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Matthew 4 is the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. It contains two quite distinct sections. The first half, to verse eleven is Matthew's account for the Temptation of Christ by Satan. The second section deals with Jesus' first public preaching and the gathering of his first disciples.

Verses

Temptation of Christ

The section of this chapter dealing with the temptation of Christ by Satan is unquestionably the best known and most studied portion. Satan temps him three times: in 4:3 with food to relieve Jesus' fast, in 4:6 with testing God, and in 4:9 with control of all the kingdoms of the earth.

There are a number of theories for this verse. One is that the three temptations show Jesus rejecting various visions of the Messiah. In the first temptation he shows that he will not be an economic messiah who will use his powers to feed the world's hungry. In the second that he will not be a miracle worker who puts on great spectacles, and the third that he will not be a political saviour but rather a spiritual one. Many scholars today reject this view. A popular theory today is that Jesus is demonstrating that he will not fail where the people of Israel did. There are several references to the period after the Exodus and this the section of the scripture Jesus' draws his quotes from. In that section the Israelites anger God by testing him and they soon compromise their principles for political power, mistakes that Jesus does not make.

The Gospel of Mark the temptation narrative takes up only a two verse section in Mark 1. Luke is quite similar to Matthew with only somewhat different wording and with the order of the second and third temptations reversed. It is thus widely believed that much of this section in Matthew came from Q. Schweizer notes that Q likely contained little except the actual dialogue, as the extra information is quite different in the two gospels. Hill feels that Mark is written in a manner that assumes his audience is already familiar with the temptation narrative, so this dialogue may have been widely known by the early Christians and thus not necessarily in Q.

Scholars generally consider Matthew's account to be more likley to be to original arrangement, however Luke's version became more popular in the tradition. The temptation scene related here has inspired a number of works of literature. It is briefly recounted in Paradise Lost and is retold in great detail and expanded upon in Paradise Regained. It also is an important inspiration for The Brothers Karamazov and Murder in the Cathedral. The book and film The Last Temptation of Christ also expands upon Christ being tempted by Satan.

Beginning of the ministry

The second half of this chapter is generally seen as the introduction to the ministry of Jesus that will take up the next several chapters of the Gospel. This section introduces Jesus' two main interlocutors. Verses 18 to 22 describe the calling of the first four disciples. The last three verses introduce the crowds that Jesus addresses. The last verses also serve as a summary of Jesus' ministry outlining the various forms it takes.

References

• Albright, W.F. and C.S. Mann. "Matthew." The Anchor Bible Series. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1971.
• Clarke, Howard W. The Gospel of Matthew and its Readers: A Historical Introduction to the First Gospel. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003.
• France, R.T. The Gospel According to Matthew: an Introduction and Commentary. Leicester: Inter-Varsity, 1985.
• Gundry, Robert H. Matthew a Commentary on his Literary and Theological Art. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1982.
• Hill, David. The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981
• Jones, Alexander. The Gospel According to St. Matthew. London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1965.
• Schweizer, Eduard. The Good News According to Matthew. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1975

• New Testament chapters