Mark, Matthew and Luke: Developing a narrative of casting out demons: bar Cochba, Hadrian and Satan

Mark 3:22-7

And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.

Matthew 12:22-30

Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. And all the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?” But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

Luke 11:14-23

Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,” while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

The Hebrew equivalent of “parable” is “mashal” a tale of seeming;  “mashal” as a verb, means “he appeared” (Hebrew verbs are identified by the third person masculine, singular, active, past tense, rather than by the infinitive). 

This parshah is interesting for several reasons:  it is one of the passages in the synoptic gospels in which we can see the progression of development of a narrative.  The Markan version is short and to the point.  The Matthean version tell us that blind and mute man was possessed by a demon, and has the Pharisees claiming that Jesus casts out demons because he is aided by Beelzebul.  The “mashal” Jesus presents them with is of a man who must be bound in order to be subdued.   In the Lukan version, the demon is mute, and the people opine that Jesus is able to cast out demons because he is assisted by Beelzebul, and the strong man of the mashal is overcome by a stronger man who disarms and despoils him.

Beelxebul does not appear in TaNaKh.  Ha-Satan, as we have noted, means “the adversary” and first appears in Job as the being which attempts to get Job to curse God.  We have noted how the representation of Satan changed in the Pauline letters from a character consistent with that found in the book of Job, to a character of evil, which is not consistent with the book of Job.  From the manner in which Satan is referred to in these three narratives, it would seem that they were written after the character of Satan had been revised from the Adversary of TaNaKh into the demonic wrong-doer of the latter, Philo-influenced (or Philo derived) Pauline letters.  Since I have yet to encounter Philo’s treatment of Satan, it is possible that that interpretation has its origins with him.

Despite these caveats, we can note that Jesus tells his audience of Judeans that a house divided against itself cannot stand.  This would appear to be consistent with bar Cochba-era rhetoric, attempting to unify Judea against a common adversary:  Hadrian (the evil Satan who nearly annihilated a people).