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# Repin's paintings “Go After Me, Satan” and the dispute over translating a line from Matthew's Gospel
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/u-ili-repina-est-neskolko-kartin-ozaglavlennykh-idi-za-mnoiu-satano/
- Published: 2019-06-03T18:54:07.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:55:47.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Faith, Art, Books

Ilya Repin has several paintings titled “Get thee behind me, Satan”. In them, a hideous figure of the devil stands behind Jesus. The words are a disputed quotation from chapter 4 of the Gospel of Matthew: some maintain that the Greek and Church Slavonic texts say “go (follow) behind me”, whereas in the Russian, English and French translations the phrase has become “get thee hence, Satan”. Others note that the Greek text has “hypage”, that is, “be gone”. However that may be, Satan really does look dreadful, especially the one with the paunch.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_1418@03-06-2019_21-54-07.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_1419@03-06-2019_21-54-07.jpg)