Mark 3:22 — Community Reflections

MARK 3:22 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.”

And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, he is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons — the accusation from the Jerusalem scribes is qualitatively different from the family's concern. The family thinks Jesus has lost his mind; the Jerusalem scribes attribute his power to Beelzebul, the lord of the house (or lord of the flies), the demonic prince. The accusation is designed to explain the undeniable reality of the exorcisms without conceding divine origin: yes, the demons obey him, but only because he commands them on behalf of their own master. The accusation requires Jesus to respond not with a counter-claim but with a logical demonstration of its incoherence.

Church Fathers on Mark 3:22

the Lord leads the Apostles, when they were elected, into a house, as if admonishing them, that after having received the Apostleship, they should retire to look on their own consciences.
Bede · 8th century

That is, He has a devil and is mad, and therefore they wished to lay hold upon Him, that they might shut Him up as one who had a devil. And even His friends wished to do this, that is, His relations, perchance His countrymen, or His brethren. But it was a silly insanity in them, to conceive that the Worker of such great miracles of Divine Wisdom had become mad.
Theophylact · 11th century

But mystically, the house to which they came, is the early Church. The crowds which prevent their eating bread are sins and vices; for he who eateth unworthily, 'eateth and drinketh damnation to himself.' [1 Cor 11:29]
Pseudo-Jerome · 5th century

Read all 6 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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