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Dear Father Angelo,

I have saved the Dominicans’ website and when I need explanations I browse the answers already available there .

At the moment, I am looking at the following verse: “And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? Therefore they will be your judges.” (Mt 12,27).

Since I did not find an explanation for it, could you please elucidate it for me ?

Priest’s answer

Dear Friend,

1. the context of the Gospel verse that you mentioned refers to what Jesus was doing: He performed miracles and these were undeniable, they were there for all to see and in a permanent manner.

Nonetheless, the Jews accused Him of performing them with a strength that came from the worst of demons, namely Beelzebul.

To them the Lord answers: “And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? Therefore they will be your judges” (Mt 12:27).

2. In this way, Jesus recalls that even among the Jews exorcisms were practiced by invoking the name of God.

“Your children”: this is a Hebrew expression for disciples.

Saint Luke in the Acts of the Apostles reports that “Then some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those with evil spirits” (Acts 19:13).

This makes it clear that they were exorcists even before  the name of Jesus was known and they were such by profession.

The Gospel of Mark also speaks of someone who drove out demons using the name of Jesus (cf. Mk 9:38).

3. Exorcisms were already performed in the Old Testament. The historian Josephus Flavius, speaking of Solomon, reports that “he distanced himself not a little but very far even from the Egyptians, of whom it is said that in intelligence they surpassed all men” and that he had composed exorcism formulas (Jewish Antiquities, VIII,2,5). T-N

4. Here are his exact words: “God granted him the knowledge of the art to be used against demons for the relief and benefit of men; he composed magical formulas for the cure of infirmities, and left various forms of exorcisms by which demons are driven out of those who are possessed by them, and they do not return. And this kind of therapy has great power even in our days: I have seen a certain Eleazar, my compatriot, who in the presence of Vespasian, his sons, the tribunes and many soldiers, freed those possessed by demons; and the modalities of the therapy were these: he brought close to the nose of the possessed person a ring which had under its seal one of the roots prescribed by Solomon; and in the act of the man sniffing, he expelled the demon from his nostrils, and immediately, when the man fell, he, speaking in the name of Solomon, reciting magical formulas composed by himself, conjured the demon never to return. Then, wishing to persuade the bystanders and to show them that he had such power, Eleazar placed nearby a cup or basin full of water and ordered the demon to come out of the man and overturn it, thus making it clear to the spectators that he had left the man” (Ib.). T-N

5. The editor of the Utet edition of Jewish Antiquities, Luigi Moraldi, observes that in the Old Testament “the Bible says nothing about this power of demons: it is however part of the Jewish tradition; cf. the apocryphal work Testament of Solomon, which most likely dates back to the beginnings of Christianity, but with vast, much older roots” (Ib.).

6. Bringing it back to us, Jesus answers: if you attribute the work of your exorcists to God, why do you attribute mine  to the prince of demons ?

For this reason, Jesus says, your children will judge your judgment to be partial, which is therefore clearly unjust.

7. Jesus then goes on to say: “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Mt 12:28).

As if to say: you yourselves see that I cast out demons with the power that comes from God. I do not invoke Beelzebul. This is the clearest sign that the kingdom of God has come among you.

After all, how could Beelzebul give me the strength to cast out his friends, the demons?

He would shoot himself in the foot because “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste” (Mt 12:25).

Wishing that you will always be freed from every evil of diabolical origin, I bless you and remember you in prayer.

Father Angelo