Mark 1:13

and He was there for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels ministered to Him.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Mark places Jesus immediately after the Spirit drives Him into the wilderness, situating the narrative between John’s arrest and the start of Jesus’ Galilean ministry.

The words — The Greek phrase ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ (en tē erēmō) literally means "in the wilderness," specifying the desolate location where the subsequent events occur.

The thread — The forty-day duration parallels Moses’ forty days with the Lord in Exodus 34:28, while the temptation motif connects to the high priestly sympathy described in Hebrews 4:15.

Why it lands — The text requires acknowledging Jesus’ physical vulnerability and divine provision without softening the reality of the conflict or romanticizing the isolation.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

Cross-references

Hebrews 2:17 For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, in order to make atonement for the sins of the people.
Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin.
Exodus 34:28 So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.
Matthew 26:53 Are you not aware that I can call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?
Deuteronomy 9:11 And at the end of forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.
Deuteronomy 9:18 Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD and provoking Him to anger.
Deuteronomy 9:25 So I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said He would destroy you.
1 Kings 19:5 Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”
Matthew 4:10 “Away from Me, Satan!” Jesus told him. “For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”
Exodus 24:18 Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.