Matthew versus Mark about Jesus in the wilderness

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Giuseppe
Posts: 13732
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:37 am
Location: Italy

Matthew versus Mark about Jesus in the wilderness

Post by Giuseppe »

Matthew 4:1-11
4 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted[a] by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ ”
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ ”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Two features are emphasized especially:

1) Jesus is the Son of the Creator,

2) the Torah is more powerful than Jesus himself.

Why this emphasis just on this point, in the story of the temptations, given the fact that there was no Marcionite similar story where the emphasis is on opposed points? For we know that in Mcn there was no equivalent story, Jesus being never gone to the wilderness.

I am saying that Matthew would have no need of emphasize these points in a story not even found at all in the his rival Gospel.

Unless he was replying precisely to Mark:

12 At once the Spirit sent him [αὐτὸν] out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. [αὐτῷ]

(Mark 1:12-13)

But Mark is not saying in this precise point that Jesus was not the Son of God, or that the Torah has no utility.

Unless the point of Mark is precisely that who Satan was tempting was not the Christ, since Satan didn't know that Christ possessed the man Jesus. Satan was tempting the man Jesus, not the Christ. And the angels also were attending the man Jesus. Both, Satan and the angels, didn't know the identity of the entity who was possessing the man Jesus.

So the Matthean story was used to dispel those doubts.
Jesus and the Christ was one and the same, and both served the Creator ('him only') and the this Law.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Giuseppe
Posts: 13732
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:37 am
Location: Italy

Re: Matthew versus Mark about Jesus in the wilderness

Post by Giuseppe »

This means, as direct corollary, that in Mark the demons were calling 'Christ' the wrong being: not the divine Christ, but a mere man, Jesus Nazarene. Not the possessor, but the possessed.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
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