"Jesus was led by the Holy Ghost to a waste, in order that he might be tempted by the devil: and he there fasted forty days and forty nights, so that he tasted neither food nor drink in all that time: but he then hungered. Then the tempter approached, and said to him, If thou art the Son of God, say to these stones that they be turned to loaves. Then Jesus answered, and said, It is written, Man liveth not by bread alone, but liveth by all the words that go from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him, and set him upon the summit of the lofty temple, and said, If thou art the Son of God, fall now down: it is written, that angels are commanded concerning thee, that they shall lift thee in their hands, that thou may not dash thy foot on a stone. Then said Jesus again to him, It is written, Tempt not thy Lord. Then the devil took him again, and set him upon a very high mountain, and showed him all the wealth and glory of the world, and said to him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall at my feet, and adore me. Then said Jesus to him, Go thou behind, Satan! It is written, Everyone shall adore his Lord alone, and him alone serve. Then the devil left him, and angels came to him, and ministered unto him." The Holy Ghost led Jesus to the waste, that he might there be tempted. Now everyone will wonder how the devil durst approach Jesus to tempt him: but he durst not tempt {169} Jesus, if it had not been allowed him. Jesus came to mankind because he would overcome all our temptations by his temptations, and overcome our eternal death with his temporary death. Now he was so humble that he permitted the devil to tempt him, and he permitted wicked men to slay him. The devil is the head of all unrighteous men, and evil men are his limbs: now God permitted the head to tempt him, and the limbs to crucify him. To the devil it was a great doubt, What Christ were? His life was not ordered like the lives of other men. Christ ate not with avidity, nor did he drink with excess, nor did his eyes pass wandering amid various pleasures. Then the devil meditated what he were; whether he were the Son of God, who had been promised to mankind. He said then in his thoughts, that he would prove what he were. When Christ was fasting forty days and forty nights together, in all that time the devil did not say to him that he should eat, because he saw that he hungered not. Afterwards, when Christ hungered after so long a time, then verily the devil weened that he was not God, and said to him, "Why hungerest thou? If thou art the Son of God, turn these stones to loaves, and eat."