Matthew 4:10

Matthew 4:10 is the tenth verse of the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. Jesus has rebuffed two earlier temptations by Satan. The devil has thus transported Jesus to the top of a great mountain and offered him control of the world to Jesus if he agrees to worship him. In this verse Jesus rejects this temptation.[1]

Matthew 4:10
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A 19th century woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld depicting the scene
Book	Gospel of Matthew
Christian Bible part	New Testament

Content

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence,

Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the

Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

The English Standard Version translates the passage as:

Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan!

For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God

and him only shall you serve.’” 

For a collection of other versions see BibleHub Matthew 4:10

Analysis

In contrast with Matthew 4:1 where "the devil" is named, here Jesus refers to the devil as Satan (cf. Matthew 12:26; 16:33), which is the same as Beelzebul (Matthew 10:25; 12:24, 27).[2] Throughout Matthew, the devil and its evil underlings are always overpowered (cf. Matthew 4:23; 8:16, 28; 9:32; 12:22; 15:22; 17:18; 23:39).[2] Jesus again quotes scripture in response to the temptation, this time the quote is from the passage on the Israelites rejection of idolatry in Deuteronomy 6:13.[3] The Spirit-led behavior that Jesus demonstrates here is significant: to know God's command and its context means to obey, with no added reasoning to God's simple commands (cf. Psalm 119:11).[4] The verse uses the word "worship" (not the word "fear" as in the Septuagint), to better tie in with the temptation, and adds only at the end for added emphasis.[5]

References

1. France 2007, p. 134.
2. Allison 2007, p. 851. sfn error: no target: CITEREFAllison2007 (help)
3. Coogan 2007, p. 12 New Testament.
4. Keener 1999, p. 144.
5. France 2007, p. 135.

Sources

• Allison, Jr., Dale C. (2007). "57. Matthew". In Barton, John; Muddiman, John (eds.). The Oxford Bible Commentary (first (paperback) ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199277186. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
• Coogan, Michael David (2007). Coogan, Michael David; Brettler, Marc Zvi; Newsom, Carol Ann; Perkins, Pheme (eds.). The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version, Issue 48 (Augmented 3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195288810.
• France, R.T. (2007). Bruce, Frederick Fyvie (ed.). The Gospel of Matthew. New international commentary on the New Testament. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 9780802825018.
• Keener, Craig S. (1999). A commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8028-3821-6.
• Phillips, John (2005). Exploring the Gospel of Matthew: An Expository Commentary. The John Phillips Commentary Series. Volume 1 (reprint ed.). Kregel Academic. ISBN 9780825433924.