Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Luke 11:14-26, By Beelzebul, or by the finger of God?
When Jesus drives out a demon that kept a man from speaking, some say he does it by Beelzebul, the ruler of demons. He answers that a divided kingdom falls, and that if he drives out demons by the finger of God, God's kingdom has come.
Luke 11:14-26, in every translation this tool compares.
After Jesus frees a man who could not speak from a demon, some accuse him of working by the power of Beelzebul, while others demand a heavenly sign as proof. Jesus replies that a kingdom at war with itself cannot stand, so Satan would not be expelling his own forces, and that if he acts by God's finger then God's rule has already arrived. He pictures a strong man's house raided by someone stronger, and warns that an evil spirit driven out can return with worse company if the house is left empty.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-satan\/","n":"The satan, the tempter","s":"The accuser, tempter and deceiver of Jewish belief, seen as the power behind human and political evil. In the Gospels he tests Jesus and is the strong man Jesus binds, and John calls him the ruler of this world.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/kingdom-of-god\/","n":"God's kingdom","s":"Kingdom meant God's reign, God becoming king in fact. It was the good news Isaiah promised, and in Jesus' day it was also a slogan.","r":""}
Most pagan exorcists used incantations, and rabbis of the second century still accused Jesus and his followers of sorcery (Keener). Strauss, in the Zondervan backgrounds commentary, explains the name: Baal-Zebul probably means Baal the prince or Baal of the exalted house, which Israel mocked as Baal-Zebub, lord of the flies. Your sons means members of your own group, some of whom also cast out demons (Keener). The finger of God recalls Exodus 8:19, where Pharaoh's magicians, unable to copy Moses, admit that God is at work (Keener and his notes). Magicians tried to bind spirits into their service, but Keener's notes read the strong man as the devil and the plundering as God's promise in Isaiah 49:25 to rescue his people from the powerful one. Luke's strong man is a picture of war, two lords fighting over a castle, where Mark's is a house robbery (Strauss). Heiser observes that Luke 11:18 is the only verse in the Bible that names Satan and demons together. Wright reads the saying with Luke 10:18: Jesus claimed he had already met the prince of demons and beaten him, so his exorcisms showed the true battle being won.
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Luke 11:20 and 11:21
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Luke 11:14-16, 11:19 and 11:20
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 37, This Means War
- N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, ch. 10, (a) The Beelzebul Controversy
- Mark L. Strauss, Luke, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Luke 11:21 and sidebars Beelzebub, the Prince of Demons and Demonization and Exorcism in the First Century
