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Mat_12:43-45. Having foretold that the existing generation would be condemned on the judgment day by the Ninevites and that queen from the South, Jesus now proceeds—according to the account in Matthew, which is undoubtedly original (comp. Weiss, 1864, p. 84 f.)—to explain in an allegorical way the condition of things on which this melancholy certainty is founded. The case of this generation, He says, will be very much like that of a demoniac, into whom the demon that has been expelled from him is ever seeking to return. The demon finds his former abode ready for his reception, and, reinforced by seven others still more wicked than himself, he again enters the demoniac, making his latter condition worse than the former. So will it be with this generation, which, though it should happen to undergo a temporary amendment, will relapse into its old state of confirmed wickedness, and become worse than before. The reason of this is to be found in the fact that the people in question have never entered into true fellowship with Christ, so that their amendment has not proved of a radical kind, has not been of the nature of a new birth. Comp. Luk_11:23-24 ff., where the words are connected with what is said in Mat_12:30, and are equally allegorical, and not intended literally to describe a case in which demons have actually returned after their expulsion.
δέ ] the explanatory autem. It is quite gratuitous to suppose that in our present Matthew something has dropped out before Mat_12:43 (Ewald).
ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ] in whom he had had his abode.
διʼ ἀνύδρων τόπων ] because deserts ( ἡ ἄνυδρος , the desert, in Herod. iii. 4) were reputed to be the dwelling-place of the demons. Tob_8:3; Bar_4:35; Rev_18:2.
ἐλθών , Mat_12:44 (see the critical remarks), is due to the fact that the πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον is viewed in the light of a δαίμων , in accordance with a construction, κατὰ σύνεσιν , of which classical writers also make a similar use; see Kühner, II. 1, p. 48 f.; Bornemann in the Sächs. Stud. 1846, p. 40.
σχολάζοντα , σεσαρωμ . κ . κεκοσμ .] empty (unpossessed), swept and garnished, a climax by way of describing the man’s condition as one that is calculated to induce re-possession, not to indicate (Bengel, de Wette, Bleek) that healthy state of the soul which forms such an obstacle to the demon in his efforts to regain admission, that he is led to call in the assistance of others. This would be to represent the state of the case in such a way as to make it appear that the demon had found the house barred against him; but it would likewise be at variance with the whole scope of the allegory, which is designed to exhibit the hopeless incorrigibility of the γενεά , so that what is pragmatically assumed is not the idea of moral soundness, but merely that of a readiness to welcome the return of evil influence after a temporary amendment. The reinforcement by seven other spirits is not to be ascribed to the need of greater strength in order to regain possession, but rather (hence πονηρότερα , not ἰσχυρότερα ) to the fiendish desire now to torment the man much more than before; and so, according to our interpretation, it is no more necessary to impute the calling in of those others to the noble motive of sympathetic friendship (de Wette’s objection) than it would be in the case of the legion with its association of demons.
τὰ ἔσχατα ] the last, i.e. the condition in which he finds himself under the latter possession; τὰ πρῶτα : when there was only one demon within him. 2Pe_2:20; Mat_27:64.