4:1-11: His fast and temptation: Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert for a fast. We recall Is 11:1-3, which foretold He would have the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

So we have a question: Jesus was divine, what need of the Holy Spirit? Some in the Patristic age pursued this sort of question very far: Why would He even need a human soul, when the Divine Word could carry on all those functions? This led to the heresy of Apollinaris, which denied He had a human rational soul.

The reason for His having the Gifts is this: God loves everything that is right, and that includes good order. St. Thomas (Summa I. 19. 5. c) said that God in love of good order is pleased to have one thing in place to serve as a reason or title for giving a second thing, even though the title does not move Him. So in this love of good order, He did will that Jesus have a complete humanity, not a body without a rational soul. He also willed that He should have the full complement of supernatural gifts, including the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Guidance through thee Gifts is the highest form. Beneath it would be guidance by human reason, or by the whim of the moment - which Aristotle called (Ethics 1. 5) "a life fit only for cattle".

Jesus did also have human emotions - He could marvel at the faith of the centurion, He could be angry at the sellers in the temple, He could even experience fear in Gethsemani. On these matters, cf two articles by W. Most, in Homiletic & Pastoral Review, in June 1983, and November 1985.

Some of the Fathers, probably under influence of Stoicism, fell into the error of saying He had no inner feelings at all: Clement of Alexandria in Stromata 6. 9. 71. 2 (RJ 426): "He was in general without emotion (apathes) and no movement of feelings went within Him, whether pleasure or pain." Clement probably meant just that He had no immoderate movements, since he continues, using similar language about the Apostles. Similarly St. Hilary of Poitiers (On the Trinity 10. 23: RJ 876): "These things did indeed inflict on Him the force of suffering, but did not bring the pain of suffering... the body received on itself the force... without the sense of pain." He seems to mean that there could be physical pain, but no interior reaction - unworthy of the Man-God.

The opposite error was that of Theodore of Mopsuestia, a forerunner of Nestorianism, who said Christ had even disorderly emotions. A General Council of Constantinople II in 553 condemned this notion, and spoke of "wicked (impium) Theodore of Mopsuestia" (DS 434). The same applies of course to the movie The Last Temptation".

So as to the temptations by satan, He could feel these, even as in Gethsemani He experienced a desire to avoid the passion, but these things caused no disorderly emotions in Him.

He had a free human will, but yet was incapable of sinning. The reason is that if we define "person" correctly, it means the center to which we attribute things: e.g., he knew this, he felt this, he experienced this etc. Another person may have the same or similar experiences, yet they are individualized by belonging to the one person. Therefore, since in Him there was only one person, the Divine Person, if He had sinned, it would have been attributed to a Divine Person - which is impossible.

The first temptation was a temptation because it would have been contrary to the policy of the Father set in Phil 2:7, of emptying Himself, i.e., He should not use His divine power for Himself. Otherwise He had the power to turn stones to bread, and He surely needed food. Jesus answers with the words of Dt. 8:3. Jesus' food is to do the will of Him who sent Him (Jn 4:34).

In the second temptation, the evil one takes Him to the pinnacle of the temple. The corner over the Brook Cedron was about 180 meters above the brook. Josephus said people could get dizzy from there (Antiquities 15. 11. 5). Was that done literally, or by way of a vision? Most likely the latter. The devils, being fallen angels, still retain very great powers which are natural to them, beyond nature for us. They can work on a person's inner or outer senses and cause him to see things. Here the devil quotes Psalm 91:11-12. The Psalm was telling in very strong language what confidence in God one may have. But to put oneself in a situation where a miracle is needed, without reason, and expect God to do it - this is tempting God. For example if someone has a broken appendix, and does not call a surgeon, but says God will take care of it - that is tempting God.

In the third temptation, the devil takes Him to a very high mountain, from which He can see all the kingdoms of the world. Of course no mountain is high enough for that, so this seems to mean a vision. The devil claims he controls all of these. He does not of course have a legitimate power over kingdoms, yet the sinfulness of men gives him much actual power. So St. Paul in 2 Cor 4:4 speaks of him as "the god of this world" (cf. John 12:31).

Did the devil at this time know of the divinity of Jesus? Not likely. But he surely knew He was the Messiah.

4:12-17: Move to Capernaum: It is evident that the Evangelists do not always or even often try for chronological order: they have other designs. (Compare the practice of the later Roman biographer Suetonius). That fact is very evident here, for the text says that when Jesus heard John had been arrested He moved from Judea to Capernaum, and made that His headquarters. Actually, the story of John's martyrdom is not told until chapter 14.

The purpose here seems to be to relate His use of

Capernaum as headquarters to the prophecy of Isaiah 9:1-2 that a great light would shine in the land formerly belonging to the tribes of Zebulon and Naphtali. They had been in darkness, for the Assyrians under Tiglath-Pileser (2 Kings 15:29 and 1 Chron 5:26) had invaded and taken them captive. At the time of Christ, many gentiles lived in that area along with the Jews, hence the name,"Galilee of the Gentiles". The Jews of Judea looked down on that region. Capernaum was on the west shore of the Lake of Genesareth, along the Road of the Sea - which ran to the sea, and to the other shore of the Jordan. Capernaum was an important communications center frequented by many types of people. Today Capernaum is only ruins, seemingly on the site of Tell Houm.

In Hebrew the word Sea can refer to a lake. The name Lake of Gennesareth comes from the plain of Kinnereth on the northwest shore. The lake or sea was about 12 1/2 miles at its greatest length, and 8 3/4 miles at its greatest width. Its surface is 682 feet below the level of the Mediterranean.

Some versions say Jesus made this move, "so that the words of the prophet might be fulfilled. St. Matthew used the Greek conjunction hina. Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic all have more than one structure which can be taken as either purpose or result -- according to the sense. Translators seem to have a strong inclination to make most of these instances purpose, as if they did not know that hina and the other constructions could express result as well as purpose - in 5th century B.C. Attic Greek hina would have meant only purpose. But by the time of Christ that had changed. In Jn 19:24 we meet again that hina. The soldiers cast lots for his garments. To translate "in order that" would mean the soldiers intended to fulfill the prophecy. Of course they did not. But as a matter of fact (result) they did fulfill it. Yet the versions commonly translate the hina there as purpose. Cf. Jn 17:12: Judas was lost so that Scripture might be fulfilled!

4:18-22: Call of the first disciples: Near the Sea of Galilee, Jesus sees and calls Simon and his brother Andrew. He also called the two sons of Zebedee, James the Elder and John. Then they "followed" Him. That verb follow is a rabbinic term for becoming a disciple. If we compare the account in John 1:35-521 it seems that Andrew and Simon had been disciples of John the Baptist, who told them Jesus was the lamb of God. After that they stayed a while with Jesus, but seemingly went back to their fishing for a while. It was after that that the account in Matthew fits in, describing the second call at which they actually became followers of Jesus.

So they had known Him before the call related in Matthew. Their first call seems to have been one to believe Jesus was the Messiah. Of course their idea of the Messiah was hardly what Jesus intended; it was more like that of most Jews at the time. It excluded suffering from the Messiah (cf. Mk 8:31-33), but probably did include hope for a temporal conqueror: cf. Acts 1:6.

When James and John left their father, that was not leaving him alone, for Mk 1:20 speaks of hired men remaining with Zebedee. Luke 5:10 says that James and John were "koinonoi", partners with Simon.

4:23-25: Jesus preaches and cures in Galilee: This is a summary section, such as is often found in narrative literature. It also shows the geographical extent of Jesus ministry at the time He covered Galilee and Syria, and crowds came to hear Him from the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and Tranjordan.

Galilee was not large, about 70 by 40 miles. The name Syria is ambiguous. To Romans it would be the Roman province taking in all Palestine. Except for Galilee it was under Herod Antipas at the time. But Matthew more likely meant by Syria the area north of Galilee.

Josephus, writing about a generation later, said Galilee then had 240 cities and villages, each with no less than 15, 000 population (Life, 235; War III. 41-43). If Jesus visited 2 villages per day, it would probably take about 3 months to complete the circuit.