“Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;”
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. The third temptation escalates to the largest possible scale: all the kingdoms of the world and their glory displayed from the summit of a very high mountain. The image recalls Moses on Pisgah viewing the promised land (Deuteronomy 34:1–4) but expands it to include every kingdom. The Messiah is supposed to inherit the nations (Psalm 2:8 — ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage); the question is the path to that inheritance. The devil offers the destination without the cross; Jesus will receive the nations, but only through suffering, death, and resurrection. The vision from the mountain is real — the kingdoms are real, the glory is real — but the offer is fraudulent because they are not the devil's to give.
Church Fathers on Matthew 4:8
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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