, ed. Joel B. Green and Scot McKnight [Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 1992], 565)
. . . in Second Temple Jewish thought, the
desert wilderness was where the goat for Azazel was driven and where the
demonic Azazel was imprisoned. Consequently, that the Spirit drove Jesus to
this place after his baptism seems odd. Why would the Spirit compel Jesus to
face the devil?
The answer is to be found in how the New
Testament writers wanted to portray Jesus in light of Old Testament history and
theology. The Gospels, especially Matthew, casts Jesus’ ministry as a new
exodus event. Jesus’ baptism and temptation in the wilderness parallel Israel’s
passing through the sea before heading into the wilderness on the way to Canaan,
the land promised to them by Yahweh.
But Israel’s faith and loyalty to Yahweh
faltered (Judg 2:11-15). They were eventually seduced by the hostile divine
powers (“demons”) whose domain was the wilderness (Deut 32:15-20). Jesus, the
messianic son of God and royal representative of the nation, would succeed
where Israel failed. (Heiser, Unseen
Realm, 277)
Consider the imagery of the temptation. Jesus
was in the wilderness forty days—a deliberate mirroring of Israel’s forty years
of wandering in the desert after their failure to believe Yahweh would give them
victory over the giant Akankim (evil spawn in Old Testament and Second Temple
theology) reported by the spies (Num 13:33-14:35).
This failure was especially shameful because
it involved ignoring the earlier incredible deliverance at the Red Sea (Exod
14-15; compare Num 14:11, 22). This is consistent with the observation of many
scholars that Matthew’s portrayal of Jesus’ early life and ministry cast him as
the new (superior) Son of God, the central figure of a new exodus (for a useful
summary of the parallels with the exodus story, see Ryken et al., “Matthew,
Gospel of,” Dictionary of Biblical
Imagery, 543).
We must not overlook the fact that the exodus
is viewed as a victory over the gods of Egypt—evil spirits in rebellion against
Yahweh in the wake of Babel’s allotment of the gods over the nations. After the
deliverance at the Red Sea. Moses cries out, “Who is like you, O LORD, among
the gods? “(Exod 15:11). God himself described the death of the firstborn, the
final plague, as a victory over his supernatural enemies:
I will pass through the land of Egypt that
night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and
beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD.
(Exod 12:12; compare Num 33:4)
Jesus’ victory over Satan’s temptation in the
wilderness is also a victory over the gods of the nations. Recall the words of
Matthew 4:8-9:
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high
mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And
he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship
me.”
In effect, Satan was offering Jesus rule over
the nations abandoned by Yahweh at Babel (Deut 32:8). That judgment was never intended
to be permanent. When Yahweh raised up his own “portion” (Deut 32:9) starting
with the covenant with Abraham, he told the patriarch that it would be through
his offspring that all the nations would ultimately be blessed (Gen 12:3).
Jesus was the specific fulfillment of that promise:
Now the promises were made to Abraham and to
his offspring. It does not say “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but
referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. (Gal 3:16)
Had Jesus failed in the wilderness
temptation, the plan to bring the nations back into the family of Yahweh also
would have failed. The nature of this temptation and the implications of its
outcome presume the Second temple Jewish perception [that] the rebellious gods
of the nations were affiliated with the original rebel of Eden and, in some
sense, under his authority. When the Gospels have Satan offering the kingdoms
of the world to Jesus in exchange for worship, they presume this affiliation and
authority. (Michael S. Heiser, Demons:
What the Bible Really Says about the Powers of Darkness [Bellingham, Wash.:
Lexham Press, 2020], 184-86)
