January 25th, 2025

This Sunday’s title is somewhat similar to last week’s; it is now the “Third Sunday after the Epiphany”. And a similar title to this one will continue for several weeks.

The Gospel reading for this Sunday is Luke 4:1-30. And each reading of this season will feature an epiphany or a revelation regarding the Christ. In each text, people will be affected. And their lives will be significantly different from that point on.

Within these website writings we are also currently looking at the Gospel according to Luke, giving a very literal translation a section at a time, but the text is given in the order in which the writer laid it out many centuries ago. With that in mind, it may be helpful to note at this point that it was originally written without chapter and verse divisions. The following text as it is given to you does not use these divisions, and this is meant to give a bit more appreciation for the structure of the work as a whole and to use the more natural divisions that are within the text.

If you made it through last week’s writing, congratulations are certainly in order. Last week’s writing covered the genealogy within the Gospel according to Luke, and it may have been considered by some as one of the most boring texts of the New Testament. Last week’s giving of that genealogy in groups of seven generations may have helped to keep your attention. Such a thing may not have been possible if the division of the text into verses had been used.

What follows is an extremely literal, word-for-word(s) translation of Luke 4:1-13 (and if this is the first time reading such a text, it will be helpful to know that the hyphens connect the words in English which are the same word in the text of the New Testament; and even if you are familiar with this section of the text, it may be helpful to look at other translations and/or a study bible):

Now  Jesus,  full  of-Spirit,  Holy,  he-returned  from  the  Jordan,  and  he-was-led  in  the  Spirit  in  the  desert,  days  forty,  being-tempted  by  the  Diabolical.  And  not  he-ate  nothing  in  the  days,  those,  and  having-been-completed,  they,  he-hungered.  Now  he-said  to-him,  the  Diabolical,  “If  Son  you-are,  of-the  God,  say  to-the  stone,  this,  that  it-become  bread.”

And  he-answered  toward  him,  the  Jesus,  “It-has-been-written, ‘Not  upon  bread  only,  he-will-live,  the  man.’”

And  having-led-up  him,  he-showed  him  all  the  kingdoms  of-the  inhabited-earth  in  a-stigma  of-chronology.

And  he-said  to-him,  the  Diabolical,  “To-you  I-will-give  the  authority,  this,  all,  and  the  glory  of-them,  because  to-me  it-has-been-given-over  and  to  whomever  I-want,  I-give  it;  therefore  you,  if  you-worship  before  me,  it-will-be  of-you,  all.”

And  having-answered,  the  Jesus,  he-said  to-him,  “It-has-been-written,  ‘Lord,  the  God  of-you,  you-will-worship,  and  to-him  only,  you-shall-serve.’” 

Now  he-led  him  into  Jerusalem,  and  he-stood  upon  the  winglet  of-the  temple,  and  he-said  to-him,  “If  Son,  you-are,  of-the  God,  throw  yourself  from-here,  down;  for  it-has-been-written,  ‘The  angels  of-him  he-will-command  concerning  you,  of-the  to-guard-thoroughly  you,’  and  ‘Upon  hands  they-will-lift-up  you,  lest  you-strike-toward  toward  a-stone,  the  foot  of-you.’”

And  having-answered,  he-said  to-him,  the  Jesus,  “It-has-been-said,  ‘Not  you-shall-test-out,  Lord  the  God  of-you.’”  And  having-finished  every  temptation,  the  Diabolical  he-stood-off  from  him  until  a-time.

One of the most difficult things in translating is to have the translation of one word in a very unfamiliar language into one word in another language that is very familiar to the person reading the text. That is the reason that other translations and study bibles may be helpful in reading through the above text.

An interesting bible study would be to compare the above text to the most similar text in the Gospel according to Matthew. Here, again, the use of chapter and verse may be helpful to a quick overview of the text, but a closer look at its placement within the context of the entire Gospel account may be helpful.

In the Gospel according to Matthew, the three temptations are given in what is called Matthew 4:1-11. It is interesting to note that the three temptations are in a different order. Much could be said about this, but to be brief, it could be said that the order in Matthew is a more Hebrew order where the significant temptation, the one of Satan wanting Jesus to jump off the temple is in the middle. In the Gospel according to Luke, that temptation is the last one.

Why was Jesus born? To get people to follow him? To show his power? Jesus jumping off the temple and floating slowly down onto the ground would have given him a huge following.

You may have noted that the word “led” appears three times within the above text. At the very beginning it is the Spirit. At the start of the second and third temptations, it is the devil. (It could be noted that, at this point, Jesus very much fits with the living creature that has often been connected to this Gospel account, that of the obedient ox. And with an ox, the important point is that the ox continues to lead the plow in the direction where the farmer wishes the ox to go.)​

Jesus is led. Jesus responds three times to the devil’s temptations, and at the final time you may have noticed that God’s Word was not just written, but it SAID something. God’s Words are special. God’s Words say things. They say things about sin first of all. (Spoiler alert!) And the extremely interesting thing about this account of this very special person is that Jesus ends up being “desert-ed”, just outside of Jerusalem, on the cross, to pay for all sins, for you. (Now THAT’S power.)