Matthew 4:3
New International Version
The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

New Living Translation
During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

English Standard Version
And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

Berean Standard Bible
The tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Berean Literal Bible
And the one tempting, having come to Him, said "If You are Son of God, speak, that these stones may become loaves of bread."

King James Bible
And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

New King James Version
Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

New American Standard Bible
And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

NASB 1995
And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

NASB 1977
And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

Legacy Standard Bible
And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

Amplified Bible
And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

Christian Standard Bible
Then the tempter approached him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Then the tempter approached Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

American Standard Version
And the tempter came and said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And The Tempter approached him and said to him, “If you are The Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Contemporary English Version
Then the devil came to him and said, "If you are God's Son, tell these stones to turn into bread."

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the tempter coming said to him: If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

English Revised Version
And the tempter came and said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread."

Good News Translation
Then the Devil came to him and said, "If you are God's Son, order these stones to turn into bread."

International Standard Version
Then the tempter came. "Since you are the Son of God," he said, "tell these stones to become loaves of bread."

Literal Standard Version
And the tempting [one], having come to Him, said, “If You are the Son of God—speak that these stones may become loaves.”

Majority Standard Bible
The tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

New American Bible
The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.”

NET Bible
The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread."

New Revised Standard Version
The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

New Heart English Bible
And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."

Webster's Bible Translation
And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou art the son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

Weymouth New Testament
So the Tempter came and said, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to turn into loaves."

World English Bible
The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

Young's Literal Translation
And the Tempter having come to him said, 'If Son thou art of God -- speak that these stones may become loaves.'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Temptation of Jesus
2After 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.” 4But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”…

Cross References
Matthew 14:33
Then those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, "Truly You are the Son of God!"

Matthew 16:16
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Matthew 26:63
But Jesus remained silent. Then the high priest said to Him, "I charge You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God."

Mark 1:1
This is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Mark 3:11
And when the unclean spirits saw Him, they fell down before Him and cried out, "You are the Son of God!"

Mark 5:7
And he shouted in a loud voice, "What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You before God not to torture me!"

Luke 1:35
The angel replied, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.


Treasury of Scripture

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If you be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

the tempter.

Job 1:9-12
Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? …

Job 2:4-7
And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life…

Luke 22:31,32
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: …

if.

Matthew 3:17
And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Luke 4:3,9
And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread…

command.

Genesis 3:1-5
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? …

Genesis 25:29-34
And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: …

Exodus 16:3
And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

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Matthew 4
1. Jesus, fasting forty days,
3. is tempted by the devil and ministered unto by angels.
12. He dwells in Capernaum;
17. begins to preach;
18. calls Peter and Andrew,
21. James and John;
23. teaches and heals all the diseased.














(3) When the tempter came.--Nothing in the narrative suggests the idea of a bodily presence visible to the eye of sense, and all attempts so to realise it, whether as Milton has done in Paradise Regained, or as by rationalistic commentators, who held that the Tempter was, or assumed the shape of, a scribe or priest, are unauthorised, and diminish our sense of the reality and mystery of the Temptation. The narrative is not the less real and true because it lies altogether in the spiritual region of man's life.

If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.--"These stones," as if in union with glance and gesture, pointing to the loaf-like flints of the Jordan desert. The nature of the temptation, so far as we can gauge its mysterious depth, was probably complex. Something there may have been, suggested from without, like that which uttered itself in Esau's cry, "What profit shall this birthright do to me?" (Genesis 25:32). Hungry, exhausted, as if life were ebbing away in the terrible loneliness of the desert, the "wild beasts" around him, as if waiting for their victim, what would it avail to have been marked out as the Son of God, the long-expected Christ? With this another thought was blended. If He were the Son of God, did not that name involve a lordship over nature? Could He not satisfy His hunger and sustain His life? Would He not in so exercising the power of which now, for the first time it may be, He was the conscious possessor, be establishing his status as the Christ in the eyes of others? That thought presented itself to His mind, but it was rejected as coming from the Enemy. It would have been an act of self-assertion and distrust, and therefore would have involved not the affirmation, but the denial of the Sonship which had so recently been attested.

Verse 3. - The tempter (1 Thessalonians 3:5 only; cf. 2 Corinthians 11:3). Came; came up to him (προσελθών). The word expresses local nearness, and suggests, though we cannot affirm it as certain, that he appeared visibly. The thought of physical nearness is continued in "taketh him" (vers. 5, 8), and "the devil leaveth him" and "angels came near" (ver. 11; cf. ver. 5, note). On the other hand, such expressions may be parabolic, and intended to express the closeness of the spiritual combat. To him; not after "came," but after "said" (Revised Version, with manuscripts). If thou be; art (Revised Version) (εἰ... εϊ) - the "if" of assumption (cf. Colossians 3:1). The devil does not attempt to throw doubt on the truth of the utterance in Matthew 3:17. His words rather mean, "Thou knowest what was said, thou bast been gradually realizing that assurance of Sonship; use, then, that privilege which thou undoubtedly hast" (comp. Matthew 27:40, where, in mockery, the same truth is assumed). Wetstein, following Origen and pseudo-Ignatius,' Philipp.,' § 9, says that the tempter did not know, or at least doubted, whether Jesus was really God, for otherwise he would never have tempted him. This is, surely, to miss the meaning of the temptation for our Lord himself; for he was tempted as Man. Satan might well haw known that he was God incarnate, and yet not have known whether as Man he might not yield. Weiss ('Life,' 1:343) mistakenly thinks that the object of this first temptation was to insinuate doubt in the mind of Jesus as to his Messiahship. "Command that these stones become bread, and if thou canst not do so, then thou art not the Son of God." Command that; εἰπὸν (cf. Westcott and Hort, 2. App., p. 164) ἵνα (cf. Matthew 20:21, and Winer,§ 44:8). These stones, ie. lying about. Farrar (on Luke 4:3; and especially in 'Life of Christ,' illustrated edit., pp. 99, 100) suggests that there is a special reference to the "loaf-shaped fossils," septaria, which are found in Palestine - as, indeed, in most other countries. But though these "flattened nodules of calcareous clay, ironstone, or other matter" (Page, ' Handbook of Geolog. Terms,' etc., 1859, p. 327) often assume fantastic shapes, perhaps even distantly resembling either an English loaf or a fiat Jewish cake (vide infra) , it seems quite unnecessary to see any allusion to them here. (For the comparison of bread and a stone, cf. Matthew 7:9.) Be made; Revised Version, become; rightly, because there is no thought of the process of manufacture in γένωνται, Bread; Revised Version margin, "Greek, loaves" (ἄρτοι). "The Israelites made bread in the form of an oblong or round cake, as thick as one's thumb, and as large as a plate or Platter; hence it was not cut, but [e.g. Matthew 14:19] broken" (Thayer). In Luke the devil points to one stone only, and tempts him to bid it become a loaf.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
The
(ho)
Article - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

tempter
πειράζων (peirazōn)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3985: To try, tempt, test. From peira; to test, i.e. Endeavor, scrutinize, entice, discipline.

came
προσελθὼν (proselthōn)
Verb - Aorist Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 4334: From pros and erchomai; to approach, i.e. come near, visit, or worship, assent to.

to Him
αὐτῷ (autō)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Dative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.

[and] said,
εἶπεν (eipen)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 2036: Answer, bid, bring word, command. A primary verb; to speak or say.

“If
Εἰ (Ei)
Conjunction
Strong's 1487: If. A primary particle of conditionality; if, whether, that, etc.

You are
εἶ (ei)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 2nd Person Singular
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

[the] Son
Υἱὸς (Huios)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5207: A son, descendent. Apparently a primary word; a 'son', used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinship.

of God,
Θεοῦ (Theou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 2316: A deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very.

tell
εἰπὲ (eipe)
Verb - Aorist Imperative Active - 2nd Person Singular
Strong's 2036: Answer, bid, bring word, command. A primary verb; to speak or say.

these
οὗτοι (houtoi)
Demonstrative Pronoun - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3778: This; he, she, it.

stones
λίθοι (lithoi)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3037: A stone; met: of Jesus as the chief stone in a building. Apparently a primary word; a stone.

to become
γένωνται (genōntai)
Verb - Aorist Subjunctive Middle - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 1096: A prolongation and middle voice form of a primary verb; to cause to be, i.e. to become, used with great latitude.

bread.”
ἄρτοι (artoi)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 740: Bread, a loaf, food. From airo; bread or a loaf.


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NT Gospels: Matthew 4:3 The tempter came and said to him (Matt. Mat Mt)
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