Matthew 12:27 — Community Reflections

MATTHEW 12:27 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges.”

And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. The second argument against the Beelzebul charge: the Pharisees' own disciples also performed exorcisms. If exorcism by demonic power is the charge against Jesus, it must also apply to the Jewish exorcists the Pharisees approve of. The your sons will be your judges communicates the logical self-condemnation of the charge: the standard the Pharisees apply to Jesus condemns their own community's practice.

Church Fathers on Matthew 12:27

After the first answer, He comes to a second more plain than the first, saying, 'And if I by Beelzebub cast out daemons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges.'
Chrysostom · 4th century

He alludes, as is His manner, under the name children of the Jews, either to the exorcists of that race, or to the Apostles who are by race of that nation. If He means the exorcists who by the invocation of God cast out daemons, He thus constrains the Pharisees by a wise enquiry to confess that their work was of the Holy Spirit. If, He would say, the casting out of the daemons by your children is imputed to God, and not to daemons, why should the same work wrought by Me not…
Jerome · 4th century

And they are worthily appointed judges over them, to whom Christ is found to have given that power over the daemons, which it was denied that He had.
Hilary of Poitiers · 4th century

Read all 9 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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