“being tempted by the Devil.” The record of Jesus being tempted by the Devil is in Matthew 4 and Luke 4. Both records have the same three temptations but they are in a different order. It seems that Matthew has the chronological order the way the temptations occurred, because after the last one in Matthew, the text records Jesus saying, “Go away, Adversary!” (Matt. 4:10), and the next verse says, “Then the Devil left him” (Matt. 4:11). That command on the part of Jesus, and the Devil leaving him after that, are missing from Luke. It has been suggested that the order in Luke starts in the wilderness and ends in Jerusalem, thus emphasizing the spiritual importance of Jerusalem in the last temptation. Although that may be correct, it may also be that Luke has the order he does because, for the Devil, the most desirable outcome from his encounter with Jesus would be to have Jesus worship him, but if he could not accomplish that, to kill Jesus and be done with him. The order of temptations in Luke accomplishes that goal. The second temptation would result in Jesus worshiping the Devil, and if that failed the third temptation would have resulted in Jesus’ death.

“Devil.” The Greek word is diabolos (#1228 διάβολος), which literally means “Slanderer,” but diabolos gets transliterated into English as our more familiar name, “Devil.” Slander is so central to who the Devil is and how he operates that one of his primary names is “the Slanderer.”

[For more information on the names of the Devil, see Appendix 14: “Names of the Devil.”]