To qualify as a rabbi one had to be thirty years old and spend at least one day and one night meditating alone. Ancient writers did not have calculators or other devices for precision keeping. Forty days and forty nights did not represent a numerical time but rather it meant a lot of time or an excess of time. . This resulted in a greater emphasis on the spirit of the matter rather than the letter of the matter. One can obey the letter of a law and turn the spirit of the law on its' head.
The gospels are written spiritually, while a recording of everything word for word would follow the letter. The spirit of an event is often weakened or even lost in the clutter of detail.
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