Matius 12:15

God’s Special Servant

12:15 Now when Jesus learned of this, he went away from there. Great ¹  crowds ²  followed him, and he healed them all.

Matius 12:24

12:24 But when the Pharisees ³  heard this they said, “He does not cast out demons except by the power of Beelzebul, ⁴  the ruler ⁵  of demons!”

Matius 23:25

23:25 “Woe to you, experts in the law ⁶  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

[12:15]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[12:15]  ² tc א B pc lat read only πολλοί (polloi, “many”) here, the first hand of N reads ὄχλοι (ocloi, “crowds”), while virtually all the rest of the witnesses have ὄχλοι πολλοί (ocloi polloi, “great crowds”). In spite of the good quality of both א and B (especially in combination), and the testimony of the Latin witnesses, the longer reading is most likely correct; the shorter readings were probably due to homoioteleuton.

[12:24]  ³ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

[12:24]  ⁴ tn Grk “except by Beelzebul.”

[12:24]  sn Beelzebul is another name for Satan. So some people recognized Jesus’ work as supernatural, but called it diabolical.

[12:24]  ⁵ tn Or “prince.”

[23:25]  ⁶ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.