Luke 4:2
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where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He was hungry.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
JESUS ENTERING ON HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY, MAKES A CIRCUIT OF GALILEE--REJECTION AT NAZARETH. (Luke 4:14-32) as his custom was--Compare Act 17:2. stood up for to read--Others besides rabbins were allowed to address the congregation. (See Act 13:15.)
Open source ↗We left Christ newly baptized, and owned by a voice from heaven and the descent of the Holy Ghost upon him. Now, in this chapter, we have, I. A further preparation of him for his public ministry by his being tempted in the wilderness, of which we had the same account before in Matthew as we have here (Luk 4:1-13). II. His entrance upon his public work in Galilee (Luk 4:14, Luk 4:15), particularly, 1. At Nazareth, the city where he had been bred up (Luk 4:16-30), which we had no account of before in Matthew. 2. At Capernaum, where, having preached to admiration (Luk 4:31-32), he cast the devil out of a man that was possessed (Luk 4:33-37), cured Peter's mother-in-law of a fever (Luk 4:38, Luk 4:39), and many others that were sick and possessed (Luk 4:40, Luk 4:41), and then went and did the same in other cities of Galilee (Luk 4:42-44).
Open source ↗4:2 tempted by the devil: The term diabolos is a Greek translation of the Hebrew satan, meaning “accuser” or “adversary” (1 Chr 21:1; Job 1:1–2:13; Zech 3:1-2). Luke uses both terms (“devil,” Luke 4:3, 6, 13; 8:12; “Satan,” 10:18; 11:18; 13:16; 22:3, 31). Adam and Eve were tested by Satan and failed; Jesus, the second Adam, resisted temptation and thus reversed the judgment against Adam and Eve.
Open source ↗Cross-references
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So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin.
When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.
Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.
So he got up and ate and drank. And strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.
Since Jacob’s well was there, Jesus, weary from His journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD and provoking Him to anger.
After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.
“Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maidens will fast as you do. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish!”
For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening to take his stand.