Matthew 12:22-37

The Pharisees accuse Jesus of being in league with Beelzebub (Mark 3:22 cp. Luke 11:17; Matthew 9:32). The ridiculous charge of the Pharisees is strong evidence of the genuineness of Christ's miracles. They would have denied them if they could (see John 9:18), but this was impossible, so numerous and notorious were they. So they started the flimsy theory that Christ was in league with the devil, not really believing it, but out of malice.

The later Jews said that Jesus learnt how to work His miracles from an Egyptian juggler, and the heathen Celsus (170 a.d.) repeated their calumny with some improvements of his own. The Jewish Talmudists said, 'The son of the adulteress' (i.e. of the Virgin Mary) 'brought magic out of Egypt, by cuttings which he had made in his flesh.' 'Jesus practised magic and deceived, and drove Israel to idolatry.' It is interesting to notice that Mahomet indignantly repudiated these Jewish calumnies.