Mark 3:22-30

²² And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebub,” and, “By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.”

²³ So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan?

²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

²⁵ And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

²⁶ And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end.

²⁷ No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.

²⁸ “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter;

²⁹ but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”—

³⁰ because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Also found in Matthew 12:22-37.

Matthew 12:22 states that the scribes from Jerusalem made their accusation after the Lord healed a demon-possessed, blind, and mute man. The local scribes and Pharisees — those who had conspired with the Herodians (Mark 3:6) — may have sent to Jerusalem for support against the Lord.

Beelzebub (v.22) — The implication is that Beelzebub has Him, is using Him as his agent. The expression points to something more than an alliance, as in Matthew, to possession, and that on a grand scale: a divine possession by a base deity doubtless, god of flies or god of dung, still a god a sort of Satanic incarnation. The Jews transferred this name of a Philistine god to Satan in contempt. At all events, it is a title of the Devil. — Wuest, page 75.

ruler (v.22) = prince, the first in a series, one who is first in order of importance or power.

Here we have the case of a fallen angel, Satan, as ruler over a different order of beings than himself, the demons. In saying that Jesus cast out demons through the help of the prince of the demons, the Pharisees were arguing upon the basis of the assumption that spirits are cast out by the aid of some other spirit stronger than those ejected. the religious leaders of Israel were trying to break the force of the attesting power of our Lord’s miracles done in the energy o the Holy spirit, by saying that He performed them in dependence upon Satan, thus disproving His claims to Messiahship and linking Him with the Devil. This is the so-called unpardonable sin. It cannot be committed today, since the conditions are not here which made it possible in the first century. Our Lord is not here in humiliation attempting to gain a foothold for His claims and teaching my means of attesting miracles. — Wuest, page 76.

parables (v.23) = lit. “to throw alongside.” A parable is an illustration offered alongside a truth to explain it.

Neither kingdom nor house divided against itself can stand. And if Satan be divided against himself and his evil works, undoing the miseries and opening the eyes of men, his kingdom has a end. All the experience of the world since the beginning was proof enough that such a suicide of evil was beyond hope. The best refutation of the notion that Satan had risen up against himself and was divided was its clear expression. But what was the alternative? If Satan were not committing suicide, he was overpowered. — Chadwick, page 93.

Satan would have no motive to operate against himself or his own interests.

In verse 27, as I understand it, Satan is the strong man, and the demons were his “goods” — his equipment for furthering his ends. Jesus couldn’t cast out demons without first overpowering Satan.

blasphemes (v.28) = speak reproachfully, revile, calumniate, make a malicious misrepresentation. In this case, to intentionally deny God reverence.

In v.28, Jesus moved from reasoning with the scribes to warning them. They knew their accusations about Him casting out demons by Satan’s power were wrong. If they insisted on accusing Him of it, there were closing in on a very dangerous position — that of blaspheming God.

eternal condemnation (v.29 — sin everlasting in its guilt.