Matthew 12:22-24 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Then was brought unto him Namely, By the person's friends, one possessed with a devil, blind and dumb Many, no doubt, supposed these defects to be merely natural: but the Spirit of God saw otherwise, and gives the true account, both of the disorder and the cure. How many other disorders, seemingly natural, may even now be owing to the same cause! And he healed him He immediately expelled the evil spirit, and in an instant removed the effects of his diabolical influence: And all the people were amazed At so extraordinary a miracle, by which the noblest sense, and likewise the most useful faculty of the human body, were restored together: and said, Is not this the Son of David? that is, The Messiah. But when the Pharisees Who were present, and the scribes, who had come down from Jerusalem, heard it, that is, heard this natural reflection of the people, and observed that they were beginning to infer, from the wonderful miracles which they saw Jesus perform, that he was the expected Messiah; fearing lest such a belief, if it should gain ground, would put an end to their credit with, and authority over, the people, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils but by Beelzebub, &c. Thus giving the most malicious and unreasonable turn to the matter which could be imagined.