Monday January 22
They were a delegation of scribes from the capital to question Jesus; it looks like an enquiry. They came fully equipped with a pre-judgment: that his power was an evil power; “it is by the Prince of devils that he casts out devils!” Beelzebul was a God of the Canaanites (a people ejected from their land by the Jews of old). The name means ‘Baal the Prince’, so the Jews interpreted it contemptuously as meaning ‘Prince of devils’. The form ‘Beelzebub’, which occurs in some versions, is a further twist, and it means ‘Prince (or Lord) of the Flies’. (This mocking pun is seen, for example, in 2 Kings 1:2) Now you know how William Golding’s novel got its name! That is a book about the corruption of human nature, showing how a group of relatively civilized boys can quickly descend to savagery. This delegation from Jerusalem had no hesitation in identifying the Lord of Life with the Lord of the Flies. That is the sin against the Holy Spirit, to call good evil and evil good.
