Forty Days
Read the full text in our reader
καὶ ἦν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ τεσσεράκοντα ἡμέρας πειραζόμενος ὑπὸ τοῦ Σατανᾶ, καὶ ἦν μετὰ τῶν θηρίων, καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι διηκόνουν αὐτῷ.
And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.
Four sparse clauses. Mark reports no dialogue and no temptations.
<p>Matthew and Luke each give three temptations with dialogue. Mark gives four clauses and no content. The detail "with the wild animals" is unique to Mark and appears in no parallel; commentators have read it as danger and as peace restored, and the Greek supports neither over the other.</p><p><span class="gk">Σατανᾶς</span> is a Greek form of a Hebrew common noun meaning "the accuser" or "adversary" — a role in a proceeding before it is a name. <span class="gk">πειράζω</span> means to test or make trial of, without implication of enticement to evil; the same verb is used of testing metal and of putting a person to the proof. "Tempted," in the English of every version in our stack, narrows it.</p>
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Gospel of Mark 1.13 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
You are reading a page of the Gospel of Mark — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Gospel of Mark 1.13 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/mark/1.13/