(On the relation of this verse to Matthew 9:34, see notes there.) But when the Pharisees. Not further defined here, but in Mark 3:22 spoken of as "the scribes that had come down from Jerusalem." Heard it, they said, This fellow; man (Revised Version); οὗτος (cf.
Matthew 9:3, note). Observe that οὗτος (in Matthew only) here answers to the οὗτος of Mark 3:23. "This man" is at once the object of hope in the minds of the multitudes, and of the deepest opposition on the part of the Pharisees.
Doth not cast out devils, but. In the parallel passages there is merely a direct assertion that he does it by Beelzebub; here there is a denial of his power to do it by any other agency. Does Matthew's version express rather the process of their deliberation, and that of Mark and Luke the final result?
(On the Jewish tradition that our Lord performed miracles by magic, see Matthew 2:14, note, and Lightfoot, 'Hor. Hebr.,' here.) By; in, Revised Version, margin (Matthew 9:34, note). Beelzebub (Matthew 10:25, note).
The prince. Better omit the article, ἄρχοντι giving, so to speak, his official title. Of the devils.