Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Matthew 12:23 - 12:23
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Mat_12:23 ff. Μήτι οὗτος , κ . τ . λ .] Question of imperfect yet growing faith, with emphasis upon οὗτος : May this (who, however, does not possess the qualities looked for in the Messiah) not possibly be the Messiah? Joh_4:29. To this corresponds the emphatic οὗτος in Mat_12:24.
ἀκούσαντες ] that question μήτι οὗτος , etc.
εἶπον ] to the multitude, not to Jesus; for see Mat_12:25. They desire at once to put a stop to such dangerous language, and that, too, in a very demonstrative way.
ἐν τῷ Βεελζεβοὺλ , ἄρχοντι τῶν δαιμ .] See on Mat_9:34. ἄρχοντι τ . δ . is not to be rendered: the ruler of the demons (which would have required τῷ ἄρχ .), but: as ruler over the demons. Pragmatic addition. Mar_3:22, comp. Joh_7:20; Joh_10:20, states the accusation in more specific terms.
εἰδώς ] comp. Mat_9:4. The charge urged by the Pharisees is a foolish and desperate expedient proceeding from their hostility to Jesus, the absurdity of which He exposes.
μερισθεῖσα καθʼ ἑαυτῆς ] i.e. divided into parties, which contend with each other to its own destruction. In such a state of matters, a kingdom comes to ruin, and a town or a family must cease to exist; σταθῆναι means the same as στῆναι , see Bornemann, ad Xen. Cyr. II. 1, 11; Ellendt, Lex. Soph. I. p. 851.
Mat_12:26. καί ] the and subjoining the application.
εἰ ὁ σατανᾶς τὸν σατανᾶν ἐκβάλλει ] not: the one Satan, the other Satan (Fritzsche, de Wette), but: if Satan cast out Satan, if Satan is at once the subject and the object of the casting out, being the latter, inasmuch as the expelled demons are the servants and representatives of Satan. This is the only correct interpretation of an expression so selected as to be in keeping with the preposterous nature of the charge, for there is only the one Satan; there are many demons, but only one Satan, who is their head. This explanation is an answer to de Wette, who takes exception to the reasoning of Jesus on the ground that Satan may have helped Christ to cast out demons, that by this means he might accomplish his own ends. No, the question is not as to one or two occasional instances of such casting out,—in which it might be quite conceivable that “for the nonce Satan should be faithless to his own spirits,”—but as to exorcism regarded in the light of a systematic practice, which, as such, is directed against Satan, and which therefore cannot be attributed to Satan himself, for otherwise he would be destroying his own kingdom.