Mt Temptation

Mt Temptation

"At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals and angels attended him" (Mark 1:12-13).

The three synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke) recorded that after Jesus was baptised he spend time alone in the desert preparing for his ministry. This follows a pattern in Scriptures, readily recognised, where people spend time in the desert being strengthened and tested for what lies ahead.

Moses, you remember, spent the second forty years of his life shepherding his father-in-law's sheep in the desert around Horeb, the Mountain of the Lord. This prepared him for the next, and last, forty years when he guided the Israelites in their wandering to reach the promised land. Paul also spent a number of years in the desert of Arabia after his conversion and before he started on his missionary journeys. Elijah, too, searched for God in the solitude of the deserts. Now, before beginning his life's mission, the gospel writers have Jesus preparing himself mentally for what was to follow.

Few would dispute the statement that we do not really know to where he was led (Matthew & Luke) or sent (Mark). Tradition has it that he spent this time in a cave half way up a mountain which overlooks the town of Jericho. This location seem logical enough, for the baptism apparently took place in the Jordan basically east of Jericho. Assuming that he wanted to stay within the borders of his homeland, west of Jericho would fill the bill.

After taking the sky road up to the Greek Orthodox Monastery which is built around that Jesus cave I thought: This isn't really a desert location where one is away from it all. What a great view. It goes right across the Jordan valley and down to the Dead Sea. I'm sure this would have been a distraction for Jesus in his meditations. Sitting alone, hunger pains biting, the green inviting oasis of Jericho would not have helped in the effort of working out God's ultimate plan for him. I could imagine him thinking: Where did that caravan come from? What are those priests doing? Whose donkey is that? Those people are working on the Sabbath.

But I accept that we must be advised by tradition. For centuries this mount has been known as Mt Quadrantania (Latin for forty). Locating Jesus' desert experience here goes back to Byzantine times.

Looking down from above. It's a long way to fall!

My thoughts on reaching the monastery were, I must admit, not about the temptation of Jesus. The first was: What a great view. Second was: One wouldn't want to be afraid of heights living up here. And again: I hope there's not an earthquake and this building decides to fall down onto the plains below. Then I did find it hard to convince myself that Jesus spent forty days and forty night up here in a cave wrestling with the devil.

What it did do was to spur me to look up once again the biblical record of this event in his life. And I did this not simply by reading one of the three accounts but considering them carefully side by side. I laid down each account ( Mark 1: 12-13; Matthew 4: 1-11; and Luke 4: 1-13) next to each other and then I carefully marked how they vary from each other, keeping in mind that Mark was written first and that Matthew and Luke had access to Mark's account when they wrote theirs. I then try to discover, through reading other commentaries or making my own suppositions WHY the differences (if indeed there are any)?

Some examples:-

1. An obvious difference. Mark's account is very short, but two verses long, saying that the Spirit sent him into the desert for forty days, where he was tempted by the devil, lived with wild animals and angels attended him. Both Matthew and Luke, in their own way, expand on this by describing three specific tests (or temptations) that Jesus had to undergo. Note that they give THREE tests. There is that number three again! Whenever I see this number I become wary. Why did they choose to expand the story?

2(a). Perhaps less obvious. Mark mentions that "he was with the wild animals" and Matthew and Luke both omit this. Question: Why did Mark include this and what does it really mean? If Jesus, as mentioned above, spent most of the time meditating in a cave half way up Mt Quadrantania, wild animals would hardly have been an issue. And why did the other two synoptic gospel writers leave the sentence out completely?

(b). Still considering Mark's account where his last sentence reads, "and angels attended him", Matthew's version suggests that angels came and attended him after the devil had left him. Luke omits the detail of "angels attending Jesus"' but adds something interesting. He writes that the devil left him "until an opportune time". Here's something to think about. Did that "opportune time" ever arise?

3. Did you pick this up? Matthew and Luke present the three temptations in a different order.

Matthew: 1. "stones to bread". 2. Highest point of temple. 3. Very high mountain.

Luke: 1. "this stone to bread". 2. a high place. 3. Highest point of temple.

It is interesting to consider why Luke might have changed Matthew's order.And so I could go on. Some people tell me that this is nitpicking and I'm missing the main point of the story.

So what is the main point of this account (these accounts) of the temptation of Jesus? Did climbing - oops! taking the chair lift to - Mt Quadrantania get me any closer to the main point?