Luke 11:18 — Community Reflections

LUKE 11:18 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub.”

The woe to the Pharisees at the dinner table begins one of the most sustained confrontations in Luke's Gospel: Jesus does not wash before dinner, and the Pharisee's surprise triggers the first woe — you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. Give what is inside as alms, and everything will be clean for you — the purity required is internal charity, not external washing.

Church Fathers on Luke 11:18

The suspicion of the Pharisees being utterly without reason, they dared not divulge it for fear of the multitude, but pondered it in their minds. Hence it is said, But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself will be brought to desolation.
Chrysostom · 4th century

He answered not their words but their thoughts, that so at least they might be compelled to believe in His power, who saw into the secrets of the heart.
Bede · 8th century

Herein also He shows His own kingdom to be undivided and everlasting. Those then who possess no hope in Christ, but think that He casts out devils through the chief of the devils, their kingdom, He says, is not everlasting. This also has reference to the Jewish people. For how can the kingdom of the Jews be everlasting, when by the people of the law Jesus is denied, who is promised by the law? Thus in part does the faith of the Jewish people impugn itself; the glory of the…
Ambrose · 4th century

Read all 19 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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