Marcos 3

Marcos 3

Guzik points out "This wasn’t the only time Jesus was insulted like this. “He has a demon and is mad. Why do you listen to Him?” (John 10:20) “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” (John 8:48) “We were not born of fornication.” (John 8:41) “A glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ (Luke 7:34) “You have a demon.” (John 7:20) (Mark 3 Commentary) Note that in response to His words in John 10:7-18, 19, "Many of them (THE JEWS) were saying, “He has a demon and is insane (“He is demon-possessed and raving mad”). Why do you listen to Him?” (John 10:20) Beelzebul (sometimes "Beelzebub")(954)(beelzeboul, variant reading Beelzebub after an error in the Latin Vulgate. Transliterated from Hebrew Ba'al Zebub) originally referred to a Philistine deity which in Hebrew meant "Baal (lord) of flies" (2 Ki 1:2, 6), the "fly-baal," or "fly-god," whose office was to protect his worshippers from the torment of the gnats and flies with which that region was infested. In Jesus' day this so-called false god is derisively called Beel-zebul (NIV Beelzebub), "lord of dung." In Jesus' reply to the accusation of the Jews in Mt 12:24 that He cast out demons by Beelzebul, He answers in Mt 12:26 substituting the name Satan which clearly identifies the Jewish references to Beelzebul as another name for Satan."The Jews seem to have applied this appellation to Satan, as being the author of all the pollutions and abominations of idol-worship." (Am Tract Society) This Greek word is not in the Septuagint. There are 7 NT uses - Matt. 10:25+ = Jesus accused of being the embodiment of Satan!!!; Matt. 12:24+; Matt. 12:27+; Mk. 3:22+; Lk. 11:15+; Lk. 11:18+; Lk. 11:19+. Jesus, rejecting His accuser's false charges, pointed out that the expulsion of demons was Satan's defeat, heralding the arrival of God's kingdom (see Luke 11:20-22+). (See Got Questions entry below) It is interesting that the name Baalzebul also appears in the Ras Shamra tablets, where it is used of a Canaanite deity and seems to have the meaning “lord of the high place” or “lord of the dwelling.” Baker Evangelical Dictionary Beelzebub Bridgeway Bible Dictionary Beelzebul Fausset Bible Dictionary Beelzebul Hastings' Dictionary of the NT Beelzebub or Beelzebul Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia Beelzebul Holman Bible Dictionary Beelzebub International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Beelzebub McClintock and Strong's Bible Encyclopedia Beelzebub (has a picture of an ancient seal thought to be representation of Beelzebul) The Jewish Encyclopedia Beelzebub Gilbrant has an in depth discussion of beelzeboul - Beelzeboul was a name Jews gave to “the prince of devils” (Matthew 12:24; Mark 3:22; cf. Luke 11:15), that is, Satan. The term does not appear outside the Synoptic Gospels except in later writings based on them. To show contempt for Jesus the Pharisees called Him this name— along with “gluttonous,” “winebibber” (Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:34), and “Samaritan” (John 8:48). According to them not only did Jesus have a demon (Mark 3:30; John 8:48,49,52; 10:20,21; compare Matthew 11:17; Luke 7:33) that made Him crazy (John 10:20), but He exorcised demons by the power of this prince of demons (Matthew 9:34; 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15). The Gospels record two, if not three, occasions when the Jews tried to discount Jesus’ miracles by saying that He was in league with the devil: (1) Matthew 9:32-34; (2) Matthew 12:22-37 (cf. Mark 3:19-30); (3) Luke 11:14-26 (may parallel number 2). Beelzeboul occurs seven times in the last three passages, plus Matthew 10:24-33 recounts a private discussion with Jesus’ disciples about some previous instance of this same slander. The term also appears in the actual episode Matthew 9 refers to and may be what Jesus meant in Matthew 10. At any rate, the religious leaders used this epithet to create sentiment against Jesus. The word itself has several interesting features. Beelzeboul is pronounced almost as a four syllable compound word (the first half has a vowel glide from long to short “e”): Bē-ĕl + ze-boul. A number of spellings appear in English versions depending on how the translators decided to represent the Greek sounds with English letters, on what manuscripts they followed, and on whether they chose to represent the name in its Hebrew or Aramaic form. The first half of the word comes from the Canaanite deity Baal, spelled “Beel” in Aramaic, the language that largely replaced Hebrew among the Jews after the Babylonian Captivity; consequently, the full designation appears both as Beelzeboul and Baalzeboul. Baal means “lord,” or “master.” The last syllable is zeboul or zebul depending again on how translators represent the Greek vowel sound in English letters. A greater issue lies behind the difference between Beelzebul and Beelzebub. In all seven places the ancient Syriac translation, the Latin Vulgate, and a few Greek manuscripts have the latter reading. Most modern textual critics have concluded that the original Greek text, however, carried -bul. Beelzebub was the name of a pagan god worshiped in Ekron (2 Kings 1:2,3,6,16). When Ahaziah, king of Israel, severely injured himself in a fall, he tried to consult this deity to see whether he would live (Ed: Before we are too hard on Ahaziah, how often is our first reaction to go to sources other than God when confronted with adversity, affliction, etc?). Zebub, the Hebrew word for “fly,” is translated in the Septuagint which then reads “Baal muian (Ed: muia = fly)” in the four verses of 1 Kings 2. “Lord of the fly,” or “Fly-god,” might refer to the shape of the idol, to the god’s oracles supposedly given by the flight pattern or buzzing of flies, to the swarming of flies around sacrifices offered to him, or to a god that protected from flies and diseases associated with them (for example, the Greek god Zeus Apomyios, “Fly-Averting Zeus”), or to the Roman god Myagros. If the term for “the prince of demons” has any connection with the god mentioned in 2 Kings, the question is how the shift between Beelzebub and Beelzebul happened. The least likely conjecture is that since the Ras Shamra literature mentions a Canaanite god Baalzebul, Baalzebub is an intentional corruption of that name written into the original Old Testament text itself. In that case, zebul may have derived from a Hebrew word root meaning “habitation” (see Psalm 49:15); Baalzebul could then mean “Lord of the Habitation/Temple” or even “Lord of the High Place.” Calling the god of Ekron “Lord of Flies” instead in 2 Kings 1 and later labeling Satan with that name would have been a derogatory shift to Baalzebub. Applying Beelzebub to Jesus would carry a double sting—calling Him the devil and doing so with a derogatory term. The difficulty here is that the correct reading in the New Testament is almost certainly Beelzebul. A New Testament textual shift to -bub under the influence of 2 Kings is understandable, but one wonders what could explain the opposite shift during the textual history of Greek Gospels. Especially in post-Biblical rabbinic writings, the Hebrew root meaning “habitation” had another derived meaning, “manure.” It has been frequently suggested that Baalzebub was in fact the name of the god in Ekron and that later Jews caricatured it into a similar sounding name for Satan: “Lord of the Manure Pile” since manure draws flies; so the shift between Beelzebub and Beelzebul would have taken place in the opposite direction from the first scenario. The “double cut” against Jesus, then, would almost have involved a vulgar name. One last option has been to dissociate the Gospel accounts from the “Beelzebub” of 2 Kings 2 and to simply say that Beelzebul, “Lord of the Temple/Habitation,” was a name Jews used for Satan, a name not in itself particularly derogatory but one that recalled the pagan practices of ancient Canaanite religion and identified them with “the prince of demons.” The application to Jesus, then, would be derogatory insofar as He was being called the devil. Under this explanation commentators have seen special appropriateness in Jesus’ comments to His disciples in Matthew 10:25, “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” In all this ambiguity the central point is clear. The religious leaders were trying to denigrate Jesus’ miracles by associating them with the power of Satan. Accordingly, in Matthew 12:31,32 and Mark 3:28-30 the Lord warned them that assigning to Satan miracles by which the Spirit bore witness to Jesus is blasphemy of the Spirit, a sin which is not forgiven in this age or in the one to come.(Complete Biblical Library Greek-English Dictionary) THOUGHT - Do you recognize the words “Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me.” Those words are from the classic rock song by Queen called, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Here's the message - be careful regarding the secular songs you listen to. They may well have a message that you should not be hearing! And “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons - ASV = "By the prince of the demons." The New Living Translation renders it this way: “He’s possessed by Satan, the prince of demons. That’s where he gets the power to cast out demons.” This is the same accusation made in Mt 9:34+ where "the Pharisees were saying, “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.” He refers to this accusation in Matthew 10:25+ declaring "“It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household!" Note that casts out is in the present tense which is clear admission by the scribes that demons were continually being cast out by Jesus! They did not argue with the evidence of His power, but with the source of His power. They hand was forced because if it was not demonic, it had to be divine and they would have none of that! This is the second specific charge by the scribes against Jesus in which they seek to attribute Jesus work to a satanic source. In essence the scribes were saying Jesus was in league with Satan in a sense serving as Satan's subordinate! Amazingly absurd and inconsistent with all reason, logic, and common sense!