Matthew 4:3–4
Wanting to drag Christ into the passion of love of glory, Satan did not say to him, “Eat,” (Matthew 4:3–4) but, “Make a sign.” He did this not to gain any help himself, but — as I said — to pull Christ into empty glory. Knowing that, Christ did not obey him.
With the same aim he also refused the Pharisees when they wanted to see a sign from him. They were not coming to him with an undoubting heart as to God; they were testing him as a man. So let this stand for the saints as an unfailing rule toward unbelievers or testers: do not love glory in anything useless.
Greek
Εἰς φιλοδοξίας πάθος θέλων ἑλκύσαι ὁ σατανᾶς τὸν Χριστὸν οὐκ εἶπεν αὐτῷ φάγε, ἀλλὰ ποίησον σημεῖον. τοῦτο δ' ἐποίει, οὐχ ἵνα ὠφε ληθῇ, ἀλλ' ἵνα, ὅπερ εἶπον, εἰς κενοδοξίαν ἑλκύσῃ αὐτόν· ὅπερ εἰδὼς ὁ Χριστὸς οὐχ ὑπήκουσεν αὐτῷ. τούτῳ τῷ σκοπῷ καὶ τοῖς Φαρισαίοις θέλουσιν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ σημεῖον ἰδεῖν οὐκ ἐπένευσεν· οὐ γὰρ ἀνενδοιάστῳ καρδίᾳ προσῄεσαν αὐτῷ ὡς θεῷ, ἀλλ' ὡς ἄνθρωπον ἐπείραζον. ἔστω οὖν οὗτος ἄπτωτος τοῖς ἁγίοις κανὼν πρὸς ἀπίστους ἢ πειράζοντας τὸ μὴ φιλοδοξεῖν ἐπ' οὐδενὶ χρησίμῳ.
About this text
Catena fragments on Matthew (CPG 5206). Contents follow Matthew chapter and verse. Edition fragment numbers stay in About this text and under each passage.
English follows the named copy-text (Aegean/khazarzar Migne PG 72 extract). Other prints were checked as noted; no silent merge of recensions.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Migne PG 72 Commentarii in Matthaeum (Aegean Digital Patrologia / khazarzar) (Greek · CPG 5206 catena fragments (290 parsed heads))
- Checked print matia.gr mirror of same Aegean extract (Greek · Byte-identical PDF; integrity check only)
- Checked print Internet Archive PG 72 volume OCR (bim … 1859_72) (Greek (OCR damaged) · Locus confirmation only; not used as reading text)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.