Matthew 4:2 (WEB)
When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.
Catechism · 2
The Seven Petitions
“It is by his prayer that Jesus vanquishes the tempter, both at the outset of his public mission and in the ultimate struggle of his agony.” — Catechism footnote: Cf. Mt 4:1-11; 26:36-44.
The Fall
“Scripture witnesses to the disastrous influence of the one Jesus calls "a murderer from the beginning", who would even try to divert Jesus from the mission received from his Father.” — Catechism footnote: Jn 8:44; cf. Mt 4:1-11.
Fathers and councils · 39
John Damascene
“…energises close communion with the other,” did something quite different from him who said, And when He had fasted forty days, He was afterwards an hungered: (for He allowed His nature to energise when it so willed, in the way proper to itself,) or from those who hold there is a different energy in Him or that He…” — editor's note: St. Matt. iv. 2.
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Augustine of Hippo
“Hence our Lord fasted forty days, forty days He was tempted in the desert, and forty days He was with His disciples after His resurrection.” — editor's note: Matt. iv. 1–11.
Read the whole comment“We read, that our Lord Christ underwent a fast of forty days: but had fasting so great power over Him, that His knees were weakened?” — editor's note: Matt. iv. 2.
Read the whole comment“And what else does the Gospel narrative shadow forth under the fast of the Lord Himself, during which forty days He was also tempted of the devil, than that condition of temptation which appertains to us through all the space of this age, and which He bore in the flesh which He condescended to take to…” — editor's note: Matt. iv. 1, 2.
Read the whole comment“And so the account continues, until we come to the words, Then the devil left him: and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.”” — editor's note: Matt. iv. 1–11.
Read the whole comment“By these three was the Lord tempted of the devil.” — editor's note: Matt iv. 1–10.
Read the whole comment“…through every entrance to creep into His inward parts, was thrust out, having finished all his alluring temptation in the wilderness after the baptism; because, being dead in the spirit, he forced no entrance into Him who was alive in the spirit, he betook himself, through eagerness for the death of man in any…” — editor's note: Matt. iv. 1–11
Read the whole comment“For the number ten, by which the perfection of blessedness is signified, multiplied four times, because of the fourfold divisions of the seasons, and the fourfold divisions of the world, will make the number forty.” — editor's note: Deut. ix. 9; 1 Kings xix. 8; Matt. iv. 2.
Read the whole comment“For He thought it meet also to be tempted by the devil, by whom otherwise He would never have been tempted, just as, had He not been willing, He would never have suffered; and the answers He gave to the devil are such as thou also oughtest to use in times of temptation.” — editor's note: Matt. iv. 1–10.
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John Chrysostom
““He was afterwards an hungered;” affording him a point to lay hold of and approach, that by actual conflict He might show how to prevail and be victorious.” — editor's note: Matt. iv. 2.
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Jerome
“Perchance, mindful of his old trick, he will try to tempt Bonosus with hunger.” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 1–6; Matt. iv. 1–4.
Read the whole comment“…obeying his belly and not God, was cast down from paradise into this vale of tears; and why Satan used hunger to tempt the Lord Himself in the wilderness; and why the apostle cries: “Meats for the belly and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them;” and why he speaks of the self-indulgent as…” — editor's note: Matt. iv. 2, 3.
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Tertullian
“Thereupon the Lord, driven apart into desert places after baptism, showed, by maintaining a fast of forty days, that the man of God lives “not by bread alone,” but “by the word of God;” and that temptations incident to fulness or immoderation of appetite are shattered by abstinence.” — editor's note: Matt. iv. 1–4.
Read the whole comment“…this world as the Creator’s, since the apostle imputes ignorance to them, whereas even the devil according to our Gospel recognised Jesus in the temptation, and, according to the record which is common to both (Marcionites and ourselves) the evil spirit knew that Jesus was the Holy One of God, and that Jesus was…” — editor's note: Matt. iv. 1–11.
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Gregory of Nazianzus
“This is why Jesus was baptized, and received testimony from above, and fasted, and was tempted, and overcame him who had overcome.” — editor's note: S. Matt. iv. 2.
Read the whole comment“And if you like even more humble than these; such as speak of His sleeping, hungering, being in an agony, and fearing; or perhaps you would make even His Cross and Death a matter of reproach to Him.” — editor's note: Matt. iv. 2; Luke iv. 2.
Read the whole comment“…heavens cleft asunder, and witness borne to him by the Spirit That is of one nature with Him; you shall see Him tempted and conquering and served by Angels, and healing every sickness and every disease, and giving life to the dead (O that He would give life to you who are dead because of your heresy), and driving…” — editor's note: Ib. iv. 1–11.
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Catena Aurea on Matthew
- Pseudo-ChrysostomCatena Aurea on Matthew
“Wherefore Christ in His love to us said, “The kingdom of heaven shall draw nigh.” [Matt 4:2]” — the author cites it
Read the whole comment - John ChrysostomCatena Aurea on Matthew
Whoever thou art then that after thy baptism sufferest grievous trials, be not troubled thereat; for this thou receivedst arms, to fight, not to sit idle. God does not hold all trial from us; first, that we may feel…
Read the whole comment - Hilary of PoitiersCatena Aurea on Matthew
The Devil’s snares are chiefly spread for the sanctified, because a victory over the saints is more desired than over others.
Read the whole comment - Gregory the GreatCatena Aurea on Matthew
Some doubt what Spirit it was that led Jesus into the desert, for that it is said after, “The Devil took him into the holy city.” But true and without question agreeable to the context is the received opinion, that…
Read the whole comment - Augustine of HippoCatena Aurea on Matthew
Why did He offer Himself to temptation? That He might be our mediator in vanquishing temptation not by aid only, but by example.
Read the whole comment - Pseudo-ChrysostomCatena Aurea on Matthew
He was led by the Holy Spirit, not as an inferior at the bidding of a greater. For we say, “led,” not only of him who is constrained by a stronger than he, but also of him who is induced by reasonable persuasion; as…
Read the whole comment - JeromeCatena Aurea on Matthew
“Led,” not against His will, or as a prisoner, but as by a desire for the conflict.
Read the whole comment - Pseudo-ChrysostomCatena Aurea on Matthew
The Devil comes against men to tempt them, but since He could not come against Christ, therefore Christ came against the Devil.
Read the whole comment - Gregory the GreatCatena Aurea on Matthew
We should know that there are three modes of temptation; suggestion, delight, and consent; and we when we are tempted commonly fall into delight or consent, because being born of the sin of the flesh, we bear with us…
Read the whole comment - John ChrysostomCatena Aurea on Matthew
The Devil is wont to be most urgent with temptation, when he sees us solitary; thus it was in the beginning he tempted the woman when he found her without the man, and now too the occasion is offered to the Devil, by…
Read the whole comment - Glossa OrdinariaCatena Aurea on Matthew
This desert is that between Jerusalem and Jericho, where the robbers used to resort. It is called Hammaim, i.e. ‘of blood,’ from the bloodshed which these robbers caused there; hence the man was said (in the parable)…
Read the whole comment - Pseudo-ChrysostomCatena Aurea on Matthew
Not Christ only is led into the desert by the Spirit, but also all the sons of God who have the Holy Spirit. For they are not content to sit idle, but the Holy Spirit stirs them to take up some great work, i.e. to go…
Read the whole comment - John ChrysostomCatena Aurea on Matthew
But that you may learn how great a good is fasting, and what a mighty shield against the Devil, and that after baptism you ought to give attention to fasting and not to lusts, therefore Christ fasted, not Himself…
Read the whole comment - Pseudo-ChrysostomCatena Aurea on Matthew
And to fix the measure of our quadragesimal fast, be fasted forty days and forty nights.
Read the whole comment - John ChrysostomCatena Aurea on Matthew
But He exceeded not the measure of Moses and Elias, lest it should bring into doubt the reality of His assumption of the flesh.
Read the whole comment - Gregory the GreatCatena Aurea on Matthew
The Creator of all things took no food whatever during forty days. We also, at the season of Lent as much as in us lies afflict our flesh by abstinence. The number forty is preserved, because the virtue of the…
Read the whole comment - Augustine of HippoCatena Aurea on Matthew
Otherwise; The sum of all wisdom is to be acquainted with the Creator and the creature. The Creator is the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; the creature is partly invisible, - as the soul to which we assign a…
Read the whole comment - Augustine of HippoCatena Aurea on Matthew
Not however because Christ fasted immediately after having received baptism, are we to suppose that He established a rule to be observed, that we should fast immediately after His baptism. But when the conflict with…
Read the whole comment - Pseudo-ChrysostomCatena Aurea on Matthew
The Lord knew the thoughts of the Devil, that he sought to tempt Him; he had heard that Christ had been born into this world with the preaching of Angels, the witness of shepherds, the inquiry of the Magi, and the…
Read the whole comment - Hilary of PoitiersCatena Aurea on Matthew
He was “an hungred,” not during the forty days, but after them. Therefore when the Lord hungred, it was not that the effects of abstinence then first came upon Him, but that His humanity was left to its own strength.…
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Aphrahat
“…thirsted and asked for water; though He was abundance and satisfied our hunger, yet He Himself hungered when He went forth to the wilderness to be tempted; though He was a Watcher that slumbers not, He yet slumbered and slept in the ship in the midst of the sea; and though He was ministered to in the Tabernacle of…” — editor's note: Matt. iv. 2.
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Leo the Great
“For He conquered the adversary, as ye have heard, by quotations from the law, not by actual strength, that by this very thing He might do greater honour to man, and inflict a greater punishment on the adversary by conquering the enemy of the human race not now as God but as Man.” — editor's note: Ut audistis, viz. in the Gospel for Quadragesima, or the First Sunday in Lent then apparently as now S. Matt. iv. 1–11: cf. Serm. XL. 3.
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Cross-references · 12
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith III.15.
Cited together in Pseudo-Chrysostom on Matthew 20:1–16 (8) (Catena Aurea).
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith III.15.
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith III.15.
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith III.15.
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith III.15.
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith III.15.
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith III.15.
Cited together in Catechism §394.
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith III.15.
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith III.15.
Cited together in Catechism §394.