Satan Tempts Jesus

In Luke 4:6 it says that the devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth and said to him "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours."

The first question that springs to mind is "Is this an accurate statement "it has been given to me and I can give it to anyone I want to."?


Your question beings to mind Nikos Kazantzakis' book Last Temptation of Christ and Scorsese's 1988 film that portrays a Jesus at war with himself, uncertain as to whether the messages he hears is from God or Satan and also later conspiring with Judus to have himself die to fulfill his mission. Luke 4:6 has the devil claim that "the glory...is delivered unto me, and to whomever I will give it," a claim that Jesus doesn't challenge. The devil seems to be referring to the kingdom of worldly power, a kingdom for which the disciples yearned. So it may well have been an accurate statement, but it wasn't much of a temptation from Jesus' perspective as his kingdom never was of this world. In verse 13, after the devil had tested Jesus, the devil "departed from him for a season." The end of that season according to Kazantzkis was Christ's last temptation-- the temptation of human normality-- to have a wife and children and not surrender to God's will.


I hope for nothing.
I fear nothing.
I am free.


Inscription on Kazantakis's tomb in Heraklion, Greece