Citing Psalm 91 and the Testament
of the Twelve Patriarchs, Gibson notes that the subjugation of wild animals
is a result of faithfulness and obedience to God, ‘You will treat on the lion
and the adder’ (Ps. 91.11-13), ‘Every wild creature you shall subdue’ (T.
Iss. 7.7), and ‘wild animals will fear you’ (T. Benj. 5.2).
Furthermore, these texts are addressed to those in a covenant relationship with
the Lord (cf. Ps. 91.2, 13). In the Testament of Naphtali, it is
promised that angels will bless and wild animals will flee from those that
‘achieve the good’ (T. Naph. 8.4). (Gibson, ‘Jesus’ Wilderness Temptation
According to Mark’, JSNT 53 [1994]: 32). In light of this, the
description of Jesus ‘with’ the beasts (μετα των θηριων) in Mk 1.13 suggests that Jesus
has subdued them and is standing over them as their Lord. Therefore, the
interpretation of the wild beasts as hostile in Mark creates a possible
parallel to Jesus’ explicit defeat of the devil in Matthew and suggests a reason
for the omission of θηριον.
Instead of Jesus’ defeat and subjugation of the beasts, Matthew tells of Jesus’
command for the devil to depart (υπαγε,
σατανα, Mt. 4.10) and the adversary’s compliant exist (Τοτε αφιησιν αυτον ο διαβολος, Mt. 4.11). While Mark’s
narrative only implies that Jesus was successful in overcoming Satan’s testing,
Jesus has undoubtedly triumphed over Satan at the end of Matthew’s temptation
narrative. Read in this way, Matthew is much more explicit about the cosmic
conflict between the devil and God through Jesus. (Kristian A. Bendoraitis, ‘Behold,
the Angels Came and Served Him’: A Compositional Analysis of Angels in Matthew [Library
of New Testament Studies 523; London: T&T Clark, 2015, 2018], 69-70)
