Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
Being tempted (peirazomenov). Present passive participle and naturally parallel with the imperfect passive hgeto (was led) in verse Luke 4:1. This is another instance of poor verse division which should have come at the end of the sentence. See on Matthew 4:1; Mark 1:13 for the words "tempt" and "devil." The devil challenged the Son of man though also the Son of God. It was a contest between Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, and the slanderer of men. The devil had won with Adam and Eve. He has hopes of triumph over Jesus. The story of this conflict is given only in Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13. There is a mere mention of it in Mark 1:12 f. So then here is a specimen of the Logia of Jesus (Q), a non-Markan portion of Matthew and Luke, the earliest document about Christ. The narrative could come ultimately only from Christ himself. It is noteworthy that it bears all the marks of the high conception of Jesus as the Son of God found in the Gospel of John and in Paul and Hebrews, the rest of the New Testament in fact, for Mark, Matthew, Luke, Acts, Peter, and Jude follow in this same strain. The point is that modern criticism has revealed the Messianic consciousness of Jesus as God's Son at his Baptism and in his Temptations at the very beginning of his ministry and in the oldest known documents about Christ (The Logia, Mark's Gospel).
He did eat nothing (ouk efagen ouden). Second aorist (constative) active indicative of the defective verb esqiw. Mark does not give the fast. Matthew 4:2 has the aorist active participle nhsteusav which usually means a religious fast for purposes of devotion. That idea is not excluded by Luke's words. The entrance of Jesus upon his Messianic ministry was a fit time for this solemn and intense consecration. This mental and spiritual strain would naturally take away the appetite and there was probably nothing at hand to eat. The weakness from the absence of food gave the devil his special opportunity to tempt Jesus which he promptly seized.
When they were completed (suntelesqeiswn autwn). Genitive absolute with the first aorist passive participle feminine plural because emerwn (days) is feminine. According to Luke the hunger (epeinasen, became hungry, ingressive aorist active indicative) came at the close of the forty days as in Matthew 4:2.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Luke 4:2:
Luke 4:2
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