Luke 11:15

But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:14-26 Christ's thus casting out the devils, was really the destroying of their power. The heart of every unconverted sinner is the devil's palace, where he dwells, and where he rules. There is a kind of peace in the heart of an unconverted soul, while the devil, as a strong man armed, keeps it. The sinner is secure, has no doubt concerning the goodness of his state, nor any dread of the judgment to come. But observe the wonderful change made in conversion. The conversion of a soul to God, is Christ's victory over the devil and his power in that soul, restoring the soul to its liberty, and recovering his own interest in it and power over it. All the endowments of mind of body are now employed for Christ. Here is the condition of a hypocrite. The house is swept from common sins, by a forced confession, as Pharaoh's; by a feigned contrition, as Ahab's; or by a partial reformation, as Herod's. The house is swept, but it is not washed; the heart is not made holy. Sweeping takes off only the loose dirt, while the sin that besets the sinner, the beloved sin, is untouched. The house is garnished with common gifts and graces. It is not furnished with any true grace; it is all paint and varnish, not real nor lasting. It was never given up to Christ, nor dwelt in by the Spirit. Let us take heed of resting in that which a man may have, and yet come short of heaven. The wicked spirits enter in without any difficulty; they are welcomed, and they dwell there; there they work, there they rule. From such an awful state let all earnestly pray to be delivered.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See this passage explained in the notes at Matthew 12:22-30.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Lu 11:14-36. Blind and Dumb Demoniac Healed—Charge of Being in League with Hell, and Reply—Demand of a Sign, and Reply.

(See on [1635]Mt 12:22-45.)

14. dumb—blind also (Mt 12:22).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 15-23. See Poole on "Matthew 9:34". See Poole on "Matthew 12:24", and following verses to Matthew 12:30. See Poole on "Mark 3:22", and following verses to Mark 3:27.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But some of them said,.... The Pharisees, Matthew 9:34 Matthew 12:24 who could not bear that he should be thought to be the Messiah, and therefore put an ill construction on the miracle:

he casteth out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of devils; in several copies he is called Beelzebul, and in the Arabic and Ethiopic versions; which last adds these words, "and he answered and said, how can Satan cast out Satan?" See Gill on Matthew 12:20.

Geneva Study Bible

{3} But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils.

(3) An example of horrible blindness, and such as cannot be healed, when the power of God is blasphemed by an evil conscience and pretended malice.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. some of the?n said] We learn from St Matthew (Matthew 12:24) that this notable suggestion emanated from “the Pharisees” and, as St Mark (Luke 3:20) adds, from “the scribes which came from Jerusalem,” i.e. the spies who had been expressly sent down by the ruling hierarchs to dog the footsteps of Jesus, and counteract His influence. The explanation was too ingeniously wicked and cleverly plausible to come from the more unsophisticated Pharisees of Galilee.

Beelzebub] The name and reading are involved in obscurity. In 2 Kings 1:3 we are told that Beelzebub was god of Ekron; and the LXX. and Josephus (Antt. ix. 2,§ 1) understood the name to mean ‘lord of flies.’ He may have been a god worshipped to avert the plagues of flies on the low sea-coast like Zeus Apomuios (Averter of flies) and Apollo Ipuktonos (Slayer of vermin). But others interpret the name to mean ‘lord of dung,’ and regard it as one of the insulting nicknames which the Jews from a literal rendering of Exodus 23:13 felt bound to apply to heathen deities. In this place perhaps Beelzebub is the true reading, and that means ‘lord of the (celestial) habitation,’ i.e. prince of the air, Ephesians 2:3. Possibly the οἰκοδεσπότης of Matthew 10:25 is an allusion to this meaning. In any case the charge was the same as that in the Talmud that Jesus wrought His miracles (which the Jews did not pretend to deny) by magic.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 11:15. Τινὲς, some) Their objection is met in Luke 11:17-18. [They were not able to deny some agency being at work superior to nature.—V. g.]

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils. The accusation seems to have been whispered among the people by the Pharisee emissaries from the capital; the words of the charge were evidently not addressed to Jesus. These men could not deny the reality of the work of healing, so they tried to suggest that the great Healer had dealings with some great evil angel, whom they call, from some old Jewish tradition, Beelzebub. In 2 Kings 1:3 we read that this idol-deity was the god of Ekron. The name signifies "lord of flies." He was very likely worshipped in the low-lying cities of the sea-coast of Philistia as a god who would be likely to avert the plague of flies and insects which infested that locality. So Zeus was adored as Apomuios (the averter of flies), and Apollo as Ipuktonos (the slayer of vermin). Luke 11:15

Vincent's Word Studies

Beelzebub

See on Matthew 10:25.