Bible Dictionary
Temptation
Temptation may mean a trial that tests faith and patience, or a solicitation to sin. Scripture presents God as testing people, while Satan is called the tempter and seeks to lead people into evil.
Definition
Temptation may mean a trial that tests faith and patience, or a solicitation to evil. In the first sense, affliction proves a person; in the second, temptation seeks to lead a person into sin.
Biblical Usage
God tested Abraham, while Satan is called the tempter. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by a real and active adversary, and Scripture records temptations involving Joseph, David, Hezekiah, Daniel, and others. Believers are warned to remain watchful.
Historical Background
The sources distinguish testing from enticement to evil. Jesus’ wilderness temptation is generally associated with the mountain of Quarantania near Jericho, though the temptation itself was not self-sought.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
(1.) Trial; a being put to the test. Thus God “tempted [Gen. 22: 1; R.V., ‘did prove’] Abraham;” and afflictions are said to tempt, i.e., to try, men (James 1:2, 12; comp. Deut. 8:2), putting their faith and patience to the test. (2.) Ordinarily, however, the word means solicitation to that which is evil, and hence Satan is called “the tempter” (Matt. 4:3). Our Lord was in this way tempted in the wilderness. That temptation was not internal, but by a real, active, subtle being. It was not self-sought. It was submitted to as an act of obedience on his part. “Christ was led, driven. An unseen personal force bore him a certain violence is implied in the words” (Matt. 4:1-11). The scene of the temptation of our Lord is generally supposed to have been the mountain of Quarantania (q.v.), “a high and precipitous wall of rock, 1,200 or 1,500 feet above the plain west of Jordan, near Jericho.” Temptation is common to all (Dan. 12:10; Zech. 13:9; Ps. 66:10; Luke 22:31, 40; Heb. 11:17; James 1:12; 1 Pet. 1:7; 4:12). We read of the temptation of Joseph (Gen. 39), of David (2 Sam. 24; 1 Chr. 21), of Hezekiah (2 Chr. 32:31), of Daniel (Dan. 6), etc. So long as we are in this world we are exposed to temptations, and need ever to be on our watch against them.