“Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. The third response is the only one accompanied by a direct dismissal: Be gone, Satan! The Deuteronomy 6:13 citation — you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve — is the Shema's application to the exclusive claims of covenant loyalty. No divided worship, no additional allegiances, no matter what is offered. Jesus has passed through the three areas where Israel failed in the wilderness — provision (the manna test), protection (the Massah test), and exclusive loyalty (the golden calf test) — and succeeded where Israel failed. He is the true Israel, the faithful son, the one who emerges from the wilderness qualified to begin the ministry the Father has prepared.
Church Fathers on Matthew 4:10
The Devil, left in uncertainty by this second reply, passes to a third temptation. Christ had broken the nets of appetite, had passed over those of ambition, he now spreads for Him those of covetousness; 'He taketh him up into a very high mountain,' such as in going round about the earth he had noticed rising above the rest. The higher the mountain, the wider the view from it.
We are not to suppose that when he shewed him the kingdoms of the world, he presented before Him the kingdom of Persia, for instance, or India; but he shewed his own kingdom, how he reigns in the world, that is, how some are governed by fornication, some by avarice.
By 'their glory,' is meant, their gold and silver, precious stones and temporal goods.
Read all 25 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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