And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges.
Read Chapter 12
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Your children Some by their children understand, exorcists, that were among the Jews, that sometimes cast out devils; but it is more commonly taken for Christ's disciples and apostles, who were of the Jewish nation, to whom he had given power to cast out devils: as if he had said, If you allow them to cast out devils by divine power, why do not you also believe this of me, their master? (Witham)
St. Chrysostom says the apostles and disciples of Christ are here meant, for they had already cast out devils in virtue of the power conferred upon them by their divine Master, without ever having it said of them, that in the prince of devils they cast out devils. Thus he shows that envy was the origin and cause of their persecuting spirit, and that not his actions but his person gave them such great umbrage. (hom. xlii).
If Christ alludes here to their own exorcists, who drove out devils by the invocation of the adorable name of God, he confounds the unjust malice and prevention of the Phari...
If they were exorcists casting out devils by invoking God’s name, he intimates by clever questioning that they should declare the work to be of the Holy Spirit. He goes on to say, “If the casting out of devils by your [the Pharisees’] children is attributed to God and not to devils, how come the same work does not have the same cause?” Therefore “they shall be your judges,” not by authority but by comparison. While they attribute to God the casting out of devils, you attribute it to Beelzebub the prince of devils. But it was said about the apostles (and this we should bear in mind), they will be the judges of those children, for they will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. .
This then being the first refutation, the next after it is that which relates to the disciples. For not always in one way only, but also in a second and third, He solves their objections, being minded most abundantly to silence their shamelessness. Which sort of thing He did also with respect to the Sabbath, bringing forward David, the priests, the testimony that says, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, the cause of the Sabbath, for which it was ordained; for the Sabbath, says He, was for man. This then He does in the present case also: where after the first He proceeds to a second refutation, plainer than the former.
See here too His gentleness. For He said not, my disciples, nor, the apostles, but your sons; to the end that if indeed they were minded to return to the same nobleness with them, they might derive hence a powerful spring that way; but if they were uncandid, and continued in the same course, they might not thenceforth be able to allege any plea, though ever so shame...
Let us suppose, He says, that I am such as you say. But by whom do your sons, that is, My disciples, cast them out? Surely they do not also cast them out by Beelzebub? But if they cast them out by divine power, how much more so do I? For they work miracles in My name. Therefore they will be to your condemnation, since you saw them, too, working miracles in My name, and still you slander Me.
