Was the devil tempting Jesus literally?

In Luke Chapter 4, verses 1 - 13.
We are told Jesus is taken to a high mountain, also to Jerusalem onto a pinnacle of the temple.
Were these visions, through hunger and thirst or are we to believe literal events? It is not stated.

On a separate point, 40 days without food is surely impossible, yet nothing is said of weakness or sickness and how He recovered. Granted He is Lord of all, but He was in human form and thus temporarily as frail as we all are. Shown by his death on the cross where His body suffered just as any man would.

I believe a similar event will happen between the coming antichrist and Satan and offers him the world

Luke 4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

The Bible says Jesus didn't eat anything only. That means He could drink water. A human body can't survive without water for more than 2-3 days. That's because our electrolyte concentrations would get totally thrown off balance and kill us. Jesus fasting 40 days is doable as long as He drank water.

I also know people who fasted 40 days and are still alive. It IS possible.


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Why should it be "stated" that this is to be taken literally and believed as the truth? You have read the account in the Bible, and it is a narration of FACTS.

Well, because being transported to a high mountain and to the pinnacle of a temple in Jerusalem cannot be literal. It must be symbolic or visions.

The devil is an angel, he might have quickly brought Jesus there somehow. I think angels might be able to immediately travel from heaven to earth.

The short answer
The short answer is yes. And your body can go 40 days without food. Duh

It can yes, but there is no good reason to do that.

Apparently Moses neither ate nor drank for 40 days. This is hard to believe. Though I want to believe and think the Bible is the inspired word of God.

So what’s holding you back? You don’t have to go on a 40 day fast to be saved.

Why?

Are they any less believable than raising Lazarus from the dead, walking on water, making a tiny bit of food feed 5 thousand, turning water to wine or raising HIMSELF from the dead?

Where are we given authority to pick and choose what is symbolic and what is fact?

There are several good reasons to fast.

Fasting tells your body that YOU are in control, not your flesh.

In Jesus' case, He put Himself at His most vulnerable, weakest position to show that even at that stage resistance to the Devil can be done.

Matthew and Mark note angels came and ministered to Him. (Mt 4:11; Mk 1:13)

Actually, communing with the Father for 40 days made Him strong, not weak.

A good point actually.

This is a good perspective because fasting concentates the mind and changes perception. Removes obstacles to thought.

Well He ALWAYS communes with the Father. Which I’m sure strengthens Him.

But His human nature and being puts demands on Him, like every human.

His flesh was weakest at that point after 40 days without food.

So Spiritually speaking, He was stronger, flesh wise He was weakest, and theoretically most susceptible to temptation.

I certainly don't want to come off as some spiritually superior being, but there is much greater experience and benefit to genuine fasting than most people know. I don't think most have a full understanding of the ramifications of Jesus' words to His disciples...I have meat to eat ye know not of. There is a spiritual reality that transcends the flesh that renders the flesh mute; a state where spirit and Spirit commune without regard to anything else. Because this is so little taught it is little sought by most Christians, but there is much more to a relationship with God and much greater power that is available to us than most ever consider, let alone experience.
I write this knowing it is true of me also.

why so much unbelief, to GOD all is possible

Not unbelief. Only a search for truth, to explore and question, as is every person's right.. I have never been one to believe blindly.