And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive them out? So then, they will be your judges.
Parallel translations
- WEB But if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore will they be your judges.
- KJV And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges.
- NKJV And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.
- NASB Yet if by Beelzebul I cast out the demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges.
- NLT And if I am empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcists? They cast out demons, too, so they will condemn you for what you have said.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus notes that their own people also cast out demons, so by whose power do they do it? Their charge condemns themselves.
Overview
By appealing to Jewish exorcists among their own, Jesus exposes the inconsistency of crediting his works to Satan. If such acts are not demonic in their own people, neither are his. Their own practitioners become witnesses against their slander.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Luke 9:49“Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not accompany us.”
- Job 15:6Your own mouth, not mine, condemns you; your own lips testify against you.
- Matt 12:27–28And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive them out? So then, they will be your judges.
- Luke 19:22His master replied, ‘You wicked servant, I will judge you by your own words. So you knew that I am a harsh man, withdrawing what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow?
- Luke 11:31–32The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and now One greater than Solomon is here.
- Matt 12:41–42The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now One greater than Jonah is here.
- Rom 3:19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 11:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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