Bible Dictionaries
Tempt

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

signifies (1) "to try, attempt, assay" (see TRY); (2) "to test, try, prove," in a good sense, said of Christ and of believers, Hebrews 2:18 , where the context shows that the temptation was the cause of suffering to Him, and only suffering, not a drawing away to sin, so that believers have the sympathy of Christ as their High Priest in the suffering which sin occasions to those who are in the enjoyment of communion with God; so in the similar passage in Hebrews 4:15; in all the temptations which Christ endured, there was nothing within Him that answered to sin. There was no sinful infirmity in Him. While He was truly man, and His Divine nature was not in any way inconsistent with His Manhood, there was nothing in Him such as is produced in us by the sinful nature which belongs to us; in Hebrews 11:37 , of the testing of OT saints; in 1 Corinthians 10:13 , where the meaning has a wide scope, the verb is used of "testing" as permitted by God, and of the believer as one who should be in the realization of his own helplessness and his dependence upon God (see PROVE , TRY); in a bad sense, "to tempt" (a) of attempts to ensnare Christ in His speech, e.g., Matthew 16:1; 19:3; 22:18,35 , and parallel passages; John 8:6; (b) of temptations to sin, e.g., Galatians 6:1 , where one who would restore an erring brother is not to act as his judge, but as being one with him in liability to sin, with the possibility of finding himself in similar circumstances, James 1:13,14 (see note below); of temptations mentioned as coming from the Devil, Matthew 4:1; and parallel passages; 1 Corinthians 7:5; 1 Thessalonians 3:5 (see TEMPTER); (c) of trying or challenging God, Acts 15:10; 1 Corinthians 10:9 (2nd part); Hebrews 3:9; the Holy Spirit, Acts 5:9 : cp. No. 2.

Note: " James 1:13-15 seems to contradict other statements of Scripture in two respects, saying (a) that 'God cannot be tempted with evil,' and (b) that 'He Himself tempteth no man.' But God tempted, or tried, Abraham, Hebrews 11:17 , and the Israelites tempted, or tried, God, 1 Corinthians 10:9 . James 1:14 , however, makes it plain that, whereas in these cases the temptation or trial, came from without, James refers to temptation, or trial, arising within, from uncontrolled appetites and from evil passions, cp. Mark 7:20-23 . But though such temptation does not proceed from God, yet does God regard His people while they endure it, and by it tests and approves them." * [* From Notes on Thessalonians, by Hogg and Vine, p. 97.]

an intensive form of the foregoing, is used in much the same way as No. 1 (2) (c), in Christ's quotation from Deuteronomy 6:16 , in reply to the Devil, Matthew 4:7; Luke 4:12; so in 1 Corinthians 10:9 , RV, "the Lord" (AV, "Christ"); of the lawyer who "tempted" Christ, Luke 10:25 . In the Sept., Deuteronomy 6:16; 8:2,16; Psalm 78:18 . Cp. dokimazo (see PROVE).

"untempted, untried" (a, negative, and A, No. 1), occurs in James 1:13 , with eimi, "to be," "cannot be tempted," "untemptable" (Mayor).