Bible Encyclopedias
Temptation of Our Lord

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature

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Temptation of our Lord (;; ). The popular view of this undoubted portion of our Savior's history, is, that it is a narrative of outward transactions; that our Savior immediately after his baptism was conducted by the Spirit into the wilderness—either the desolate and mountainous region now called Quarantania by the people of Palestine, or the great desert of Arabia, mentioned in;;; , etc.—where the devil tempted him in person, appeared to him in a visible form, spoke to him in an audible voice, removed him to the summit 'of an exceeding high mountain,' and to the top of 'a pinnacle of the temple at Jerusalem;' whereas the view taken by many learned commentators, ancient and modern, is, that it is the narrative of a vision, which was designed to 'supply that ideal experience of temptation or trial, which it was provided in the divine counsels for our Lord to receive, previously to entering upon the actual trials and difficulties of his ministry.'