What Does Matthew 4:7 Mean?
Jesus said to him, Again it is written, You shall not test the LORD your God.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.THE KEY
The test is whether trust demands that God prove his presence on cue.
THE MEANING
God’s presence is not made real by demanding a rescue on cue. This verse names the point where trust becomes a demand for proof: care must perform before it is accepted.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that trust is valid only when God performs a demanded spectacle.
THE ROOT
ἐκπειράσεις
ekpeiraseis
GROWS FROM
πειράζω
peirazō
to test, try, or put to proof
“test” in this verse is ekpeiraseis. Here the Greek verb carries the sense of testing or putting to proof. The leap would make God’s care perform on cue, as though divine presence must be demonstrated before it can be trusted.
ALSO GROWS
peira: trial, attempt, or experience
πείρα
This related word carries the sense of undergoing or making a test.
peirasmos: test, trial, or temptation
πειρασμός
This related noun shows how the same word family can name a test or trial, not only an enticement toward wrongdoing.
תְּנַסּוּ
tenassu
GROWS FROM
נסה
nasah
to test, try, or put to proof
“test” in this verse is tenassu. The Hebrew source word behind the quotation shares its root with Massah, the place associated with Israel’s testing of the LORD. That connection brings the question from the source passage into the verse: Is the LORD among us, or not?
ALSO GROWS
Massah: testing; the name of a place associated with testing the LORD
מַסָּה
The place-name ties testing to the question of whether God is present.
nissāh: he tested or tried
נִסָּה
This verb form shows the same root at work in the act of testing.
THE PATTERN
When people demand proof that God is present, the demand itself becomes a test of God.
You shall not test the LORD your God, as you tested him at Massah, the testing place.And they tested God in their heart by asking food for their living soul.Let us not test the Anointed One, as some of them also tested, and perished by the serpents.THE THREAD
And he called the name of the place Massah, the testing, and Meribah, the striving, because of the striving of the children of Israel, and because they tested the LORD, saying, Is the LORD in our midst, or not?The Hebrew verb translated “tempted” comes from נסה (nasah), the same root behind מַסָּה (Massah), the place-name meaning “testing.” The verse states the test plainly: “Is the LORD among us, or not?”
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