“And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges.”
Matthew 12:27 — Greek Interlinear
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.'
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…
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.