Mark 1 · a question people ask

What happened in the forty days in the wilderness?

In the text

Mark tells it in two verses: "Immediately the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness. He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals; and the angels were serving him" (1:12-13) (tap serving). He doesn't say what the temptations were or how they ended. Matthew and Luke tell more. Matthew says, "When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward" (Matthew 4:2), and then, "The tempter came and said to him" (Matthew 4:3), and gives what was said on both sides (Matthew 4:3-10). Luke says, "He ate nothing in those days" (Luke 4:2), and tells it too (Luke 4:1-13). Those are their accounts. Mark's is the short one, and these notes don't fill it in from theirs.

The verses

“Immediately the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness. He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals; and the angels were serving him.”
Mark 1:12-13 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Mark 1

Mark 1: The beginning of the Good News

In Mark 1 the ones who say who Jesus is are the book's first verse (1:1), a voice from the sky, "You are my beloved Son" (1:11), and a man with an unclean spirit, "the Holy One of God" (1:24). The people in the synagogue only ask, "What is this?" (1:27).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions