Jesus Temptation – The Back of My Mind

Adam and Eve Were Literal People

Having very recently completed a post about the Garden of Eden, I can’t resist the urge to talk briefly about what is, in my view, the central theological importance of Adam. Eve, too, but she’s sort of out of the context of my title.

I had planned for years to write about the location of the Garden. The rest of that previous article was kind of new to my thinking. I am out of step with much of Evangelical Christian tradition with respect to the first two chapters of Genesis but, though I am leaning toward Adam and Eve as a second “crop” of humans, created much later than the Genesis 1 humans, I consider that their literal existence in history is unquestionable, as is their role in salvation history.

Dr. John H. Walton, who I introduced to my readers in the previous post, suggests two key indicators he uses for determining when a Bible character with no historical provenance is most likely literal, rather than a literary device to convey an important lesson, as in a parable, for example. First, if the Scriptures present a genealogy of descendants, then the character is probably real. Second, if the character’s existence is itself essential to establish a theological or exegetical proof, then the character had better be real or your belief system needs to be reexamined. Adam and Eve meet both of those criteria for me.

Obviously, there is a long genealogy, which incidentally fits very well with key dates in history if you accept the long lives attributed to the earliest descendants.

The Theological Proof

But more importantly, there is a vital soteriological link between Adam and Jesus.

We hear over and over about the temptation of Adam, but the temptation of Jesus is, in my opinion, the most underappreciated and neglected event in the Bible. The Garden is where humanity stumbled. The Wilderness is where Jesus established His credentials to pick us up again.

Adam

In Genesis 3, we’re all familiar with the Temptation:

4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
— Genesis 3:4-6 (ESV) emphasis added

The first three underlines above, most of you will recognize, are the three common classes of temptation. In order, “the lust of the flesh”, “the lust of the eyes”, and “the pride of life” as enumerated by John:

[16] For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
— 1 John 2:16 (KJV)

I also underlined the phrase pointing out that it wasn’t just Eve being tempted. Adam was with her. The discussion was between Eve and the Serpent (נָחָשׁ nâchâsh, a snake, from its hiss), but Adam was the senior human present, so I’m sure Eve glanced at him for confirmation before she reached out for the fruit. In the garden as in the military and industry, the buck stops at the top.

So, with the disobedience of one man, Adam, humankind following gained the propensity, and likely the capacity, to deliberately choose rebellion against God.

This is off topic, so it’s free of charge: Contrary to what many believe, I don’t think the “sin nature” is genetic. I think it is imprinted within the human spirit, the incorporeal part of a human. Jesus wasn’t without sin because He had no human father. He was without sin because He had a God nature alongside His human nature. He had no human father because His miraculous conception was a vital demonstration of His uniqueness.

Jesus

In order to qualify as a “the Second Adam”, Jesus had to succeed where the First Adam failed.

Jesus’ temptations almost certainly took place on one day—on Yom Kippur, Tishri 10, AD 26. This was on the final day of the Days of Awe, culminating the annual 40-day period during which Jews around the world fasted, prayed and abstained from Marriage and all other happy events as they considered their sins of the past year. On this day, the same tempter and the same temptations came to Jesus in the wilderness and in Jerusalem.

The lust of the flesh:

3 The Adversary said to him, “If you are the Son of God, order this stone to become bread.” 4 Yeshua answered him, “The Tanakh says, ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’”
— Luke 4:3-4 (CJB)

The lust of the eyes:

5 The Adversary took him up, showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world, 6 and said to him, “I will give you all this power and glory. It has been handed over to me, and I can give it to whomever I choose. 7 So if you will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Yeshua answered him, “The Tanakh says, ‘Worship ADONAI your God and serve him only.’”
— Luke 4:5-8 (CJB)

The pride of life:

[9] Then he [the devil] took him to Yerushalayim, set him on the highest point [Greek pterugion, literally, a “wing” or “turret”] of the Temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, jump from here! [10] For the Tanakh [Old Testament] says [Psalm 91:11–12],

‘He will order his angels
to be responsible for you and to protect you.
[11] They will support you with their hands,
so that you will not hurt your feet on the stones.’”

[12] Yeshua [Jesus] answered him, “It also says, ‘Do not put ADONAI your God to the test.’” [13] When the Adversary [Greek diabolos, literally, “accuser”] had ended all his testings, he let him alone until an opportune time.
—Luke 4:9–13 (CJB)

Matthew presents a different order for the temptation, which is not a problem because chronological order was not strictly important in the literature of the day. I’m certain that “pride” was last in real time, as listed by Luke. Why? Because pride is the deadliest of sins, and because this temptation put Him where failure would have been witnessed by thousands of Jews…

On the Pinnacle of the Temple, on Yom Kippur, the one day when the Plaza below the Temple Mount, the Ophel, and the City of David would be packed with visitors. If Satan, “the Serpent of Old”, had succeeded with this final temptation, all would have seen Jesus’ rescue, and His ministry would have been over with before it started.

Conclusion

All the major events of Jesus’ life, starting with His birth, were tied to the important Feast days. It was no accident that He chose to kick off His earthly ministry with the people He came to save by joining them during the Feast dedicated to prayer and repentance. Everything He did during the 40 days was designed to demonstrate to them and to us that He was, Himself, a righteous Jew and endorsed by the Holy Spirit.

Could His mission have been accomplished without the contrast of a literal Adam in a literal Garden? Well, He’s God, so of course He could, but my observation is that God delights in symmetry and order as well as poetry and symbolism. A metaphorical Adam would not reduce my faith, but I am confident that Genesis 2 and 3 record historical events.

Read more about the start of Jesus’ ministry in The Fall Feasts and the Rapture.

Posted on:

September 16, 2020

Modified on:

March 6, 2025

As Israel’s hot summer months come to a close, we enter the Fall Feast season. The first two of these Feasts define the most solemn days of the Jewish year, and the final one, the most joyous. The first two are intimately connected: Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets (also known as Rosh Ha-Shanah, Head of the Year, the Jewish secular New Year), on Tishri 1, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement on Tishri 10. These two days and the intervening eight days are called, collectively, the Days of Awe (Heb. Yamim Noraim). The entire 10-day period is devoted to intense personal, individual repentance, prayer and righteous deeds (Heb. T’shuvah, tefilla, and tzedakah) and to acts of reconciliation. Joyous celebrations such as weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs do not take place during these days.

The “Book(s) of Life” are a concept that most Christian denominations don’t give much attention to, though there are quite a few somewhat obscure scriptures about them. There are mentions in Exodus, 1 Samuel, Daniel, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Malachi, Luke, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Philippians, Hebrews, and of course, Revelation. Plus several Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal books. I won’t go into the Christian theology here, but I must talk about the Jewish, because it is extremely relevant to the Days of Awe.

The Book of Life (or Book of the Living, Heb. Sefer Hayyim) have taken on huge significance in the writings of Rabbi Akiva, and the Jewish Talmud states that,

“Three books are opened in Heaven on Rosh Ha-Shanah, one for the thoroughly wicked, one for the thoroughly righteous, and one for the intermediate. The thoroughly righteous are forthwith inscribed in the Book of Life, and the thoroughly wicked in the Book of Death, while the fate of the intermediate is suspended until the Day of Atonement.”

Most people would certainly have considered themselves among the intermediate, but who really knows, so pretty much everyone must consider themselves as such. Thus, the 10-day span of the Days of Awe are marked by ritual cleansing (immersion), prayer and fasting, intense introspection, acts of repentance and, frankly, fear. But wait; the consequences are so dire for those not written in the Book of Life, that the rabbis very early decided than 10 days was not enough, and the tradition grew of starting a month early, on Elul 1.

©Ron Thompson 1008. On Masada, a typical Jewish baptistry (Heb. *mikvah*).

So here is what the period looked like: On Elul 1, all Jews went to the most convenient mikvah (ritual baptistery), spring or river for immersion and cleansing from sin, then, for 40 days, the process of virtual self-flagellation would proceed, culminating in the Pilgrim Festival of Yom Kippur, to be covered in Part 12. Of course, all intervening Sabbaths and the Day of Trumpets/Rosh Ha-Shanah Feast were scrupulously observed. At the conclusion of the 40 days, Jews from around Israel and the Diaspora convened at the Temple Mount for the most important Feast of the year.

The Parapet of the Temple, adapted from Rose Guide to the Temple,
© Copyright 2012 Bristol Works, Inc.

Consider now a late summer in AD 29. It is Elul 1, and John the Baptizer is standing by the water near the village of Bethany Beyond the Jordan, not too far from Jericho (Luke 3). He is baptizing devout Jewish men and women from the district, and chastising those simply obeying their legalistic impulses. He raises his head and sees, walking towards him, his cousin Jesus of Nazareth, who some 33 years earlier had caused him to jump in his mother’s womb. Jesus speaks to John, then steps into the water and is baptized, not for His own sin, but in order to conform to the ritual necessities expected of Him, and to receive the blessing given Him by Father and Spirit that day.

Following His baptism, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness for the requisite 40 days of prayer and fasting. At the end of this time, on Yom Kippur, Satan appears to Him and tests Him in three ways:

Luke 4:1-12 (CJB)
[4:1] Then Yeshua*, filled with the Ruach HaKodesh* [Holy Spirit], returned from the Yarden* [Jordan] and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness [2] for forty days of testing by the Adversary. During that time he ate nothing, and afterwards he was hungry. [3] The Adversary said to him, “If you are the Son of God, order this stone to become bread.” [4] Yeshua* answered him, “The Tanakh* [Old Testament] says, ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’”

[5] The Adversary took him up, showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world, [6] and said to him, “I will give you all this power and glory. It has been handed over to me, and I can give it to whomever I choose. [7] So if you will worship me, it will all be yours.” [8] Yeshua* answered him, “The Tanakh* says, ‘Worship ADONAI* your God and serve him only.’”

[9] Then he took him to Yerushalayim*, set him on the highest point of the Temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, jump from here! [10] For the Tanakh* says,

‘He will order his angels
to be responsible for you and to protect you.
[11] They will support you with their hands,
so that you will not hurt your feet on the stones.’”

[12] Yeshua* answered him, “It also says, ‘Do not put ADONAI* your God to the test.’”

The Gospels differ in the order presented, but I think that Luke is most likely chronologically correct by putting Him last on the “highest point of the Temple“, the parapet on the southeastern corner of Solomon’s Porch (see diagram). Yom Kippur being a required Pilgrim Festival, as many as a million people would have been below him in the Temple courts, the Plaza outside, or down in the City of David or its surroundings. Many would have only to raise their eyes to see the drama if Jesus had failed this test.

The Temptation of Jesus does not get the attention it deserves! It is, in my opinion, one of the key events in all of human history.

Jesus, just like Adam, was placed on earth without a sin nature, meaning that they did not have the innate propensity to challenge God’s will. But both were human, and both could be persuaded by temptation. Adam and his mate were tempted by Satan in three ways that we have come to call, The Lust of the Flesh, The Lust of the Eyes, and The Pride of Life. They failed this test and condemned all their descendants to a life of sin. Jesus was tempted in the same fashion and resisted on all counts! He passed all three tests. Had He not done so, we would have no Savior!

Table of Contents: The Jewish Feasts
Start of Series: The Jewish Feasts: Part 1, Chapter Introduction
Previous in Series: The Jewish Feasts: Part 9, Weeks
Next in Series: The Jewish Feasts: Part 11, Trumpets

Tag: Jesus Temptation

The Two Adams