Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 4:3-4

"And the tempter came and said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." — Matthew 4:3-4 (ASV)

Pseudo-Chrysostom: The Devil, who had begun to despair when he saw that Christ fasted for forty days, began to hope again when he saw that He was an hungred. And then the tempter came to him. If, then, you have fasted and are afterward tempted, do not say, “I have lost the fruit of my fast.” For though it may not have prevented the temptation, it will prevent you from being overcome by it.

St. Gregory the Great: If we observe the successive steps of the temptation, we can see how thoroughly we are freed from it. The ancient enemy tempted the first man through his belly when he persuaded him to eat the forbidden fruit; through ambition when he said, You shall be as gods; and through covetousness when he said, knowing good and evil. For there is a covetousness not only of money but also of greatness, which is sought when a high position beyond our measure is desired.

By the same methods with which he had overcome the first Adam, he was himself overcome when he tempted the second Adam. He tempted through the belly when he said, Command that these stones become loaves; through ambition when he said, If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here; and through covetousness for a high position with the words, All these things I will give you.

St. Ambrose of Milan: He begins with that which had once been the means of his victory—the appetite: If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves. What does such a beginning mean, except that he knew the Son of God was to come, yet did not believe He had come because of His physical weakness? His speech is partly that of an inquirer and partly that of a tempter; he professes to believe Him to be God, yet strives to deceive Him as a man.¹

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Therefore, in the temptation, he makes a proposal of a dual nature: one by which Christ’s divinity would be revealed through the miracle of transformation, and another by which the weakness of the man would be deceived by the delight of food.

St. Jerome: But you are caught, O Enemy, in a dilemma. If these stones can be made into bread at His word, your temptation is useless against one so mighty. If He cannot make them into bread, your suspicion that this is the Son of God must be baseless.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: But just as the Devil blinds all men, so now he is invisibly blinded by Christ. He found Him an hungred at the end of forty days and did not know that He had continued through those forty days without being hungry. In suspecting that He was not the Son of God, he failed to consider that the mighty Champion can descend to weak things, but the weak cannot ascend to high things.

We can more readily infer from His not being hungry for so many days that He is God, than we can infer from His being hungry afterward that He is man. It may be said that Moses and Elijah fasted for forty days, and they were men. But they were hungry and endured it; He, for the space of forty days, was not hungry, but only afterward.

To be hungry and yet refuse food is within human endurance, but not to be hungry at all belongs to the divine nature alone.

St. Jerome: Christ’s purpose was to conquer by humility; St. Leo the Great: therefore, He opposed the adversary with testimonies from the Law rather than with miraculous powers. This gave more honor to man and more disgrace to the adversary, since the enemy of the human race was thus overcome by man rather than by God.²

St. Gregory the Great: So the Lord, when tempted by the Devil, answered only with precepts from Holy Scripture. He who could have drowned His tempter in the abyss did not display the might of His power, giving us an example that when we suffer anything from evil men, we should be moved to learning rather than to revenge.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: He did not say, “I do not live,” but, Man does not live by bread alone, so that the Devil might still ask, If you are the Son of God. If He is God, it is as though He avoided displaying what He had the power to do; if He is a man, it is a crafty way to conceal His lack of power.

Rabanus Maurus: This verse is quoted from Deuteronomy 8:3.ⁱ Whoever, then, does not feed on the Word of God, does not live. Just as the body of a man cannot live without earthly food, so his soul cannot live without God’s word. This word is said to proceed out of the mouth of God, by which He reveals His will through scriptural testimonies.

1. Ambros. in Luc., c. 4. 3
2. Serm. 39, 3