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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
The devil wished also to disturb the order of things, and to deprive the Apostles of their dignity, and to incline the many to obey Him.
Athanasius of Alexandria
He spoke of Him not as a Holy One of God, as if He were like to the other saints, but as being in a remarkable manner the Holy One, with the addition of the article. For He is by nature holy by partaking of whom all others are called holy. Nor again did He speak this as if He knew it, but He pretended to know it.
Western Saints
Ambrose of Milan
It ought not to shock any one that the devil is mentioned in this book as the first to have spoken the name of Jesus of Nazareth. For Christ received not from him that name which an Angel brought down from heaven to the Virgin. The devil is of such effrontery, that he is the first to use a thing among men and bring it as something new to them, that he may strike people with terror at his power. Hence it follows: For I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.
Bede
Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God. This is not a confession of will, for which the reward of confessing follows, but an extortion of necessity which compels the unwilling. And just as if runaway slaves, after much time, see their master, they plead for nothing but to be spared the lashes, thus also the demons, seeing the Lord suddenly dwelling on earth, believed that he had come to judge them. The presence of the Savior is torment for the demons.
Bonaventure
Whence this very fear compelled him to confess the truth, namely, that Christ was the destroyer of demons and the sanctifier of men. On account of the first, it is added: Saying: Let be, what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? Let be, that is, cease from affliction and our persecution, because it is unbearable: Job 13: "Remove your hand far from me, and let not your dread terrify me." Or: Let be, that is, permit me to go far from you, because what have you to do with us? …
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