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Luke 4

KJV · Chapter 4/24

1And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

2Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

3And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.

4And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

5And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

6And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

7If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

8And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

9And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:

10For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:

11And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

12And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

13And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.

14And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.

15And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.

16And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

17And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

18The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

19To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

20And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

21And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

22And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?

23And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

24And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.

25But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;

26But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.

27And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.

28And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,

29And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.

30But he passing through the midst of them went his way,

31And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days.

32And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.

33And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,

34Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.

35And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.

36And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.

37And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.

38And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house. And Simon’s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her.

39And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.

40Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.

41And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.

42And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them.

43And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent.

44And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Jesus is tempted by Satan in the wilderness for 40 days and overcomes by quoting Scripture. He begins preaching in Galilee, reads Isaiah's prophecy about himself in the synagogue at Nazareth, and is rejected by his own townspeople. He then heals a demon-possessed man and many sick people in Capernaum.

Explanation

The three temptations strike at core areas: physical need (bread), power and recognition (kingdoms), and testing God's protection (the temple). Jesus always responds by quoting Deuteronomy, showing that knowing the Word is a weapon against temptation. In the synagogue at Nazareth, he declares himself the fulfillment of Isaiah 61, but is rejected — illustrating that 'no prophet is accepted in his hometown.' The healings in Capernaum reveal his authority over disease and evil spirits. The practical lesson is that knowing Scripture well helps us resist everyday pressures and temptations.

Fun facts

  • The passage from Isaiah 61:1-2 that Jesus reads (v.18-19) was historically linked to messianic expectations of deliverance, and Jesus stops reading before the mention of the 'day of vengeance,' emphasizing grace over judgment in that first moment.
  • Capernaum, a town on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, became something of a home base for Jesus during his public ministry, confirmed by archaeological excavations of a synagogue from the Roman period.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Luke 4:1Jesus comes straight from the baptism scene at the end of the previous chapter, full of the Holy Spirit, and it is the Spirit Himself who leads Him into the wilderness — the temptation is not a detour, it is part of the plan.
  2. Luke 4:2Forty days is no random number: it echoes the forty years Israel spent in the wilderness and Moses’s forty days on the mountain without eating. Jesus repeats, in miniature, the same test of faith the people faced, only this time without giving in.
  3. Luke 4:3All three temptations begin with “If thou be the Son of God” — the devil is not only questioning Jesus’s hunger, he is questioning His identity, trying to make Him prove who He is through a shortcut.
  4. Luke 4:4Jesus answers by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, a verse that originally spoke of the manna in the wilderness for the people of Israel — He faces the temptation using Israel’s own history and Scriptures.
  5. Luke 4:5The vision of “all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time” is presented as something shown to Jesus, not an actual physical journey — the scope of power offered is deliberately exaggerated.
  6. Luke 4:6The devil claims to have authority over this world’s power and glory and to be able to give them to whomever he wants — a claim of dominion that other New Testament texts also mention about him.
  7. Luke 4:7The condition reveals the real aim of the temptation: it is not about possessions, it is about worship — trading loyalty to God for a shortcut to power.
  8. Luke 4:8Jesus answers by quoting Deuteronomy 6:13, which commands worshiping the Lord alone — rejecting any shortcut to power that runs through idolatry.
  9. Luke 4:9In the third temptation, the devil takes Jesus to the highest point of the temple in Jerusalem and dares Him to jump from there to prove He is the Son of God.
  10. Luke 4:10This time it is the devil himself who quotes Scripture, using Psalm 91 out of its original context to try to justify a risky and unnecessary leap.
  11. Luke 4:11The quotation continues with the promise that the angels would hold Him up — a general promise of protection being twisted to justify an artificial, reckless test.
  12. Luke 4:12Jesus answers again with Deuteronomy, this time 6:16: one must not test God on purpose just to force a display of power.
  13. Luke 4:13Luke makes clear that the devil withdraws only “for a season,” not forever — a warning that the confrontation will return later in the story, as it in fact does near Jesus’s arrest.
  14. Luke 4:14Jesus returns to Galilee already with His fame spreading through the region — the text directly links the victory in the wilderness to the start of a public ministry full of power.
  15. Luke 4:15Before the rejection in Nazareth, told right after, the text shows a well-received start to the ministry: Jesus teaches in the synagogues and is praised by everyone.
  16. Luke 4:16Going to the synagogue every Sabbath was routine, and it was common for a man from the community to be invited to read a passage of Scripture and comment on it — there was no fixed clergy doing this alone. It is within this normal practice that Jesus asks for the scroll of Isaiah and delivers His first public sermon.
  17. Luke 4:17Jesus is handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and He Himself finds the specific passage He will read — it was not unusual for a community member to be invited to read and comment on the Scriptures on the Sabbath.
  18. Luke 4:18This quotation from Isaiah 61 works as a summary of Jesus’s mission: announcing good news to the poor, healing the brokenhearted, freeing captives — priorities that appear again and again throughout the rest of the gospel.
  19. Luke 4:19This mention of the acceptable year of the Lord refers to the Year of Jubilee, which the law commanded be celebrated every fifty years: debts forgiven, slaves freed, land returned to the original families. By reading this passage from Isaiah and saying it was being fulfilled right then, Jesus is announcing that kind of general liberation, not just spiritual relief.
  20. Luke 4:20Closing the book and handing it back to the attendant, then sitting down to speak, was the normal posture of someone about to comment on the passage read — except this time every eye stays fixed on Him, waiting for the comment.
  21. Luke 4:21Jesus’s declaration is direct and bold: the ancient prophecy was fulfilled “this day,” right there in front of them — He is saying the text is about Him.
  22. Luke 4:22The reaction is mixed: they marvel at His words, but also doubt, because they have known Jesus since He was a child as Joseph’s son — familiarity breeds suspicion, not faith.
  23. Luke 4:23This was already a well-known saying at the time, something like solving your own problems before helping others. The people of Nazareth demand the same proof from Him: that He do there, in His own hometown, the miracles they had heard He did in Capernaum.
  24. Luke 4:24Jesus applies to Himself a familiar saying about prophets not being well received in their own hometown, already foreseeing the rejection about to come from His own townspeople.
  25. Luke 4:25The famine in Elijah’s days, with the sky shut for three and a half years, is a detail also cited in James 5:17, a Jewish tradition about the exact length of the drought, beyond what the text in Kings records directly.
  26. Luke 4:26Elijah was sent specifically to a foreign widow, in Zarephath of Sidon, and not to any of the many widows of Israel — an example of God’s favor reaching people outside the chosen nation.
  27. Luke 4:27Both the widow of Zarephath and Naaman were foreigners, not Israelites — and yet it was they, not the many needy Jews of the time, who received help through Elijah and Elisha. It is this reminder that God had already favored outsiders that leaves the synagogue crowd furious.
  28. Luke 4:28Hearing these examples of foreigners receiving special favor from prophets strikes at the audience’s national pride, and the reaction turns into collective fury.
  29. Luke 4:29The crowd drives Jesus out of the town and takes Him to the top of the hill Nazareth was built on, intending to throw Him off — a violent reaction that already foreshadows the hostility that will culminate in the crucifixion.
  30. Luke 4:30Jesus simply walks through the middle of the crowd and goes on His way — the text does not explain how, it only records the fact that the attempt to kill Him failed.
  31. Luke 4:31After being rejected in Nazareth, Jesus goes down to Capernaum, a town by the Sea of Galilee, which becomes His base for teaching on the Sabbath.
  32. Luke 4:32What impresses the people is not just the content, but the manner of teaching: with direct authority, unlike the teachers of the time, who usually relied on the opinions of other rabbis.
  33. Luke 4:33This is the first exorcism Luke narrates: a man in the synagogue itself, possessed by an unclean spirit, cries out in the middle of Jesus’s teaching.
  34. Luke 4:34The demon recognizes Jesus as “the Holy One of God” — in the gospels, unclean spirits usually know exactly who Jesus is, even when the people around still do not understand.
  35. Luke 4:35Jesus orders silence and commands the spirit to come out; the demon still throws the man to the ground, but leaves without causing any real harm — control of the situation rests entirely with Jesus.
  36. Luke 4:36The crowd’s amazement centers on the authority of Jesus’s word: He performs no rituals and invokes no other names, He simply commands, and the spirits obey.
  37. Luke 4:37News of this event spreads quickly through the whole region around Capernaum.
  38. Luke 4:38Jesus enters Simon’s house, even before formally calling him as a disciple later on — Simon’s mother-in-law is in bed with a high fever, and they ask Jesus to do something for her.
  39. Luke 4:39Jesus rebukes the fever as if it were something to be sent away, not just treated — and the healing is so complete that she gets up immediately and goes right back to serving.
  40. Luke 4:40People wait for sunset to bring their sick because that marks the end of the Sabbath, when carrying someone or traveling distances no longer counted as forbidden work on the day of rest.
  41. Luke 4:41The demons also cry out declaring that He is the Christ, but Jesus silences them — He does not want His identity announced by demonic sources, preferring to reveal it in His own time.
  42. Luke 4:42Early in the morning, Jesus withdraws to a deserted place, but the crowds find Him and try to keep Him there, wanting to hold on to Him as if He belonged only to that town.
  43. Luke 4:43Jesus explains that His mission cannot be confined to just one place: He was sent to announce the Kingdom of God to other towns as well.
  44. Luke 4:44This verse sums up and closes this early phase: Jesus keeps preaching in synagogues throughout all of Galilee, not just in Capernaum or Nazareth.

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