Week 4 ———- Temptation or Test?

Matthew 4:1,2  —  Luke 4:1-2

Is it a temptation, or is it a test?  You have to look at a calendar to know. (Fair warning: This post is background information for the discussion on testing and tempting in the Bible. So it is a little tedious, but bear with me, words are importatnt.)

Words change over time.  For example, “awe” in Old English meant “fear, terror, or dread”. By the mid-1700s, ‘awe’ took on the idea of ‘reverential fear’ or ‘fear with respect,’ a meaning we use today.  Four hundred years ago, two words based on that root had the same meaning: ‘awesome’ and ‘awful’ (which meant, literally, ‘full of awe.’)  But by the early 1800s, ‘awful’ began to take on our present meaning of ‘very bad.’¹  ‘Awesome’ went in the other direction and, by the mid-1900s, meant ‘impressive,’ and the early 1980s added the idea of ‘enthusiastic approval’ (thanks, “Valley Girl”).  If you want to know if ‘awful’ or ‘awesome’ is a good or bad modifier, you have to know the date of the writing.  If you read literature from the 1600s (I am talking about you, King James Bible), you had better be willing to do your homework on word meanings, or you might get it backward.

Thus our problem with the word ‘temptation’ in the Bible.  The Hebrew word is ‘nasah’, and the Theological Workbook of the Old Testament says, “In most contexts ‘nasah’ has the idea of testing or proving the quality of someone or something, often through adversity or hardship. The rendering tempt, used frequently by the Authorized Version [King James Version], generally means prove, test, put to the test, rather than the current English idea of ‘entice to do wrong.’”  For example, David tried on Saul’s armor and sword before his confrontation with Goliath, but decided not to use them “for he had not tested them” (1 Samuel 17:39).

Now, let’s look at a verse that could cause some confusion. “And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham” (Genesis 22:1 KJV).  If you read the King James Version with our 21st-century definition of ‘tempt,’ you get the idea that God entices Abraham to do wrong.  More modern translations use ‘test’ to fit our current word use.  For example, the  ESV says: “After these things, God tested Abraham.”   I would hate for someone to get the idea that God wants us to fail when I believe God is doing everything he can to help us succeed.²

In Exodus 17:2, Moses asks the people, “Wherefore do ye tempt the LORD? (KJV).   (The ESV is “Why do you test the LORD?”)  Again, if you read that in 1611, there is no conflict with James 1:13: “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.”  But if you read a 17th Century version of Exodus with our modern definition there is confusion.  In Kohlenberger/Mounce Hebrew, they add to the definition of ‘nasah’: “to test God implies a lack of confidence in his revealed character, thus is wicked.”

In the New Testament Greek, ‘periazo’ is the verb form that carries the modern meaning to test or to tempt (entice to do wrong.)  In most current versions, when the verb is an activity of Satan, it is translated as ‘tempt.’  When used of people it is translated as ‘test’.  In the King James Version, it is almost always translated as ‘tempt.’  This has led to an understanding of the Pharisees as having evil intent when they question Jesus, as they are ‘tempting’ him.  Let me insert my personal opinion here.  Asking probing, challenging questions is how Jewish rabbis have always learned from each other.  If you were in a room where rabbis were discussing a difficult passage of scripture, you might get the idea they were enemies.  But they say that debate with disagreement is the best way to learn. Athol Dickson quotes a rabbi who was having trouble generating discussion about scripture as saying, “Come on, people! Somebody disagree with me! How can we learn anything if no one will disagree?”³ I think the Pharisees were initially testing Jesus to see if he was following a particular interpretation of scripture.  Near the end of his ministry, though, the Bible clearly shows they were trying to trap him.  So when the ESV translates John 8:6 as “This they [the Pharisees] said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him.” Their intent makes the King James translation more accurate as it says, “This they said, tempting him.”  (And yes, I just said the King James translation is the most accurate here.)

It is about this time that my friend Mark, in our Tuesday morning Bible Study, would be commenting that he felt like he had just sat through a seminary lecture or a Grammar class.  (Don’t let him fool you; he is a serious student of the Bible.)  But God’s message to us is composed of words.  We have to cross barriers of translation and thousands of years of language changes to get His meaning, so we do not insert our own. The Bible is worthy of us using all of our heart, mind, and spirit to study it.  We must connect to the scriptures with emotion, intellect, and the Holy Spirit.  Now that we have waded through this word study, we are ready to discuss testing and temptation in the Bible next time.

Please see my Bibliography for recommended books and links to obtain them.

1. As an exception to our modern use of awful having a negative connotation, it has been occasionally used as an intensifier, as in “She is awful pretty.”  That reminds me of how my friends from Boston use another usually negative word, ‘wicked,’ as in “That Lobsta’ is wicked good!”

2. I love to read the King James Version, especially the poetic nature of the Psalms and other songs in the Bible (thanks, W. Shakespeare.)  But I don’t use it to study due to the problems with changing language and because our modern versions have the advantage of better source documents and a better understanding of language and the culture of the day.  It is fine to use, but for study, at least read it in parallel with a more modern translation to help you catch the potential language traps.

3. Dickson, Athol, The Gospel According to Moses (2003)  as quoted in Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg. Spangler’s and Tverberg’s book is an easy read and a great introduction to Jesus as a Jewish Rabbi.