"Remember the long way that the LORD your God has made you travel in the wilderness these past forty years, that He might test you by hardships to learn what was in your hearts: whether you would keep his commandments or not. He subjected you to the hardship of hunger and then gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had ever known, 'in order to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, but by everything that comes out of the mouth of the LORD does man live."

"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, 'if you are the son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.' Jesus answered him, 'It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.''"

Matthew 4:3

"And the tempter came and said unto him (Jesus), 'If thou art the son of God, command that these stones become bread. But he answered and said, 'It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God."

But, there is a significant difference in the stories. The Torah tells us that the Israelites were tested by God 'to see if they would keep his commandments', while Jesus is tempted by the "devil" who tries to coerce him into performing a miracle to sustain himself. Jesus refuses to be baited, and his obedience is an illustration of the Torah story itself: his heart would trust that the LORD would sustain his life.

Since the writer of the gospel according to Luke does not go on to say exactly how God provided for Jesus, he does not quote the second half of the verse from Deuteronomy (... but by everything that comes out of the mouth of God). The Israelites had manna, but Luke is not focused on how the situation was solved. His concern is to show that Jesus trusted God and defied the Devil.

The writer of Matthew's gospel, however, has other concerns. At the end of Jesus' temptation in this story, angels come to 'wait on him', apparently seeing to his physical needs. His quotation from the Torah though, includes the entire verse. It is from our English translation of this story that we have the familiar interpretation of this famous verse. Human beings cannot be satisfied with material things alone - even the necessities like food and clothing. True fulfillmenet lies in the spiritual realm, not the physical. The Greek text of this Gospel quotation comes not from the Hebrew original, but from the ancient Greek translation called the Septuagint. The phrase "word of God" does not appear in the Hebrew, but surely those who translated this part of the Torah into Greek meant to convey that the Torah itself, the 'words' of God given to Moses were the source of life.

"Remember the incident as well that when the Disciples said: "O, 'Iesa [Jesus], son of Maryam [Mary]-- can your Rabb send down to us a tray of food from heaven?" Then 'Iesa said, Fear Allah if you are believers. They replied: "We only want to eat food from that tray and satisfy our hearts and we will come to know that whatever you have told us is truth and we are witnesses to it." On this 'Iesa son of Maryan prayed: "Allah our Rabb, send down to us a tray of food from heaven, which becomes an occasion of pleasure for us ... and as a Sign from YOU, provide the provisions and YOU are the Best Provider. Allah said: 'Surely I will send it down to you, but whoever shall disbelieve afterwards ... I will chastise with a chastisement with which I will not chastise anyone among the nations."

While all three stories share the motifs of food and faith, they each teach something different about how they perceive their God interacts with those who believe in him, and what he expects from them in return for his provisions.