What Does Matthew 4:5 Mean in the King James?
Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The “pinnacle” is a little wing, and the next move turns a promise of being borne up into a dare.
THE MEANING
You can be carried toward a high, sacred-looking place by a voice that is preparing to make trust prove itself. The place looks holy, but the one arranging the scene is the Slanderer. Height and sacred setting do not certify the voice that brought you there.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A sacred setting guarantees that every invitation within it is trustworthy.
THE ROOT
πτερύγιον
pterygion
GROWS FROM
πτερ-
pter-
wing; feather
“Pinnacle” translates a word formed from the Greek word for wing: a little wing or projecting edge. The image anticipates the next verse’s appeal to protection under God’s wings, making the temple’s edge the stage for a demand that protection prove itself.
ALSO GROWS
pteron: wing or feather
πτερόν
It shares the wing-image beneath “pinnacle,” linking the building’s projecting edge with the promise of being borne up.
pteryx: wing
πτέρυξ
This is the wing-word behind the diminutive form; it makes the image in “pinnacle” audible just before the temptation invokes a promise of divine protection.
διάβολος
diabolos
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
ballō
to throw or cast
“devil” in this verse is diabolos. The word names the Slanderer and carries the image of throwing something across: in its related verb, that becomes accusing or slandering. Here the pressure begins by relocating Jesus, then recasts trust as a dare.
ALSO GROWS
ballō: throw or cast
βάλλω
It supplies the casting image within the word “Slanderer.”
diaballō: slander or accuse
διαβάλλω
This related verb shows how “throwing across” becomes a false charge, the kind of distortion that will turn a promise into a test.
THE PATTERN
A promise of protection becomes a temptation when it is used to manufacture danger and demand proof.
For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.THE THREAD
For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.This is the promise the Slanderer invokes immediately afterward to urge a deliberate fall. Its wording speaks of being kept “in all thy ways”; the temptation turns that assurance into a demand for a rescue spectacle.
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