Thursday, May 7, 2020

Michael Heiser on Jesus' Temptation in the Wilderness


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)



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