Luke 4
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Luke 4 is the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It details Jesus's three temptations, his rejection at Nazareth, and the start of his mission.
Jesus's Three Temptations
Jesus, as in Mark [1] and Matthew [4], travels into the desert and fasts for forty days. He is confronted by Satan, who tempts him with three things.The first is that Satan commands him to turn stones into bread. Jesus replies "Man does not live on bread alone." ([4]), quoting Moses from Deuteronomy [8:3]
Secondly Satan shows him "... all the kingdoms of the world." ([5]) and tells Jesus he can have them all if he falls down and worships him. Jesus replies with a quote from Deuteronomy [6:13], "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'" ([8])
Satan takes him to the top of the Temple of Jerusalem and quotes Psalm [91:11-12] as a criterion for a test of favor with God, to which Jesus quotes Deuteronomy [6:16], "...Do not put the Lord your God to the test." ([12]).
This is also found in Matthew [4:1-11], but in Matthew the order of the second and third temptation are reversed. This was most probably in Q if that hypothesis is correct, but then why are the orders reversed? Were their copies of Q in a different order?
Luke then says that Satan left Jesus "...until an opportune time." ([13]). Satan appears later in Luke [22], entering Judas to make him betray Jesus and Brown (237) argues at Luke [22:53] when Jesus says to those arresting him "But this is your hour—when darkness reigns".
Rejection at Nazareth
Jesus, says Luke, went teaching in many synagogues, and on the Sabbath he goes to his hometown of Nazareth, gets up and reads a quote from Isiah [61:1-2], referring to himself as the fulfillment of this. The people are amazed at this but Jesus goes on the rebuke them, saying "I tell you the truth...no prophet is accepted in his hometown." ([24]) He tells them how in the time of Elijah only a woman from Sidon was saved, and during the time of Elisha a Syrian was healed. Outraged, the people attack him and chase him to the top of a hill and try to throw him off, but Jesus slips away. There is no hill in Nazareth, indicating Luke is unfamiliar with Nazareth and had never been there. This is perhaps also depicted, though not word for word, in Mark [6:1-6] and Matthew [13:53-58].Teaching and Healing
Jesus goes to Capernaum and exorcises a possessed man, the first of Luke's 21 miracles. He goes to Simon's house and heals his sick mother-in-law. Mark 1 has this occur after Jesus called his disciples, while Luke puts that into Luke [5].He heals more and more people, then retreats to the wilderness for solitary prayer. They come and find him there but he tells them to meet him in the surrounding towns, and the travels and preaches. This, Luke [4:31-44], is almost exactly the same as Mark [1:21-29] and can also be partially found in Matthew [8:14-16].
References
Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament Doubleday 1997 ISBN 0385247672[Luke 4 NIV] Accessed 8 November 2005
Miller, Robert J.-Editor The Complete Gospels Polebridge Press 1994 ISBN 0060655879
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