Tempt is used in the Bible in the Latin sense of prove, as a rendering especially of בָּחִן, bachdn, and πειράζω, which both signify to test or try. It is applied to various beings in different senses, not always involving an evil purpose wherein the temptation is presented to the mind as an inducement to sin. SEE TEMPTATION.
1. God is said to have tempted Abraham by commanding him to offer up his son Isaac (Genesis 22:1), intending to prove his obedience and faith, to confirm and strengthen him by this trial, and to furnish in his person an example and pattern of perfect obedience for all succeeding ages. God does not tempt or try men in order to ascertain their tempers and dispositions, as if he were ignorant of them, but to exercise their virtue, to purify it, to render it conspicuous to others, to give them an opportunity of receiving favors from his hands. When we read in Scripture that God proved his people, whether they would walk in his law or not (Exodus 16:4), and that he permitted false prophets to arise among them, who prophesied vain things to try them whether they would seek the Lord with their whole hearts, we should interpret these expressions by that of James (1:13-14), “Let no man say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted of God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed.”
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Author: McClintock and Strong Cyclopedia
Keywords: Tempt, prove, test, temptation
Bible reference(s): 1 Corinthians 10:13, 1 Corinthians 7:5, 1 John 3:8, 1 Kings 11:1, 1 Thessalonians 3:5, 2 Chronicles 9:1, 2 Corinthians 11:3, Acts 5:3, Daniel 1:12, Exodus 16:4, Genesis 22:1, Genesis 3:1, James 1:13, John 8:44, Luke 4:2, Mark 1:13, Matthew 16:1, Matthew 19:3, Matthew 22:18, Matthew 4:3, Matthew 6:13, Numbers 20:12, Psalms 78:18, Revelation 12:9
Source: John McClintock and James Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.