TEMPTATION OF CHRIST (Matt. iv : -I 1; Mark i:12, 13; Luke iv:1-12).
The popular view of this undoubted portion of our Savior's history, is, that it is a narrative of outward transactions; that our Savior immedi ately after his baptism was conducted by the Spirit into the wilderness—either the desolate and moun tainous region now called Quarantania by the peo ple of Palestine (Ditto's Physical History, pp. 39, 40), or the great desert of Arabia, mentioned in Dent. xxxii:to; viii:15; Hos. xiii:5: Jer. 6, etc.—where the devil tempted him in person, appeared to him in a visible form, spoke to him in an audible voice, removed him to the summit 'of an exceeding high mountain,' and to the top of 'a pinnacle of the temple at Jerusalem ;' whereas the view taken by many learned com mentators, ancient and modern, is, that it is the narrative of a vision, which was designed to 'sup ply that ideal experience of temptation or trial, which it was provided in the divine counsels for our Lord to receive, previously to entering upon the actual trials and difficulties of his ministry.' Farmer, also, considers it a 'divine vision,' and endeavors with much learning and ingenuity, to 'illustrate the wise and benevolent intention of its various scenes, as symbolical predictions and representations of the principal trials attending Christ's public ministry' (Inquiry into the Nature and Design of Christ's Temptation, 8vo., London. Preface).
1. Arguments for the Popular Viete. On behalf of the popular interpretation it is urged, that the accounts given by the evangelists convey no intimation that they refer to a vision; that the feeling of hunger could not have been merely ideal ; that a vision of forty days' continuance is incredible; that Moses, who was a type of Christ, saw no 'visions,' and that hence it may be con cluded Christ did not ; that it is highly probable there would be a personal conflict between Christ and Satan, when the former entered on his min istry. Satan had ruined the first Adam, and might hope to prevail with the second. Why, too, say some, was our Lord taken up into a mountain to see a vision? As reasonably might St. Paul have
taken the Corinthians into a mountain to 'show them the more excellent way of charity' (1 Cor. xii :31).
2. Arguments for Vision. On the contrary side, it is rejoined, that the evangelists do really describe the temptation as a vision. Do the state ments of the evangelists mean no more than that Jesus went by the guidance or impulse of the Spirit to a particular locality? Do they not rather import, that Christ was brought into the wilder ness under the full influence of the prophetic spirit, making suitable revelations to his mind? With regard to the hunger, the prophets are rep resented as experiencing bodily sensations in their visions (Ezek. iii:3 Rev. x:to). Further argu ments, dvived from an unauthorized application of types,. are precarious—that the first Adam really had no personal encounter with Satan; that all the purposes of our Lord's temptation might be answered by a vision, for whatever might be the mode, the effect was intended to be produced upon his mind and moral feelings, like St. Peter's vision concerning Cornelius, etc. (Acts x ; that commentators least given to specu late allow that the temptation during the first forty days was carried on by mental suggestion only, and that the visible part of the temptation began 'when the tempter came to him' (Matt. iv: 3 ; Luke iv :3 ; Scott, in loc.); that, with regard to Christ's being 'taken up into an exceeding high mountain,' Ezekiel says (x1:2), 'in the visions of God, brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain,' etc.; and that St. John says, 'he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city the holy Jerusalem' (Rev. xxi: to).
3. Farmer's Theory. Farmer's theory re specting the intention of this prophetic vision may be thus summarily stated. The spirit of God was its sole author, making suitable revelations to the mind of Jesus, with a view to his future trials. It is called a temptation of the devil, because couched under the figure of Satan coming to him and offering him temptations.