Texts in Conversation
The Wisdom of Solomon quotes Deuteronomy’s teaching that people do not live by bread alone, showing how later Jewish writers positioned their teaching in conformity with the Torah to give it similar authority.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Deuteronomy 8:3
Hebrew Bible
1 You must keep carefully all these commandments I am giving you today so that you may live, increase in number, and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors. 2 Remember the whole way by which he has brought you these 40 years through the wilderness so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not. 3 So he humbled you by making you hungry and then feeding you with unfamiliar manna. He did this to teach you that humankind cannot live by bread alone, but also by everything that comes from the Lord’s mouth. 4 Your clothing did not wear out nor did your feet swell all these 40 years. 5 Be keenly aware that just as a parent disciplines his child, so the Lord your God disciplines you.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Wisdom of Solomon 16:26
Deuterocanon
24 For the creation, ministering to you, its maker, strains its force against the unrighteous for punishment and in kindness, slackens it on behalf of those who trust in you. 25 Therefore at that time also, converting itself into all forms, it ministered to your all-nourishing bounty, according to the desire of those who had need, 26 that your children, whom you loved, O Lord, might learn that it is not the growth of crops that nourishes a man, but that your word preserves those who trust you. 27 For that which was not destroyed by fire, melted away when it was simply warmed by a faint sunbeam, 28 that it might be known that we must rise before the sun to give you thanks, and must pray to you at the dawning of the light;
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The words in italics are just a part of the many varied relations between Matthew 4:1–11 and Deuteronomy 8 at the word and phrase level. In addition, at a broader level, there are other important relations between these two texts ... A goal of the testing was to teach Israel that a person does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from God (Deuteronomy 8:2–3 ... compare with Wisdom of Solomon 16:26) which is what Jesus quotes back to the tempter when he is tested (Matthew 4:4), revealing he too must learn and follow this principle ..."
Joel Kennedy, The Recapitulation of Israel: Use of Israel's History in Matthew 1:1-4:11 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008), 190–191.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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