So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: how can Satan drive out Satan? — the first use of the word parable (parabolē) in Mark introduces not a narrative story but a logical argument presented in figurative form. The rhetorical question is devastating in its simplicity: if Satan is driving out Satan, Satan is dividing and destroying his own kingdom. The question exposes the internal incoherence of the Beelzebul accusation. A divided kingdom cannot stand; a self-fighting army cannot win. If the exorcisms are Satanic, they are evidence of Satan's self-destruction. The argument does not prove that Jesus' power is divine, but it destroys the only alternative explanation the scribes have offered.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

Publish a note on this verse