“And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.”
And said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. The devil now quotes scripture — Psalm 91:11–12, a psalm of trust in God's protection. The citation is accurate but wrenched from its context: Psalm 91 is a song of trust in God's protection during ordinary life, not a license to engineer spectacular demonstrations of divine rescue. The temptation is to misuse scripture in the service of self-display: if God has promised to protect you, force the situation that requires the protection and thereby prove your status publicly. The misuse of scripture by twisting its intent while preserving its words is one of the most subtle and powerful tools of the temptation.
Church Fathers on Matthew 4:6
From this first answer of Christ, the Devil could learn nothing certain whether He were God or man; he therefore betook him to another temptation, saying within himself; This man who is not sensible of the appetite of hunger, if not the Son of God, is yet a holy man; and such do attain strength not to be overcome by hunger; but when they have subdued every necessity of the flesh, they often fall by desire of empty glory. Therefore he began to tempt Him by this empty glory.
'Took him,' not because the Lord was weak, but the enemy proud; he imputed to a necessity what the Saviour did willingly.
Jerusalem was called the Holy City, for in it was the Temple of God, the Holy of holies, and the worship of the one God according to the law of Moses.
Read all 24 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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