F. Jesus and the evil spirits (11:14–26)
F. Jesus and the evil spirits (11:14–26)
1. The Beelzebul controversy (11:14–23)
All three Synoptists depict the conflict between Jesus and the forces of evil in part by showing that he constantly expelled demons. That he exercised power over the evil spirits does not seem to have been doubted, even by his enemies. But they did try to discredit him by ascribing the source of his power not to God but to the devil. Luke gives us this example of the criticism and the way Jesus met it.
14. The incident is not placed in its precise chronological sequence; Luke simply tells us that Jesus was healing a demoniac, a man who was dumb (Matthew says he was blind as well). After the exorcism the dumb man spoke. The emphasis is on the controversy that followed, so Luke tells the story of the miracle very briefly and adds no more than that the people marvelled.
15–16. But some of them attributed the miracle to Beelzebul, the prince of demons. Matthew adds the information that these people were Pharisees, and Mark that they were scribes from Jerusalem. The name of the demon prince is given in some MSS as ‘Beezebul’ (apparently no more than an easier way of pronouncing the same name), and in the Vulgate as ‘Beelzebub’. It seems fairly clear that the name was ‘Beelzebul’, but why it was applied and what it means are difficult questions. The form ‘Baalzebub’ occurs as the name of the god of Ekron (2 Kgs 1:2, 3, 6, 16; in the Hebrew text, not LXX). This means ‘lord of flies’ and may well be a Hebrew pun on a similar sounding Philistine name (like the Ras Shamra name noted below). Some suggest that the Jews further corrupted this into the similar sounding ‘Baalzebul’, ‘lord of dung’, a way of referring to the heathen god, and then transferred this name to a demon. But the form ‘Baalzebul’ also occurs in the Ras Shamra tablets as the name of a Canaanite deity, the term apparently meaning ‘lord of the dwelling’ or ‘lord of the high place’. Our best understanding of the evidence seems to be that the Jews took this name of a heathen god and understood it in terms of the similar sounding Hebrew, ‘lord of dung’. They applied it to a prominent demon, perhaps to Satan himself. Jesus clearly understood it to refer to Satan.
Other people took a different line. They tested Jesus by seeking a sign from heaven. This is not essentially different, for it means that they did not regard the exorcism they had just seen as a sign of the kingdom. Jesus deals with the Beelzebul accusation straight away and comes to the demand for a sign in verse 29.
17–18. Apparently the comments were made privately, not to Jesus. But he knew what these people were thinking. So he pointed out that, if they were right, the forces of evil would be destroying themselves. He reasons from the universal rule, Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste. Mark adds a similar comment about a house (i.e. household) and Matthew includes a city as well. Luke’s a divided household falls seems to be an explanation of the preceding. When a kingdom is destroyed by disunity ‘house after house falls down’ (Moffatt). From the general Jesus moves to the particular with the question, if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? The forces of evil are destructive of good, not of one another.
19. Jesus clinches his argument with an appeal to the practice of Jewish exorcists. If casting out demons means a league with the devil, then Jewish practitioners of the art are in the same case. The argument proves too much. Your sons is strongly emphatic. It may refer to the actual sons of the people to whom Jesus is talking, or the expression may mean ‘your own people’ (Rieu) or ‘your followers’ (GNB).
20. It is by the finger of God (cf. Exod. 8:19) that Jesus performs his exorcisms and he invites his enemies to contemplate the consequence. Incidentally, it is rather curious that Luke reads finger of God where Matthew has ‘the Spirit of God’, for Luke generally emphasizes the Spirit. Both ways of putting it emphasize that Jesus’ power over the demons comes from God and no-one else. And if this is so, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. The presence of the kingdom is to be seen, not in good advice or pious practices, but in the power that expels the forces of evil. Now!
21–22. Jesus hammers this home with a little picture of Satan as the ‘strong one’ guarding his possessions, i.e. those under his power. Satan is in control and at peace. But the strong one can be defeated. When one stronger overcomes him, as Jesus has just done in casting out the demon, the whole situation is altered. Satan’s armour is taken away. His spoil (probably what he has taken from his captives) is divided. Both terms are pictorial and they stand for the complete inability of Satan to stand in the face of God. Evil has a strong grip on people, but that strong grip is broken decisively when the kingdom of God comes in. The kingdom is not beautiful words; it is the overthrow of evil.
23. There can be no neutrality about this. When a man sees what the kingdom means he must be either for it or against it. Anyone who does not side with Christ in the battle against evil is against him. If anyone does not gather with Christ he scatters (the imagery is from gathering a flock together).
2. The return of the evil spirit (11:24–26)
Jesus adds a little story to show that he is not talking about some temporary moral reformation, but a complete and final defeat of evil by the power of good.
24. Here the unclean spirit has not been expelled from the man. It has simply left. Desert places were popularly regarded as the haunts of evil spirits and Jesus pictures this one as wandering through such waterless regions without finding rest. So it decides to go back to the place it came from. Though it has left the man, it still calls him my house.
25. When it comes back it finds the house swept and put in order. Without the evil spirit the man’s life is better. He is able to order things properly. Jesus describes a moral tidying up.
26. But the wicked spirit now brings seven other spirits more evil than himself and they all come and live in the man. Dwell (katoikei ) means ‘settle down’, ‘live permanently’. Now inhabited by eight spirits the man is in worse case than at the beginning when he had but one. When anyone gets rid of an evil spirit but puts nothing in its place, he is in grave moral danger. No-one can live for long in a moral vacuum. The kingdom of God does not bring about such a vacuum but a victory over evil such that evil is replaced with good and with God.