“...the Lord Himself established His Truth claims upon Scriptural substantiation in word and in power.”
Not necessarily. An equally valid position (from the bible) says that He established His Truth claims directly from His Father, or to put it another way, His power comes straight from God the Father without the need of a “scripture middleman”.
John 13:3
Matthew 28:18
John 20:21
On topic:
This is an excellent article and thanks for posting:
“It is disconcerting that there is a veritable army of modern exegetes who use reductive modern critical methods of interpretation to conclude that events like the temptation never happned”
These modern exegetes also try to explain away the miracles.
It is actually very very dangerous even more than simply disconcerting.
St. Thomas Aquinas ora pro nobis.
Why do these modern scripture scholars wish to deconstruct the bible and try to “prove” there were no miracles?
The magisterium has always taught since the Apostles themselves that God is the principle author of the bible and because the Trinity is Truth itself (John 14:6) and cannot teach anything untrue, the bible is free from error in everything that it asserts to be true.
CCC 101-14
Modern scripture exegesis is suspect, to put it mildly.
As St. Thomas Aquinas states: Hebrews 4:15 proves the temptation happened beyond doubt.
While we know His power comes straight from God, and if there was no prior revelation the Son could establish the validity of His claims simply by holiness, wisdom and supernatural attestation, yet since by this means (Moses etc.) God had expressly revealed His word on a corporate level, and recorded that in a transcendent medium (writing), then the Lord who claimed to be of that God needed to manifest conflation with it.
Before Scripture began to be written God expressly (doing beyond natural revelation) revealed Himself and will in a very limited degree to a very limited amount of people. But when He began to address an entire nation then He commanded and inspired His word to be written.
And which, as it was written, became the transcendent standard for obedience and testing and establishing Truth claims, as is abundantly evidenced , by which oral preaching of the word was examined by.
Therefore, from rebuking the devil by the Scriptures at the beginning of His ministry, Mt. 4) to rebuking the historical magisterium, (Mt. 22) to validating His Messianic fulfillment to His disciples, (Lk. 24:27,44) it was not appeal to rabbi so and so but to the Scriptures.
While this does not exclude the leading of the Spirit, and the oral preaching of the word, of Scriptural Truths by the whole church, nor the magisterial office, and teachers, etc., it makes all subject to what is written, to the only tangible extensive body of Truth that is wholly inspired of God.