Matthew 4:9 is the ninth 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....

. It is part of the Temptation of Christ

Temptation of Christ

The temptation of Christ is detailed in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. According to these texts, after being baptized, Jesus fasted for forty days and nights in the Judean desert. During this time, the devil appeared to Jesus and tempted him...

 narrative. Jesus

Jesus

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

 has rebuffed two earlier temptations by 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...

. The devil has thus transported Jesus to the top of a great mountain and shown him all the kingdoms of the world. In this verse Satan offers control of the world to Jesus if he agrees to worship him.

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

And saith unto him, All these things will I

give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

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:

He said to him, "I will give you all of these

things, if you will fall down and worship me."

For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 4:9

As is hinted in the previous verse and confirmed at Luke 4:6 and John 12:31 this verse seems to show that the devil controlled the world before the coming of Jesus. It also is said to show how unimportant the physical world is, Satan is willing to abandon it to Jesus in exchange for Jesus not threatening him in the spiritual world. Jesus seems to agree that the physical world is secondary and that he is also mainly interested in the spiritual one. This scene has thus been used as an argument for the supremacy of spiritual over secular power. In a famous letter, Pope Gregory VII

Pope Gregory VII

Pope St. Gregory VII , born Hildebrand of Sovana , was Pope from April 22, 1073, until his death. One of the great reforming popes, he is perhaps best known for the part he played in the Investiture Controversy, his dispute with Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor affirming the primacy of the papal...

 used this section to assert his precedence over the Holy Roman Emperor

Holy Roman Emperor

The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...

.

This temptation is somewhat different than the previous two. In both of those Satan began with "if you are the messiah" and asked Jesus to test his powers. In this verse Jesus' messianic status is confirmed and rather than test his role of Son of God Jesus is asked to confirm it. The previous two verses have Satan more in his early Old Testament role of what Albright and Mann refer to as the "opposing council," one who works for God by testing the faithful. In this verse he presents himself as the more modern adversary of God.

As with the previous temptations there are various theories as to its meaning. The traditional view that developed in the Middle Ages was that the devil was simply testing Jesus with the sin of avarice. Most modern scholars reject this sin based interpretation. A second theory that was popular for some time, and is still held by many, is that the temptation narrative represents Jesus rejecting alternate views of the messiah. In this verse Satan is tempting Jesus to become a political figure rather than a spiritual one. Many Jews expected the messiah would be both a spiritual and political liberator who would lead the Jewish people to freedom from the Romans and dominion over the world. Why Jesus did not do so was an important discussion in the early church. This temptation is thus theorized as a demonstration that Jesus seeking political power would have been following the will of Satan. A third theory that is popular today is to see the temptation narrative as one of Jesus not making the same mistakes as the Israelites did. France notes that many times since the Exodus

The Exodus

The Exodus is the story of the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible.Narrowly defined, the term refers only to the departure from Egypt described in the Book of Exodus; more widely, it takes in the subsequent law-givings and wanderings in the wilderness...

 the Israelites had compromised their principles for political goals and in this verse Jesus makes clear he will not do the same. Schweizer proposes that the temptation might include elements of both the later two interpretations. As with the rest of the temptation narrative this section is believed to have been taken from Q. Schweizer notes that at the time Q was written the central political issue in the region would have been the Great Jewish Revolt. The small Christian community did not join the Zealots in the revolt and Schweizer feels that Q thus focused on justifying this decision by focusing on the unimportance of politics compared to the spiritual. By the time the Gospel of Matthew was written the Revolt had faded from prominence, Matthew thus adapted the section to fit more closely with his theme of Jesus as the culmination of Jewish history, but preserved some elements of the original argument in Q.