Note 86 — Chapter II · BAPTISM AND TEMPTATION OF JESUS.
George Eliot translation
Schöttgen, horæ, ii. 538, adduces from Fini Flagellum Judæorum, iii. 35, a passage of Pesikta: Ait Satan: Domine, permitte me tentare Messiam et ejus generationem? Cui inquit Deus: Non haberes ullam adversus eum potestatem. Satanas iterum ait: Sine me, quia potestatem habeo. Respondit Deus: Si in hoc diutius perseverabis, Satan, potius (te) de mundo perdam quam aliquam animam generationis Messiæ perdi permittam. This passage at least proves that a temptation of the Messiah undertaken by the devil, was not foreign to the circle of Jewish ideas. Although the author of the above quotation represents the demand of Satan to have been denied, others, so soon as the imagination was once excited, would be sure to allow its completion. ↑