Luke 4:5

[LinuxGal]

Luke 4:

[5] And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

[6] And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

[7] If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.


This is how far Jesus and the devil could see if the devil took him to the highest mountain on Earth. All the kingdoms of Earth do not fit in that red circle. Jesus was not impressed with such a small offer and turned the devil down.

[Bucky Ball]

There were 3 "temptations" and they were archetypal and allegorical. They were not meant to be literal.
Together the three served as "mythology" (see Bultmann) to say that their hero/Jesus was triumphant over whatever the temptations were, and Satan and evil.
The three also served to demonstrate the hero's status as a Jew, as Moses and Elijah had also had similar temptations.
Been years since I read about those ... and I came from very liberal tradition. Read a really good book about these once, but can't recall who wrote it.
I asked Kung once about these, at Tubingen when I was there for a semester, and couldn't understand his response.

[FrustratedFool]

Reading the bible as myth and metaphor seems the best possible response to the text.