Mark 3:22-30

The Scribes from Jerusalem and the Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit (3:22-30).

By now Jesus had attracted the attention not only of the local Scribes but of the great Doctors from Jerusalem. They had probably been called in because of the influence that He was having. And once they had considered His accomplishments they knew that they could only come to one of two conclusions. Either they had to admit that His casting out of evil spirits was accomplished by the power of God, meaning that they must accept Him as a prophet, or they must find something else to account for it. As it was they seized on the only possible alternative acceptable to them. He could only do it because He was in league with the Devil, for in their eyes His refusal to conform to all their ways indicated that He could not be of God.

Jesus then accused them of dishonest thinking and warned them that if they continually rejected the clear testimony of the Spirit in that way they were in danger of the unforgivable sin, ‘blasphemy against the Holy Spirit', that is, to so harden their hearts and reject the testimony of the Spirit that they made themselves impervious to His pleadings. Once a man is in that position he has lost hope.

And in the course of His argument He brought out to them Who He was. He was the stronger than Satan. He could bind Satan with a word. None other that they knew of could do that. Other sought to do it by quasi-magical plants and secret mysteries and incantations, and by calling on the names of people like Solomon (see note on Mark 1:21). But He did it by the exercise of His own authority. Let them then consider the significance of that, with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Analysis.

a And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzeboul,” and, “By the prince of the demons He casts out the demons” (Mark 3:22).

b And He called them to Him, and said to them in picture language, “How can Satan cast out Satan?” (Mark 3:23).

c “And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand” (Mark 3:24).

d “And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end” (Mark 3:26).

c “But no one can enter into the house of the strong man, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house” (Mark 3:27).

b “Truly I say to you, All their sins shall be forgiven to the sons of men, and their blasphemies with which in any way they will blaspheme, but whoever will blaspheme against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” (Mark 3:28).

a Because they said, “He has an unclean spirit” (Mark 3:30).

Note that in ‘a' they said, ‘He has Beelzeboul”, and in the parallel they said, ‘He has an unclean spirit'. In ‘b' they impute His casting out of Satan to Satan, and in the parallel are thus in danger of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. In ‘c' a house must be undivided in order to stand, and in the parallel such a house can only be despoiled by One Who is stronger than the strong man. Centrally in ‘d' if Satan is fighting himself then he has no hope, and the end is in sight for him.