Luke 11:17-19

“ But He, knowing their thoughts, said unto them: Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and one house falls upon another. Luke 11:18. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. Luke 11:19. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges. ”

In Luke 11:17-18 Jesus appeals to the common sense of His hearers; it is far from natural to suppose that the devil would fight against himself. It is true, it might be rejoined that Satan drove out his underlings, the better to accredit Him as his Messiah. Jesus does not seem to have referred to this objection. In any case, the sequel would answer it; the devil can remove the diabolical spirit, but not replace it by the Holy Spirit. Διανοήματα, their thoughts, denotes the wicked source concealed behind such words (Luke 11:15-16). The words, “ And one house falls upon another,” appear to be in Luke the development of the ἐρημοῦται, is brought to desolation: the ruin of families, as a consequence of civil discord. In Matthew and Mark they evidently include a new example, parallel to the preceding one. This sense is also admissible in Luke, if we make the object ἐπὶ οἶκον depend, not on πίπτει, but on διαμερισθείς...: “ And likewise a house divided against a house falls. ”

The εἰ δὲ καί, Luke 11:18, here signifies, and entirely so if...In the appendix, because ye say, there is revealed a deep feeling of indignation. This emphatic form recalls that of Mark (Mark 3:30): “ Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.” The two analogous terms of expression had become fixed in the tradition (comp. Luke 5:24 and parall.; see also on 12, Luke 1:18); but their form is sufficiently different to prove that the one evangelist did not copy from the other.

By this first reply Jesus has simply enlisted common sense on His side. He now thrusts deeper the keen edge of His logic, Luke 11:19. If the accusation raised against Him is wellfounded, His adversaries must impute to many of the sons of Israel the same compact with Satan. We know from the N. T. and Josephus, that there were at that time numerous Jewish exorcists who made a business of driving out devils for money (Acts 19:13: “ Certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists...” Comp. Josephus, Antiq. 8.2. 5). The Talmud also speaks of those exorcists, who took David, healing Saul by his songs, as their patron, and Solomon as the inventor of their incantations: “They take roots, fumigate the patient, administer to him a decoction, and the spirit vanishes” (Tauch. f. 70, 1). Such are the persons whom Jesus designated by the expression, your sons. Several Fathers have thought that He meant His own apostles, who also wrought like cures; but the argument would have had no value with Jews, for they would not have hesitated to apply to the cures wrought by the disciples the explanation with which they had just stigmatized those of the Master. De Wette, Meyer, and Neander give to the word sons the meaning which it has in the expression sons of the prophets, that of disciples. But is it proved that those exorcists studied in the Rabbinical schools? Is it not simpler to explain the term your sons in this sense: “Your own countrymen, your flesh and blood, whom you do not think of repudiating, but from whom, on the contrary, you take glory when they perform works of power similar to mine; they do not work signs in the heavens, and yet you do not suspect their cures. They shall confound you therefore before the divine tribunal, by convicting you of having applied to me a judgment which you should with much stronger reason have applied to them.” In reality, what a contrast was there between the free and open strife which Jesus maintained with the malignant spirits whom He expelled, and the suspicious manipulations in which those exorcists indulged! between the entire physical and moral restoration which His word brought to the sick who were healed by Him, and the half cures, generally followed by relapses, which they wrought! To ascribe the imperfect cures to God, and to refer the perfect cures to the devil what logic!