“And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan?”
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.
Church Fathers on Mark 3:23
The meaning of the example is this: The devil is the strong man; his goods are the men into whom he is received; unless therefore a man first conquers the devil, how can he deprive him of his goods, that is, of the men whom he has possessed?
The Lord has also bound the strong man, that is, the devil: which means, He has restrained him from seducing the elect, and entering into his house, the world; He has spoiled his house, and his goods, that is men, because He has snatched them from the snares of the devil, and has united them to His Church.
Or this is meant; that he will not deserve to work out repentance, so as to be accepted, who, understanding who Christ was, declared that He was the prince of the devils.
Read all 6 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!