{All these things will I give thee} (	auta soi panta d(9373)(935c)).
The devil claims the rule of the world, not merely of Palestine
or of the Roman Empire. "The kingdoms of the cosmos" ( 4:8 ) were
under his sway. This word for world brings out the orderly
arrangement of the universe while h(8820)oikoumen(885c) presents the
inhabited earth. Jesus does not deny the grip of the devil on the
world of men, but the condition (ean and aorist subjunctive,
second class undetermined with likelihood of determination), was
spurned by Jesus. As Matthew has it Jesus is plainly to "fall
down and worship me" (pes(936e) prokun(8873)(8869)s moi), while Luke ( Lu
4:7 ) puts it, "worship before me" (en(9370)ion emou), a less
offensive demand, but one that really involved worship of the
devil. The ambition of Jesus is thus appealed to at the price of
recognition of the devil's primacy in the world. It was
compromise that involved surrender of the Son of God to the world
ruler of this darkness. "The temptation was threefold: to gain a
temporal, not a spiritual, dominion; to gain it at once; and to
gain it by an act of homage to the ruler of this world, which
would make the self-constituted Messiah the vice-regent of the
devil and not of God" (McNeile).