Matthew 12:25

Mat 12:25-26. And Jesus knew their thoughts — “It often happens, that through ignorance or weakness men form wrong judgments of things;” a conduct which, though censurable, admits of some excuse: “but when wrong judgments proceed from evil dispositions, then, indeed, do they become highly culpable. Therefore, to show that the judgment which the Pharisees passed at this time upon our Lord’s miracles was of the latter kind, the evangelist observes, that Jesus knew their thoughts: he knew that the wickedness of their hearts, and not the weakness of their understandings, had led them to form the opinion they had uttered, if it was their real opinion; or rather, to affirm it contrary to the conviction of their minds, which was the reason that, at the conclusion of his defence, he reprimanded them in the sharpest manner.” And said, Every kingdom divided against itself &c. — He proceeds to demonstrate the absurdity of their calumny, by an argument drawn from the common affairs of life: —

As if he had said, “If evil spirits assist me in working miracles for the confirmation of my doctrine, they do what they can to promote the spiritual worship and ardent love of the true God, and, as effectually as possible, excite men to the practice of universal justice, benevolence, temperance, and self-government; all these virtues being powerfully recommended by my doctrine. But thus to make the evil spirits fight against themselves, is evidently to make them ruin their own interest; unless it can be thought that the strength and welfare of a society is advanced by jarring discord and destructive civil wars. Your judgment, therefore, of my conduct, is palpably malicious and absurd.” — Macknight. The word Beelzebub signifies the lord or master of flies. This was the great idol of the Ekronites; and from his name we may infer that they considered him as having the command of the various insects wherewith, in those warm climates, they were infested, and which ofttimes gathered into such swarms as proved both a noisome and a deadly plague. The Greeks, likewise, had a god, whose title was μυιαργος, Muscarum venator, The destroyer of flies. But he was in no great reputation among them, their country not being subject to this sort of calamity. The Ekronites being near neighbours to the Jews, the great veneration which they had for this idol made him the object both of the horror and detestation of the devout worshippers of the true God. Accordingly, to express in what detestation they held him, they appropriated his name to the most hateful being in the universe, calling the devil, or the prince of the evil angels. Beelzebub; for the next verse shows, that Beelzebub and Satan are different names of the same person; and consequently that Satan was considered as the prince of those demons who were cast out by Christ, and who are elsewhere represented as his angels. The word in the Greek is Beelzebul, which signifies, the lord of a dunghill, and seems to be a contemptuous change of the former name, by which it was intimated, that the noblest of the heathen deities were more fit to dwell on a dunghill than to be worshipped in a magnificent temple.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 12:25. Ἐνθυμήσεις, thoughts) most bitter ones; cf. Mat 12:34-35.——βασιλεία, kingdom) First the kingdom of Satan is treated of, then his house, and, in ver 26, Satan himself; whose kingdom contains wicked men, whose house, devils.—οὐ σταθήσεται, shall not be established, shall not be made to stand) sc. by its master or lord. Ammonius[570] says: σταθῆναι μέν ἐστι τὸ ὑφʼ ἑτέρου· στῆναι δὲ, τὸ κατʼ ἰδίαν ῥώμην, καὶ προαίρεσιν, i.e. σταθῆναι is to stand by means of another, but ΣΤῆΝΑΙ is to stand by its own strength and will.

[570] Not the author of the Ammonian Sections, but AMMONIUS, the son of Hermias, a Peripatetic philosopher, disciple of Proclus, who flourished in the sixth century. His work, De differentia dictionum, is to be found in a Greek dictionary, published in folio at Venice in 1497; and it is also printed in a collection of ancient Grammarians which appeared in quarto at Leyden in 1739.—(I. B.)

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 12:25-30 . The theory shown to be absurd .

Mat 12:25 . εἰδὼς τὰς ἐνθυμήσεις . Jesus not only heard their words , but knew their thoughts, the malicious feelings which prompted their words, and strove so to present the case as to convict them of bad faith and dishonesty. πᾶσα βασιλεία , etc.: statement of an axiom widely exemplified in human affairs: division fatal to stability in kingdoms and cities. σταθήσεται : 1st future passive with an intransitive sense, vide Winer, § 38, 1.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the devil cannot consist together.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

And Jesus knew their thoughts--"called them" (Mar 3:23).

and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand--"house," that is, "household"

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 25. Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation] Our Lord's argument was thus:-"The welfare of any kingdom, city, or family, depends on its concord and unanimity; Satan, like every other potentate, must wish to rule his empire in peace and security; how then can he be in league with me, who oppose his authority, and am destroying his kingdom?"

The reasoning of the Pharisees, Mt 12:24, was not expressed, and Jesus, knowing their thoughts, gave them ample proof or his omniscience. This, with our Lord's masterly confutation of their reasonings, by a conclusion drawn from their own premises, one would have supposed might have humbled and convinced these men; but the most conclusive reasoning, and the most astonishing miracles, were lost upon a people who were obstinately determined to disbelieve every thing good, relative to Christ. How true the saying-He came unto his own, and his own received him not!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(25) Jesus knew their thoughts.—The Searcher of Hearts saw the meaning of the whispers and the looks of real or affected horror, and now enters on a full answer to the charge. Of all the accusations brought against Him this was the one that caused the greatest Pain, and drew forth the most indignant answer. He had restored peace and joy, freedom of reason and will to those who had lost them, had been doing His Father’s work on earth, and He was accused of being in league with the powers of evil. The work of healing was represented as the bait of the Tempter luring men to their final destruction.

Every kingdom divided against itself.—The answer assumes, as the teaching of the New Testament does from first to last, the existence of a kingdom of evil, compact and organised, with a distinct unity of purpose. The laws which govern the life of other kingdoms are applicable to that also. Its head and ruler was not likely to enter on a work which was self-destructive. Reason, calmness, peace, these were not his gifts to men.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25. Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation] Not that civil disputes destroy a nation, but a nation disunited, rent by factions, in the presence of a common enemy must fall. Here Satan’s kingdom is regarded as warring against the kingdom of God.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He that is not with me, is against me,.... These words chiefly refer to Satan, and are a further proof, that Christ did not cast out devils by him; since they two are as much opposites, as can possibly be; Satan is not on the side of Christ, but an adversary to him; there is an original, and implacable enmity, between the serpent and the seed of the woman; there is an open war between them, and therefore one cannot be thought to lend assistance to the other. They were concerned in different things, had different views and interests, and so took different methods;

and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth: Christ is the good shepherd, that gathers his sheep to himself, and into his fold, by the external ministry of the word, and internal efficacy of his grace; Satan is the wolf, that catches and scatters the sheep, and seeks to kill and destroy them: and since there is such an open war proclaimed and carried on between Christ and the devil, none ought to be neutral; whoever is not on the side of Christ, is reckoned as an enemy; and whoever is not concerned by prayer or preaching, or other means to gather souls to his word and ordinances, and to his church, and to himself, is deemed by him a scatterer of them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

25 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:

Ver. 25. And Jesus knew their thoughts] That they blasphemed in this sort, out of the devilish venom of their hearts fully possessed by Satan, who drew them into this unpardonable sin, which himself every day, nay, every moment, committeth. As one that had fallen into that sin, wished that his wife and children and all the world might be damned together with him; so doth the devil, out of his deep and desperate malice to mankind, draw some into this sin, that he may drown them in the same destruction with himself.

And said unto them] He could, as he did often, no doubt, have answered them with silence or punished them with contempt, committing his cause to him that judgeth righteously, he could have turned them off, as one did his railing adversary, with Tu linguae, ego aurium Dominus. (Tacitus, Seneca.) But, inasmuch as God’s glory was highly concerned, and his cause might have suffered if this cursed calmnny had not been confuted. Our Saviour makes a most grave apology in the behalf of his doctrine and miracles, which he maintains and makes good by many demonstrative arguments.

Every kingdom divided against itself] Divide et impera, saith Machiavel. Make division and get dominion. Every subdivision, saith another, is a strong weapon in the hand of the adverse party. "Where strife is" (saith James. Jas 3:16) "there is confusion;" as Castor and Pollux, if they appear not together, it presageth a storm. Si collidimur frangimur, If we clash we cleave, said the two earthen pots in the fable, that were swimming down the stream together. The daughter of division is dissolution, saith Nazianzen. {a} This the Jesuits know, and therefore do what they can to keep up the contentions between the Lutherans and the Calvinists. This the Turks know, and therefore pray to God to keep the Christians at variance. Discord was the destruction of our ancestors, as Tacitus testifieth, who was here in this island with his father-in-law Agricola, and saw it. And the Lord Rich in his speech to the Justices of England, in Edward VI’s reign, could say, Never foreign power could yet hurt, or in any part prevail in this realm, but by disobedience and disorder in themselves. This is the way wherewith God will plague us, if he mind to punish us. And so long as we do agree among ourselves and be obedient to our prince, and to his godly orders, we may be sure that God is with us, and that foreign power shall not prevail against us, nor hurt us.

{a} Omne divisibile est corruptibile, ait philosophus. Camer. Medit. Histor. cent. 2. cap. 23.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Every kingdom. Strong as a kingdom may appear, it is easily overturned by divisions; and lest it should be objected, that ruin was brought upon it by a multiplicity of clashing affairs, it is added that cities and families share the same fate, if subject to similar divisions. (St. John Chrysostom, hom. xlii). --- The Pharisees, on a former occasion, had laid a similar accusation against him. Then indeed he did not correct them, wishing them to discover his virtue from the miracles he performed, and the dignity of his character from the doctrines he delivered; but as they still continue the old accusation, he now wishes to convince them of their error. Envy does not so much seek how to speak, as what to speak. Yet Christ does not despise them, but answers them in the most meek and humble manner, teaching us to be charitable to our enemies, though they behave to us in the most inimical manner. By this also, our divine Saviour evidently demonstrates the falsity of the accusation; for it is never in the power of a possessed person to know another’s thoughts, nor give so mild an answer. And as his enemies did not dare, from fear of the people, openly to broach this base calumny, seeing their thoughts, he answered them; still he does not expose to public infamy the malice of their hearts, but gives them a private solution of their difficulty. (St. John Chrysostom in St. Thomas Aquinas)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

This is our Lord’s first argument. Mark relates it, Mar 3:23-26, with little alteration in the phrase; so doth Luke, Luk 11:17,18. The sum of the argument is, The devil is so wise, that he will look to the upholding of his own kingdom in the world. This will require an agreement of the devils amongst themselves, for if they be divided they cannot uphold their kingdom, nor stand, any more than a house, city, or kingdom in the world so divided can stand; therefore the prince of devils will not forcibly cast out the inferior devils. There is but one imaginable objection to this: Do we not see the contrary to this in people’s going to cunning men for help against those that are bewitched, to get help for them? And is there no truth in those many stories we have of persons that have found help against the devil for some that have traded with the devil? I answer, It is one thing for the devils to play one with another, another thing for them to cast out one another. One devil may yield and give place to another, to gain a greater advantage for the whole society, but one never quarrels with another. The first may be for the enlarging of Satan’s kingdom. This must be to destroy it. When a poor wretched creature goeth to one who dealeth with the devil for help for one who is vexed with some effect of the devil, one devil here doth but yield and give place to another by compact, voluntarily, and for the devil’s greater advantage; for it is more advantage to the devil (who seeks nothing so much as a divine homage) to gain the faith of one soul, than to exercise a power to afflict many bodies. In such cases as these, the devil, for the abatement of a little bodily pain, gains a power over the soul of him or her who cometh to implore his help, and exerciseth a faith in him. This is an establishing, promoting, and enlarging his kingdom. But Christ forced the devils out of persons; they did not yield voluntarily, for a greater advantage, but forcibly, for no advantage. He did not pray the devils to come out, nor make use of any of the devil’s sacraments, upon the use of which, by some original compact, he was obliged to come out upon a soul’s surrender of itself by faith to him; but they came out unwillingly, upon the authoritative words of Christ, without the use of any magical rites and ceremonies testifying the least homage done to him.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

25. Every kingdom divided against itself — Our Lord proceeds to refute the slander that he is confederated with the prince of darkness. It is plain that he is working against the evil power, He is driving the infernal power from his strongest posts, and beating him back from his boldest incursions into the world. Now this would imply that the kingdom of evil was working against itself, and that Satan was in the act of self-destruction. No doubt the kingdom of evil is the kingdom of confusion, but it cannot be conceived that it should divide against itself and one half fight for the good.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 25-37. Our Lord shows the monstrous character of their accusation, and urges the need of a complete change at heart.

(1) An a priori argument that such an action on Satan"s part, as they suppose, would be self-destructive (vers. 25, 26).

(2) An argumentum ad hominem. The Pharisees cannot logically and morally acknowledge that their disciples" miracles are performed by Divine help without acknowledging that Jesus" miracles are also. But then they ought to recognize what this implies-that the kingdom of God has come (vers. 27, 28).

(3) This last alternative is true; for how otherwise can they explain the fact of Satan"s captives being released (ver. 29)?

(4) An appeal to them and to the bystanders to be decided (ver. 30).

(5) Therefore he warns them solemnly against committing the sin for which there is no forgiveness (vers. 31, 32).

(6) Why be surprised at this language? Their words show that they need a complete change at heart (vers. 33-35).

(7) Is this to make too much of words? It is by words that men will be judged (vers. 36, 37).

Vers 25, 26, parallel passages: Mar_3:24, 25 Luk_11:17, Luk_11:18. And Jesus knew their thoughts, (Mat_9:4, note) and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. According to Mar_3:23, our Lord begins with the direct retort, "How can Satan cast out Satan?" But while that gives, of course, our Lord"s thought, it is very unlike his method, which is to begin his reply with a parabolic saying. And every city. Matthew only. Or house divided against itself. It is worth noticing that, apart from all metaphor, the peasants" houses in some districts of Palestine are built of such poor material as to easily give way and burst in half (cf. Thomson, "Land and the Book," p. 390, edit. 1887). Shall not stand. Neither kingdom, town, nor family can endure such self-destruction; no, nor an individual. There is, too, the further thought that Satan is more than a mere individual; that he is bound up with his kingdom, and his kingdom with him.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jesus knowing their thoughts - It seems they had as yet only said it in their hearts.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Christ takes them to task:

v. 25. And Jesus knew their thoughts and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:

v. 26. and if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how, then, shall his kingdom stand?

v. 27. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.

v. 28. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.

Christ not only knew of the efforts of the Pharisees to discredit Him, but as He that searches hearts and minds He knew their very words, and therefore immediately shows the foolishness of such talk, the absurdity of the accusation and its implication. Just as it is proverbially true that lack of unity and harmony disrupts a nation, and that the same condition in a household or in a community will sever the relations which make for growth and prosperity, so it is true of the kingdom of Satan. There seems to be a lurking implication in the expression of Christ: Such follies are sometimes committed by communities, civil wars being by no means unknown, although history shows the fatal consequences in scores of cases. But Satan, wicked as he is, is not such a fool. The thought that Satan would try to evict Satan or any of the devils is the height of absurdity. Give him credit for greater sharpness of wit. And Jesus strengthens His argument by showing how their accusation against Him condemns themselves. The Pharisees had children, or disciples, whom they trained to be exorcists, Act 9:13-14, who made a practice to journey through the country and attempt to drive out demons from those possessed. They used certain medicines, but depended mainly upon magical formulas, in which the name of Jehovah was freely used. The reference to these performances effectually blocked the Pharisees. To answer now meant to condemn themselves and their own practices. They were silenced, judged, and condemned by their own criticism. Jesus, however, in His extraordinary success in expelling demons, demonstrated beyond doubt that the Spirit of God was on His side, the same Spirit who, in and through Him, had brought the kingdom of God to them and sought to work faith in their hearts.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Our blessed Saviour, to clear his innocence, and to convince the Pharisees of the unreasonableness of this their calumny and false accusations, offers several arguments to their consideration.

1. That it was very unlikely that Satan should lend him this power to use it against himself. As Satan has a kingdom, so he has wit enough to preserve his kingdom, and will do nothing to weaken his own interest. Now if I have received my power from Satan for destroying him and his kingdom, then is Satan divided against himself.

2. Our Saviour tells them, they might with as much reason attribute all miracles to the devil, as those that were wrought by him. There were certain Jews among themselves, who cast out devils in the name of the God of Abaraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Christ asks the Pharisees, by what power these their children cast them out?

They acknowledged that those did it by the power of God; and there was no cause but their malice, why they should not acknowledge that what he did was by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you: that is, the Messias is come, because he wrought these miracles to prove that he was the Messias.

3. Another argument to prove that the miracles which Christ wrought were by the power of God, and not by the help of Satan, is this: The devil is very strong and powerful, and there is no power but God’s only that is stronger than his: Now, says Christ, If I were not assisted by a divine power, I could never cast out this strong man, who reigns in the world as in his house: it must be a stronger than the strong man that shall bind Satan: and who is he but the God of strength?

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25. Knowing their thoughts. They had not made this charge to Christ, but to the multitudes. Every kingdom divided against itself. A general truth is stated. Most states and kingdoms fall, not by the power of foreign enemies, but by the weakness due to divisions.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

25. πᾶσα βασιλεία μερισθεῖσα κ.τ.λ. Not that civil disputes destroy a nation, but a nation disunited, rent by factions, in the presence of a common enemy must fall. Here Satan’s kingdom is regarded as warring against the kingdom of God.

Observe the gradation of βασιλεία—πόλις—οἰκία—Σατανᾶς; it is a climax; the smaller the community the more fatal the division. Division in an individual is a contradiction in terms.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25.] The Pharisees said this covertly to some among the multitude; see Luke, vv. 15, 17. “There is at first sight a difficulty in the argument which our Saviour draws from the oneness of the kingdom of Satan: viz. that it seems the very idea of this kingdom, that it should be this anarchy; blind rage and hate not only against God, but each part of it warring against every other part. And this is most deeply true, that hell is as much in arms against itself as against Heaven: neither does our Lord deny that in respect of itself that kingdom is infinite contradiction and division: only He asserts that in relation to the kingdom of goodness it is at one: there is one life in it and one soul in relation to that. Just as a nation or kingdom may embrace within itself infinite parties, divisions, discords, jealousies, and heart-burnings: yet, if it is to subsist as a nation at all, it must not, as regards other nations, have lost its sense of unity; when it does so, of necessity it falls to pieces and perishes.” Trench, Miracles, p. 58. We may observe (1) that our Lord here in the most solemn manner re-asserts and confirms the truths respecting the kingdom of evil which the Jews also held. The βασιλεῖαι are so set parallel with one another, that the denial of the reality of the one with its ἄρχων, or the supposing it founded merely in assent on the part of our Lord to Jewish notions, inevitably brings with it the same conclusions with regard to the other. They are both real, and so is the conflict between them. (2) That our Lord here appeals not to an insulated case of casting out of devils, in which answer might have been made, that the craft of Satan might sometimes put on the garb and arts of an adversary to himself, for his own purposes,—but to the general and uniform tenor of all such acts on his part, in which He was found as the continual Adversary of the kingdom of Satan. (3) That our Lord proceeds to shew that the axiom is true of all human societies, even to a family, the smallest of such. (4) That He does not state the same of an individual man, ‘Every man divided against himself falleth,’ rests upon deeper grounds, which will be entered on in the notes on vv. 30, 31.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(M) 25. And knowing their thoughts, He said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is made desolate; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.] Mk. has: “And having called them, He was saying to them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom be divided against (ἐπί) itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house shall not be able to stand.” Lk. agrees closely with Mt. in omitting the summoning of the disciples, in substituting the knowledge of the thoughts of the Pharisees, and in combining Mk.’s two analogies into one clause. “But He (αὐτός), knowing their thoughts (διανοήματα), said to them, Every kingdom divided (διαμερισθεῖσα) against itself (ἐφʼ ἑαυτήν as in Mk., Mt. has καθʼ ἑαυτῆς) is made desolate, and house falls on house,” or “a house (divided) against a house falls.”—οἶκος] Mt. and Mk. have οἰκία. Wellhausen argues that “house” in Aramaic, and so here, means “a political territory,” as in “house of Lysanias.” This would give an appropriate meaning in Mt. No kingdom torn by internal dissension can escape devastation. And no city or State so divided can long maintain its independent existence. Lk.’s source seems to have differed here from Mt.’s.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.