“But he perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, Why tempt ye me?” -Luke 20:23, KJV
In another installment of Pastor Jeff Riddle’s occasional looks at various issues regarding differences among Scripture textual sources, this time he examines Luke 20:23. He also suggests some possible reasons for the inclusion/exclusion of the question, “Why tempt ye me?”:
The problem here is whether the question: “Why do you tempt me? [ti me peirazete;]” should be included in the text. It is included in the traditional text and omitted in the modern critical text.
Metzger does not address this variant in his Textual Commentary. No doubt, modern text advocates would see the inclusion of the question as a harmonization with the parallels in Matthew 22:18 (“Why do you tempt me, hypocrites?”) and Mark 12:15 (“Why do you tempt me?”).
This raises the following important question: If there was a scribal effort to harmonize the reading at Luke 20:23, why do we not see more evidence (as in Mark 12:15) to harmonize the reading with Matthew 22:18 by including “hypocrites”?
Theologically, the question, “Why do you tempt me?”, with its use of the verb peirazo, recalls the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness (cf. Luke 4:2) and, in particular, the response of Jesus in Luke 4:12, citing Deuteronomy 6:16, “It has been said [using the aorist of lego], You shall not tempt [ekpeirazo] the Lord your God.” If original, here is a place where the divinity of Jesus is subtly affirmed in Luke, even as it is for the same reasons in Matthew and Mark. As it is wrong to tempt God, so it is wrong to tempt Jesus, because Jesus is God. Is it possible that there might have been Arian or proto-Arian scribes who were uncomfortable with such a subtle affirmation?
Read the whole post at Pastor Riddle’s blog, Stylos.
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