Matthew 4:4 - Exposition

It is written . Our Lord's three quotations are from Deuteronomy 8:3 ; Deuteronomy 6:16 , Deuteronomy 6:13 . Some portion of Deuteronomy ( Matthew 6:4-9 ; Matthew 11:13-21 , because included in the Sh'ma) was the first part of Scripture taught a Jewish child. Possibly, though there is no evidence upon the subject, the neighbouring portions were often added. If they had been in our Lord's case, such a recurrence of them to his mind in his present state of exhaustion is in complete accord with psychological probability. Man … God ( Deuteronomy 8:3 , LXX .). As we could not accept Weiss's interpretation of the object of the devil's temptation, so neither can we accept his interpretation of our Lord's reply, that it is equivalent to "Not by means either natural or supernatural, is man's life really sustained, but by exact obedience to God's command." Our Lord quotes the passage in its primary meaning, which was fully applicable to the present occasion. It is equivalent to "Man lives, not necessarily by natural means, but by even supernatural means, if God so wishes." "The creative word, the ῥῆμα θεοῦ , which alone imparts to the bread its sustaining power, can sustain, even as he is confident that in the present need it will sustain, apart from the bread". The words of Deuteronomy are paraphrased in Wis. 16:26, where the author, in a thoroughly Jewish exposition, enumerates the lessons taught by the giving of the manna. "It was altered … that thy children, O Lord, whom thou lovest, might know that it is not the growing of fruits that nourisheth man; but that it is thy Word, which preserveth them that put their trust in thee." By every word . ἐπί (Textus Receptus; Westcott and Hort) is doubtless right. The alteration to ἐν (Lathmann, Tregelles) is probably due to a tendency towards the simple expression of means , but perhaps to the feeling that life, especially spiritual life, is maintained rather in a sphere than on a basis (cf. Romans 10:5 ; Galatians 3:12 ).