Bible Review

BT, Berakoth 61b, trans. Maurice Simon, in Babylonian Talmud, vol. 1, Seder Zerai’im (London: Soncino Press, 1948), p. 386.

For example, “I form light and create darkness. I make weal and create woe” (Isaiah 45:7) simply means that God is all powerful. See in particular Gustave Lambert, “‘Lier-délier’: L’expression de la totalité par l’opposition de deuz contraires,” Vivre et Penser 3 (1943–44) [=Revue biblique 52], pp. 91–103.

Mishnah, Berakoth 9.5. Translation adapted from Herbert Danby, The Mishnah (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1933), p. 10.

The discovery of this principle must be credited to Gerhardsson, who also tracked down the interpretation in Mishnah tractate Berakoth (Testing of God’s Son, pp. 71–76). The skepticism shown by Davies and Allison (Matthew, p. 353) is unjustified. Doubts regarding other hypotheses of Gerhardsson regarding the use of the Shema as a structural principle elsewhere in Matthew’s gospel in no way impugn the accuracy of his insight here.

Dupont, “L’arrière-fond biblique,” p. 296.

For a variety of opinions on where the second test took place, see Joachim Jeremias, “Die ‘Zinne’ des Temples (Mt 4.5; Lk 4.9),” Zeitschrift des deutschen Palästina-Vereins 59 (1936), pp. 195–208. The Greek to pterygion tou hierou is not an architectural term. Apparently “wing” was chosen precisely because it evoked divine protection (Gerhardsson, Testing of God’s Son, p. 59).

Birger Gerhardsson points out that the “the verb ain-nun-hey (pi’el) not only has the general meaning ‘to humble’ but also the special meaning ‘to humble (oneself) by fasting’” (The Testing of God’s Son (Matt 4:1–11 & Par) [Lund: Gleerup, 1966], pp. 41–42).

See in particular Jacques Dupont, “L’arrière-fond biblique du récit des tentations de Jesus,” New Testament Studies 3 (1956–57), pp. 287–292.

André Feuillet, “Le récit lucanien de la tentation,” Biblica 40 (1959), pp. 613–631. Similarly, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke I-IX, Anchor Bible 28 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1985), pp. 507–508; W.D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1988), vol. 1, p. 364.

But for a different view, on the archaeological evidence for several “Exoduses,” see Abraham Malamat, “Let My People Go and Go and Go and Go,” BAR 24:01