Devil tempting Jesus in the desert questions

[DisorientingSneeze]

This Sunday’s Gospel reading had me wondering a lot of things. How much did the devil know about Jesus? Did he know Jesus was without sin and definitely wouldn’t give in to his tempting?

Did the devil know that his efforts would be fruitless and that he was materially cooperating in what would become a lesson to us all about how to resist the devil and temptation?

 

[Dan_Defender]

I don’t think the Devil knew that Jesus would resurrect the third day and that He would lose power in the world, being chained for a thousand years (not literal).

 

[Weave]

I understand it as the tempting of Christ by Satan was more for Satan to learn if this was truly the Son of God or an imposter.

 

[Cathoholic]

DisorientingSneeze . . .

Did the devil know that his efforts would be fruitless and that he was materially cooperating in what would become a lesson to us all about how to resist the devil and temptation?

I think the devil “suspected” but did not “know” for sure.

The verse below does not directly answer your question, but by extension it (in my opinion anyway) gives us at least a hint at what you are asking.

1st CORINTHIANS 2:7-8 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

 

[BenjaminJ]

My understanding is that Satan knew exactly who Jesus was and what Jesus mission here was. But just like satan had the choice to follow God or not, so did Christ. Nothing is preordained. So Satan took his shot at tempting Christ.

 

[webmasterpdx]

I think the devil knew who Jesus was…or why put in the effort he did or promise him the world. He said that he could throw himself off the cliff and his angels would protect him, so clearly he knew he was the son of God. I think the bigger question is since God cannot sin and jesus was god, how much was he really tempted. I think he felt the desire, but he can’t turn away from his conscience like we can, so he couldn’t sin. I’m unsure what lessons are in there for us other than we should resist temptation and some pat answers to temptation…such as you should not test the lord thy god…etc, etc…

 

[otjm]

How much did the devil know about Jesus?

It would appear that the devil knew there was something about Jesus which might be completely counter to his (the devil’s) plans. The temptations are designed for Jesus to reveal Himself; Christ’s answers are typically Jewish in that they hint but do not blatantly reveal.

Did he know Jesus was without sin and definitely wouldn’t give in to his tempting?

No, more likely that if Jesus gave in, it would be proof that Christ was not the Messiah.

Did the devil know that his efforts would be fruitless and that he was materially cooperating in what would become a lesson to us all about how to resist the devil and temptation?

See the answers above; the devil appears to have at least a solid suspicion that Jesus was the Messiah; the devil was seeking proof. Ultimately none was given; Christ did not give into the temptation (thus proving he was not) nor did He reveal He was the Messiah.

Christ followed the same pattern both with the Pharisees and Sadducee, and with His disciples; see Brant Pitre The Case For Jesus.

 

[BenjaminJ]

Jesus is God in human form. He felt and went through what every human goes through. Hed get hungry, catch colds, experience the full range of human emotions, and yes struggle through temptations.

 

[Mintaka]

The traditional teaching is that Satan knew Jesus was the Davidic king, a prophet, etc., but was unaware that Jesus was God.

You can see this by what Satan offers Jesus. None of it is anything that Jesus didn’t already have; and in fact, it’s pretty funny what Satan picks as being exactly what Jesus already had.

Make stones into bread? When Jesus is the Bread of Life, the Bread come down from Heaven?

See if the angels would come? Sure, that’s maybe a test for a Davidic Messiah, but not for the Master of all good angels, and Creator of all the angels!

And of course, the big one – take dominion of the world from Satan, when You are already Creator and King of the universe? Hahahaha!

Jesus actually treats Satan with a lot of courtesy by “staying in character” as a pious human. Of course, this demonstrates that human intellect and free will is capable of dealing with the Devil, if we didn’t have a fallen nature to deal with.

So it’s a great rematch of humanity against the Devil. Just like Eve presumably didn’t know the whole story behind the Devil, this time the Devil doesn’t understand that he’s talking to a man Who is also his old Boss.

This time, the human has an answer to everything. This time, we win.

 

[DisorientingSneeze]

@Mintaka
I’d give that 17 hearts if I could!

 

[Cathoholic]

webmasterpdx . . .

I think the devil knew who Jesus was…or why put in the effort he did or promise him the world.

The devil is a liar from the beginning.

He would promise Jesus many things to attempt to manipulate Jesus into answering his questions.

He promised Adam and Eve they would not die if they ate the forbidden fruit either.

And they died.
Spiritually immediately. Physically later.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Never mind

 

[DisorientingSneeze]

Never mind

Too late! Now I have a bazillion more questions.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

The Philokalia provides a good spiritual explanation on the Temptation

I believe it’s in the first chapter of the first volume.

 

[BenjaminJ]

Yes it really did happen

 

[Inquiry]

Why couldn’t it be ‘the devil knew and did it anyways’?

I mean, before he rebelled he knew he had no chance of winning, that all his plans would come to naught, and that the only result would be his own suffering. He rebelled anyways.

 

[DisorientingSneeze]

Why couldn’t it be ‘the devil knew and did it anyways’?

I mean, before he rebelled he knew he had no chance of winning, that all his plans would come to naught, and that the only result would be his own suffering. He rebelled anyways.

That was my first guess was that he’s just an incredibly short-sighted creature.

 

[Aquinas11]

How much did the devil know about Jesus? Did he know Jesus was without sin and definitely wouldn’t give in to his tempting?

There is fascinating discussion about this in the Passion of the Christ audio commentary between Mel Gibson and three famous Catholic theologians. They talk about how during the Agony in the Garden, the devil also tempts Jesus and when Jesus looks up to God the Father and prays to him, the devil asks him curiously “who is your Father?”. They indicate that the devil is curious about who Jesus is, he seems to know some information about him but not God’s full plan or he would have intervened and tried to stop Jesus from being crucified. The final scene of the Passion of Christ shows devil shrieking in anger after he realizes the truth.

 

[Inquiry]

The other option is that these are the temptations he himself fell to, and his temptation of Christ is really just him saying “you see why I did this right? I didn’t do anything so bad! See, you would do the same… oh (string of vitriolic curses and death threats)

 

[JimR-OCDS]

My question has always been, how did anyone actually know what took place when Jesus was tempted in the desert ?

Jesus certainly wouldn’t have bragged about it.

My guess is that there is more to the story than the literal interpretation we take from Scripture.

It may be Jesus was actually with the Essenes and fasted under their watchful eyes.