Matthew 4:8 is the eighth verse of the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew

Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...

 in the New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

. Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

 has just rejected Satan

Satan

Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...

's second temptation

Temptation

A temptation is an act that looks appealing to an individual. It is usually used to describe acts with negative connotations and as such, tends to lead a person to regret such actions, for various reasons: legal, social, psychological , health, economic, etc...

. In this verse the devil transports Jesus to a new location for the third temptation.

The original Koine Greek

Koine Greek

Koine Greek is the universal dialect of the Greek language spoken throughout post-Classical antiquity , developing from the Attic dialect, with admixture of elements especially from Ionic....

, according to Westcott and Hort

The New Testament in the Original Greek

The New Testament in the Original Greek is the name of a Greek language version of the New Testament published in 1881. It is also known as the Westcott and Hort text, after its editors Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort...

, reads:

παλιν παραλαμβανει αυτον ο διαβολος εις ορος υψηλον λιαν και δεικνυσιν

αυτω πασας τας βασιλειας του κοσμου και την δοξαν αυτων

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

Again, the devil taketh him up into an

exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the

kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

The World English Bible

World English Bible

The World English Bible is a public domain translation of the Bible that is currently in draft form. Work on the World English Bible began in 1997 and was known as the American Standard Version 1997...

 translates the passage as:

Again, the devil took him to an exceedingly

high mountain, and showed him all the

kingdoms of the world, and their glory.

For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 4:8

The Gospel of Luke does not mention a mountain. Luke 4:5 simply refers to a "high place." There is a mountain near Jericho that is popularly claimed to be the site of this temptation, but France notes there is no scriptural or historical evidence to support this. There is a possible a link between this verse and Moses

Moses

Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...

 viewing the Holy Land in at Deuteronomy 3:27 and Deuteronomy 34:1-4, but Nolland does not think such a link is sensical.

There is, of course, no mountain from where "all the kingdoms of the world" can be seen. One explanation for this is that the word taketh does not necessarily refer to a physical transportation, it could mean that Satan merely took Jesus in a vision. John Calvin

John Calvin

John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...

 supported this view, and the Geneva Bible

Geneva Bible

The Geneva Bible is one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into the English language, preceding the King James translation by 51 years. It was the primary Bible of the 16th century Protestant movement and was the Bible used by William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John...

 made this interpretation explicit. Clarke lists several other explanation that have been given for this statement:

• The world only refers to the "known world" of that time and people, or is a general expression referring to the local region, which could be seen from a mountain.
• The word kingdom does not refer to geographical entities, but is rather a metaphor for earthly power.
• The showing did not itself take place on the mountain, rather the actual "showing" consisted of a rapid fly over of the entire world.
• Once atop the mountain the devil did not literally show Jesus the kingdoms but rather pulled out a map upon which all the kingdoms were displayed.
• Fortna also notes that the verse could be implying a Flat Earth
  Flat Earth
  The Flat Earth model is a belief that the Earth's shape is a plane or disk. Most ancient cultures have had conceptions of a flat Earth, including Greece until the classical period, the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilizations of the Near East until the Hellenistic period, India until the Gupta period ...
  
  , which would allow for all countries to be seen at once from a tall enough mountain.

Clark notes that the mountain setting evokes pagan mythology, which often had to gods atop mountains of extreme height. The most famous example being Mount Olympus

Mount Olympus

Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, about 100 kilometres away from Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. Mount Olympus has 52 peaks. The highest peak Mytikas, meaning "nose", rises to 2,917 metres...

 of the Greeks. The deuterocanonical Book of Baruch

Book of Baruch

The Book of Baruch, occasionally referred to as 1 Baruch, is called a deuterocanonical book of the Bible. Although not in the Hebrew Bible, it is found in the Septuagint and in the Vulgate Bible, and also in Theodotion's version. It is grouped with the prophetical books which also include Isaiah,...

also mentions a mountain from where all the kingdoms of the Earth can be seen.

Nolland contrasts the"kingdoms of the world" to the "Kingdom of Heaven" that is mentioned throughout the Gospel, one being the kingdom of Satan and the other the kingdom of God.

This verse is often considered to be a reference to Deuteronomy 32:49, where God instructs Moses

Moses

Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...

 to climb Mount Nebo

Mount Nebo (Jordan)

Mount Nebo is an elevated ridge that is approximately 817 meters above sea level, in what is now western Jordan. The view from the summit provides a panorama of the Holy Land and, to the north, a more limited one of the valley of the River Jordan...

 and shows him Jericho

Jericho

Jericho ; is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate and has a population of more than 20,000. Situated well below sea level on an east-west route north of the Dead Sea, Jericho is the lowest permanently...

 and Canaan

Canaan

Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...

 and promises them to the Israelites. This verse shows that Jesus' domain is greater, as he is presented with the entire world. France notes that it also implies that the devil then had control of the entire globe prior to the coming of Jesus, something made explicit in Luke 4:6 and John 12:31.