Matthew 4:3–4
Wanting to drag Christ into the passion of love of glory, Satan did not say to him, “Eat,” 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
Οἱ μὲν παλαιοὶ καὶ πρὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ τοὺς ὑπ' αὐτῶν βαπτιζομένους κατεῖχον ἐν τῷ ὕδατι ἕως ἂν τὰ ἑαυτῶν ἐξωμολογήσαντο ἁμαρτήματα, ὁ δὲ Χριστὸς ἀναμάρτητος ὢν εὐθὺς ἀνέβη· οὐδὲ γὰρ ὡς μετανοῶν ἐβαπτίσθη, ἀλλ' ὡς καθαίρων ἁμαρτήματα καὶ ἁγιάζων τὰ ὕδατα.
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)
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.