But he answered: see comment at 3.15.

For many readers, making “Jesus” explicit as Good News Translation has done will prove helpful. Otherwise “he” might be understood to refer to the Devil.

Some languages have to specify whom he answered: “answered the Devil” or “answered him.”

It is written refers to scripture, and so Good News Translation has “The scripture says,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “In the Holy Scripture it stands.” Most translations need to make it clear that It is written introduces a quote from scripture. They can say “In God’s book it says” or “In God’s writing it says.” Translators should be careful not to use the word “Bible” or any expression which would be understood to mean “the Bible,” that is, both the Old and the New Testaments, since the New Testament had not yet been written. They can try “In the holy book of us Jews, it says…” or “In our holy book….”

The quotation which follows is from Deuteronomy 8.3 in the language of the Septuagint. Most translations render the quotation rather literally, but compare Barclay (“It takes more than bread to keep a man alive; man’s life depends on every word that God speaks”) and New English Bible (“Man cannot live on bread alone; he lives on every word that God utters”). In the context Man means “people,” “humanity,” and it is interesting to note how Jesus identifies with humanity in this quotation. For Jesus to be Son of God does not deny his humanity, but it does mean “that he can hear and obey God totally, leaving everything up to him.”

For Man, many translations will say “people” or “human beings,” or whatever expression refers to mankind and not just human males.

Bread is here used in a general sense, in reference to the basic food of the Israelites. It is generally translated as “food” so that readers do not think specifically of bread when they read the passage. However, since in verse 3 the reference is to bread, some translators will retain that even here.

As seen by the examples above, live really means more than physical existence here. Man shall not live by bread alone may be rendered “Man’s life does not depend only on food” or “Man’s existence does not depend only on having food.” Rather, for man to have real life, he must have every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, that is, “what God speaks” or “what God commands.”

Above we cited several ways this quote has been translated, including those of Barclay and New English Bible. Other ways translators may try are “Man’s existence does not depend only on food, but on what God has spoken,” “For man to have real life, he needs more than food; he needs also the words that God speaks,” or “In order to really live, man needs every word from God. Food alone is not enough to sustain him.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .