the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — accusative plural masculine
said
ἔλεγενelegen
G3004
properly · verb — imperfect active indicative, 3rd person singular
them
αὐτοῖς·autois
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — dative plural masculine
in
ἐνen
G1722
"in · preposition
parables
παραβολαῖςparabolais
G3850
a similitude ("parable") · noun — dative plural feminine
How
πῶςpōs
G4459
an interrogative particle of manner · particle — interrogative
can
δύναταιdunatai
G1410
to be able or possible · verb — present middle or passive deponent indicative, 3rd person singular
Satan
σατανᾶςsatanas
G4567
the accuser · noun — nominative singular masculine, a title
cast out
ἐκβάλλειν;ekballein
G1544
to eject (literally or figuratively) · verb — present active infinitive
Satan
σατανᾶνsatanan
G4567
the accuser · noun — accusative singular masculine, a title
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Matthew 12:25-30 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house di…
Luke 11:17-23 But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a…
Matthew 13:34 All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:
Matthew 4:10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Mark 4:2 And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,
Psalms 49:4 I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Mark 3:22-30
I. Here is, The impudent impious brand which the scribes fastened upon Christ's casting out devils, that they might evade and invalidate the conviction of it, and have a poor excuse for not yielding to it. These scribes came down from Jerusalem, Mar 3:22. It should seem they came this long journey on purpose to hinder the progress of the doctrine of Christ; such pains did they take to do mischief; and, coming from Jerusalem, where were the most polite and learned scribes, and where they had opportunity of consulting together against the Lord and his Anointed, they were in the greater capacity to do mischief; the reputation of scribes from Jerusalem would have an influence not only upon the c…
And he called them unto him,.... The Jerusalem Scribes, to come nearer to him, and attend to what he had to say in defence of his character and miracles:
and said unto them in parables: similitudes, and proverbial expressions, as the following seem to be,
how can Satan cast out Satan? or one devil cast out another? how unreasonable is it to suppose it? can it ever be thought that such, whose interest it is to unite, would ever oppose and dispossess one another? if therefore, as if he should say, I am Beelzebub, or have him, and he is in me, and I am in confederacy with him; was this the case, can any think I should ever cast him out of others, as I do?
John Calvin on Mark 3:23-30
Mark 3:23-30
Matthew 12:25-32
Mark 3:23-30
Luke 11:16-23
25. But as Jesus knew their thoughts, he said to them, [108] Every kingdom divided against itself shall be laid waste; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. 26. And if Satan casteth out Satan, he is divided against himself, and how then shall his kingdom stand? 27. And if I, by the assistance of Beelzebub, cast out devils, by whose assistance do your children cast them out? therefore they shall judge concerning you. [109] 28. But if by the Spirit of God I cast out devils, then the kingdom of God has come to you. 29. Otherwise, how can a man enter into the house of a strong man, and pillage his property, un…
The Church Fathers
(Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.) The blasphemy of the Scribes having been detailed, our Lord shows that what they said was impossible, confirming His proof by an example. Wherefore it says, And having called them together unto him, he said unto them in parables. How can Satan cast out Satan? As if He had said, A kingdom divided against itself by civil war must be desolated, which is exemplified both in a house and in a city. Wherefore also if Satan's kingdom be divided against itself, so that Satan expels Satan from men, the desolation of the kingdom of the devils is at hand. But their kingdom consists in keeping men under their dominion. If therefore they are driven away from men, it amounts to nothing less than the dissolution of their kingdom. But if they still hold their power over men, it is manifest that the kingdom of evil is still standing, and Satan is not divided against himself.
Now as for the Lord's saying: "Satan cannot drive out Satan," lest perhaps anyone using the name of some of the lowest powers when driving out a demon should think this opinion of the Lord's to be false, let him understand the point of this saying: Satan does spare the body or the senses of the body, but he tempts the senses for the purpose of dominating the will of the man in question, in a triumph of greater import, through the error of impiety. Satan does not strike for the body as such, but rather for the innermost self in order to work in him in the manner described by the apostle: "according to the prince of the power of this air, who is now active in the sons of disobedience." For Satan was not troubling and tormenting the senses of their bodies, nor was he battering their bodies, but he was reigning in their wills, or better, in their covetousness.
And calling them together, he said to them in parables: How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. A kingdom and city divided against itself cannot persist. But just as small things grow through harmony, so the greatest things fall apart through discord (Sallust). Therefore, if Satan fights against himself, and a demon is an enemy of another demon, the end of the world should already have come so that adversarial powers would not have a place in it, since war among them means peace for humans. But if you think, O Scribes and Pharisees, that the departure of demons is due to obedience to their prince, to deceive ignorant men with fraudulent simulation, what can you say about the health of bodies, which the Lord has brought about. It is one thing if you assign to demons also the weaknesses of members and the signs of spiritual powers. And if Satan has risen up against himself, he is divided, and he cannot stand, but has an end. By saying this, he wanted to be understood from their own confession that by not believing in him they had chosen to be in the kingdom of the devil, which surely could not stand divided against itself. Therefore, let the Pharisees choose what they will. If Satan cannot cast out Satan, they could find nothing to say against the Lord. But if he can, they should more carefully consider themselves, and depart from his kingdom, which cannot stand divided against itself.
Dictionary and topics
Parable — (Gr. parabole), a placing beside; a comparison; equivalent to the Heb. mashal, a similitude. In the Old Testament this is used to denote (1) a proverb (1 Sam. 10:12; 24:13; 2 Chr. 7:20), (2) a…
Demons · Jesus falsely accused of being possessed of — Jesus falsely accused of being possessed of
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
