The Pulpit Commentary on Luke 4:8

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Get thee behind me, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Jesus repelled the offer with stern indignation. He would receive the splendid inheritance which he felt was his at no other hands than his Father's; he would win all and more than the tempter offered him, but it would be by a slow and painful process—by self-denial, self-sacrifice, self-surrender; the glorious consummation would only be attained at the end of a long vista of centuries.

The words, "Get thee behind me, Satan," do not occur in the older manuscripts containing St. Luke's Gospel. These are evidently a later addition from the parallel passage in St. Matthew.

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