Did Jesus Really Fast? (Luke 4:2)

It is commonly thought that using an interlinear Bible translation will help us to better understand what a Bible passage “really means” in its original language. However, if we are not careful, relying too much on interlinear Bible translations might cause us to wrongly understand the Bible passage instead!

Luke 4:1–2 says,

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness ₂ for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. (ESV)

In an interlinear Bible translation, the phrase “he ate nothing” might read,

οὐκ ἔφαγεν οὐδὲν

Not he-ate nothing

Therefore, a literal rendering of this phrase is, “he did not eat nothing.” Aha, this means that Jesus actually did eat something!

Now, is this really what this phrase was intended to communicate? Of course not! Rather, according to the rules of the Greek language, this phrase communicates that “he did not eat anything”.

However, important considerations about the biblical languages are not available in interlinear Bible translations. This results in unfortunate misunderstandings when people rely on the interlinear Bible translation too much even though they do not actually know the biblical language.