Healing the Mute Demoniac #23

The healing of the mute demoniac is the account of Jesus driving a demon out of a man who could not speak, so that the man spoke, and of the controversy that follows over the source of Jesus’s power. It appears in Matthew 9:32-34, in a longer form in Matthew 12:22-32, and in Luke 11:14-23. Mark records the same accusation without the healing (Mark 3:22-30).

The Account

In Matthew 9, right after the healing of the two blind men, a demon-oppressed man who was mute is brought to Jesus. The demon is cast out, and the man speaks. The crowds marvel, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees say, “He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.” (Matthew 9:34).

The fuller version is in Matthew 12 and Luke 11. In Matthew the man is blind and mute, and Jesus heals him so that he both speaks and sees. The crowds ask whether this could be the Son of David, and the Pharisees respond that he acts by Beelzebul, the prince of demons (Matthew 12:22-24). Luke says the man was mute, and that while some made the same accusation, others demanded a sign from heaven (Luke 11:14-16).

Jesus answers that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, and asks how Satan’s house could stand if Satan cast out Satan. He adds that if it is by the Spirit of God, or in Luke, by “the finger of God,” that he casts out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon them (Matthew 12:28; Luke 11:20).

Setting and Context

Many in the ancient world understood illness such as muteness as being caused by spirits, and Jewish exorcists were known. The Pharisees’ charge accepts that a real power is at work and disputes only its source. Beelzebul was a title used for the ruler of demons, and it is usually linked to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron named in 2 Kings 1:2. Luke’s phrase “finger of God” recalls Exodus 8:19, where Pharaoh’s magicians use the same words after the plague of gnats.

Matthew and Luke differ in placement. In Matthew, the first account belongs to a collection of miracles in chapters 8 and 9, and the second follows the healing of a man’s withered hand. In Luke, the story opens a long section of teaching, including the parable of the strong man and the return of the unclean spirit (Luke 11:21-26).

What It Reveals

The dispute turns a healing into a question about Jesus’s identity. Jesus argues that his exorcisms are not the work of Satan but signs that God’s kingdom is breaking in, a stronger one overcoming the strong man. In Matthew, this leads to a warning about attributing the work of the Spirit to evil (Matthew 12:31-32), a passage that Christian traditions have interpreted in different ways.

The scene also shows the different responses to the same event: amazement, hostility, and demands for more proof. The man’s restored speech is often taken as a sign of the prophesied age, when “Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.” (Isaiah 35:6).