ContradictionsReading order 292Bible context 3 min read
Can God be tempted?
The excerpts use temptation for both testing God and confronting Jesus with temptation, while James specifically denies God's susceptibility to evil.
- Textual conflict
- Weak tension
- The alleged conflict needs substantial assumptions, such as treating an omission as a denial or figurative language as literal.
- Importance
- Foundational
- A central claim about origins, salvation, divine justice, or religious authority.
Testing God is not inducing moral susceptibility, and equating Jesus' temptations with God's own requires an additional theological identification.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
God cannot be tempted with evil
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:
James 1:13
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:James 1
Wording affects the comparison
The KJV says God "tempt" Abraham in Genesis 22:1; the NIV says "tested." James 1:13 specifically discusses temptation with evil. Whether the passages describe a test or an inducement to wrongdoing affects the claim that they deny and affirm the same action.