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Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.
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Q&A

How could we know whether Christ’s temptation in the desert happened as recorded if no one witnessed it?

Catholic Answers Staff

Question:

If no one witnessed the interplay between Christ and Satan in the desert, what are we to make of the accuracy of the account found in the Gospel of Matthew? Does the Church have any teaching specifically directed to how such an episode in Christ’s life, which apparently was not witnessed by any one else, could be accurately recounted in the Gospels?

Answer:

Though this is not a matter the Church has addressed, it would seem logical that Jesus himself is the source on events recounted in the Gospels that were not witnessed by others. After the event, he told others; the story was then circulated orally among his apostles and disciples until one of them wrote it down.

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