Matthew 12:27 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

By whom do your children, &c.— Your sons, υιοι. Dr. Chandler paraphrases the verse thus: "You do not impute the miracles of your prophets to Beelzebub, but, on the evidence of these miracles, you receive them as the messengers of God; nevertheless you reject me, who work greater and more numerous miracles than they, and impute them to the power of evil spirits. Is this conduct of a piece? Wherefore these prophets shall be your judges; they shall condemn you." Others, however, suppose, and, as it seems to me, with better reason, that by your sons is meant your disciples, or your countrymen in general; for that manyof the Jews did at this time attempt tocast out devils, is plain from Mark 9:38. Luke 9:49. Acts 19:13 and Josephus, Antiq. lib. viii. c. 2. Calvin thinks that God conferred a power of this kind on some particular persons among the Jews anciently, that, by thus proving his presence among them, he might retain the nation in the faith of his covenant; and that the people, having experienced God's power in those instances, came foolishly to institute for themselves the office of an exorcist. Agreeably to this it may be observed, that our Lord's argument does not require that the demons were actually expelled by these exorcists; it is sufficient that the Jews thought they were expelled, and did not condemn those pretended miracles, as they did Christ's real ones. See Whitby and Grotius on the place.