Exegesis:
egagēn de auton eis Ierousalēm ‘and he led him to Jerusalem’; subject again ho diabolos ‘the devil.’ For the character of the event described in this clause cf. on v. 5. For Ierousalēm cf. on 2.22.
estēsen epi to pterugion tou hierou ‘he made him stand on the pinnacle of the temple’; object is auton understood from the preceding clause.
histēmi ‘to set,’ ‘to place.’
pterugion lit. ‘little wing,’ denotes “the tip or extremity of anything”, horizontal or vertical. As no ‘little wing’ of the temple is mentioned elsewhere the exact reference of the word is impossible to ascertain. For the translator’s choice two considerations may be determining, i.e. (1) that to hieron refers to the temple as a whole and not to the central building only, and (2) that to pterugion because of the article refers to something which was generally known and, as shown by the use of the word elsewhere (cf. L-Sc, s.v.), has a concrete meaning.
ei huios ei tou theou ‘if you are the Son of God,’ cf. on v. 3.
bale seauton enteuthen katō ‘throw yourself down from here.’
enteuthen (also 13.31) ‘from here.’
katō ‘downwards.’
Translation:
He took him. It may be preferable to specify one or both of the pronouns.
And set him, or, ‘placed/put him,’ ‘made him stand.’
Pinnacle. So long as it is not clear which specific part of the temple is meant it seems the wisest solution to use a generic rendering, e.g. “summit” (An American Translation), ‘top part’ (Marathi), ‘highest beam/pole/ridge/stone.’ There is no serious loss of information then, since it is height rather than architectural detail that is important in this context.
Throw yourself down, or, ‘cause-to-fall yourself (downwards)’ (Trukese, some Indonesian languages), ‘jump … downwards’ (Pohnpeian, Javanese).
Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.