Here is a complete English translation of the Latin text:
Opposed to the disciples of Christ are stubborn men from the crowds, Pharisees and scribes (cf. Matt. 12:22; Mark 3:22);
"behold a case that would set before the eyes what an evil spirit was
doing in the souls of the Jews who were resisting the Holy Spirit"
(Erasmus).
Lk 11:14 And he was casting out a demon — the imperfect, as is frequent in narrative in Luke (cf. Buttmann p. 268), and it was mute,
i.e., the demoniac was rendered mute by the demon, his faculty of
speech being impeded; for the demon exercises dominion over the members
of the one he possesses. The demon is called mute because the demon,
together with the one possessed, constitutes as it were a single entity.
And when he had cast out the demon, the mute man spoke, and the crowds marveled — indeed they were beginning to believe that Jesus was the Son of David, the Messiah; cf. Matt. 12:23. The Pharisees were eager to suppress this nascent faith.
Lk 11:15 But some of them said: By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he casts out demons.
They cannot deny the fact itself; therefore, in order to turn the
crowd's admiration into hatred, contempt, and horror, they say it
happens only through the power of a demon and by a pact made with him,
and so they do not shrink from asserting that Jesus is the most wicked
of men. Besides these who, blaspheming, attribute the works of God to a
demon, the evangelist describes for us another class of the stubborn:
Lk 11:16 And others, putting him to the test, sought from him a sign from heaven.
They claim that they cannot acquiesce in the testimonies of John the
forerunner and the so many miracles of Jesus; in order to believe that
Jesus is a divine messenger, they say a sign from heaven is needed — as
though what he had given thus far were too ordinary. They demand
something entirely different, something utterly stupendous, something to
take place in the air, in the sky, among the stars (cf. Matt. 16:1; Mark 8:11).
Jesus exposes the malice of the former (v. 17 ff.), then responds to the latter (v. 29 ff.).
Lk 11:17 But he, seeing their thoughts — knowing, that is, what they were saying to the crowds and with what disposition — said to them (in such a way that the crowds too were informed of their treachery; Mark 3:23): Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and house will fall upon house.
If a kingdom is ravaged by internal strife, cities too are destroyed
and the ruin of one house brings about the ruin of another, as the
falling house crashes into it, or even families rage against one
another. The application is obvious. Would Satan destroy his own
kingdom? He would do precisely that if he himself were casting out other
demons.
Lk 11:18 But if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? — because you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub.
Satan wills to torment men, to dwell in them, to drag them into every
kind of evil, and strives to do so as much as he can — this is his
kingdom. If then he himself drives demons out of men and renders men
healthy and devout, it is plain that he is destroying himself
(Theophylact). That the demons were being driven out against their will,
struggling, begging Jesus not to torment them — this was certain and
plainly visible in the miracles of Jesus. Hence this argument of Jesus
was thoroughly clear and apt, by which the malice of the adversaries
immediately became known to everyone, for they were striving to fight
against acknowledged truth. He further presses them in another way:
Lk 11:19 But if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they themselves shall be your judges.
"He refers to the exorcists of that people who cast out demons by
invocation according to custom, and he presses them with a shrewd
question, so that they confess it to be the work of the Holy Spirit; for
if the expulsion of demons in your sons is attributed to God and not to
demons, why should the same work in me not have the same cause?
Therefore they themselves will be your judges — not by authority, but by
comparison, since they attribute the expulsion to God, while you
attribute it to the prince of demons" (Bede).
He then teaches what they could and should have learned from the manner in which he destroys the dominion of demons:
Lk 11:20 But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons — that is, by the power and virtue of God; cf. Exod. 8:19, the finger of God is here, i.e., his power, his working is seen here; Ps. 8:4.
Note that the finger of God sometimes signifies even a small measure of
God's virtue as being most mighty. Similarly, mention is made of the
arm of the Lord, of his hand (cf. 1:51, 66). Then the kingdom of God has come upon you
— the Greek word, if retained in its ordinary sense, means "has
anticipated, has come sooner than you expected, has come without your
knowing"; but in later Greek usage it also carries the simple sense of
"arriving" (cf. 2 Cor. 10:14; Phil. 3:16). By the very fact that the
kingdom of Satan is overthrown, the kingdom of God — the messianic
kingdom — is established. For it had been foretold by the oracles of the
prophets concerning the Messiah's mission and time that iniquity would
be abolished by him, and righteousness and holiness firmly established,
and a kingdom of peace founded (cf. Isa. 9:6; 11:1 ff.; 59:6, 9; Ps. 72; Jer. 31:33; Ezek. 34:23; Hos. 3:5). And he declares how greatly he overthrows Satan's kingdom by conquering him:
Lk 11:21 When a strong man armed guards his courtyard (some explain this as "palace"), his possessions are in peace.
Lk 11:22 But
when one stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes
away all his armor in which he trusted and distributes his spoils. Cf. on Matt. 12:29.
"The weapons of the devil are his power, his wiles, his deceits"
(Bede); these Christ takes away when he gives to others also the power
to cast out demons, when by his own example and teaching he shows how
temptations are to be overcome. The spoils of the devil are the very men
whom he possesses and holds captive (Bede). Jesus wrests these spoils
from him. This proverbial expression is drawn from Isa. 49:24. Since therefore Christ, having conquered Satan, founds the kingdom of God (vv. 20–22), no one can now remain inactive:
Lk 11:23 He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.
He who does not favor the work of Christ, who does not advance it on
his part, by that very fact acts against it. "I came," he says, "to
snatch everyone from the hand of the devil, to free the captives, to
enlighten the darkened, to raise up the fallen, to heal the broken, to
gather together the children of God who had been scattered by the devil"
(St. Cyril). He who is not with Christ in that work thereby aids and
advances the efforts of Satan. Luke says he is frightening those
listeners who conducted themselves so neutrally as to wish neither to
adhere to Christ nor to oppose him — that it is not lawful to be neutral
or uncommitted. Having rejected that slander, he solemnly warns all
that their own side must be boldly chosen. On the various
interpretations of this passage, see what I have said in the Commentary
on Matthew, vol. I, p. 485.
What
the fate will be of those who, hardened, refuse to stand on Christ's
side is declared in what follows. He takes the occasion for introducing
the parable from the benefit bestowed on the demoniac, the occasion
which those opponents were seizing for their blasphemy — to set forth
how the more one has spurned and neglected the greater gifts of God and
offered graces, the more liable one will be to future ruin:
Lk 11:24 When the unclean spirit goes out of a man (what a benefit conferred by God!), it wanders through waterless places seeking rest
— Satan is depicted in human fashion as being distressed if impeded
from tempting and tormenting, and as intensely desiring to lay new
snares — and not finding it, says: I will return to my house from which I came. He renews his attempt at temptation and his assault.
Lk 11:25 And when it comes, it finds it swept clean and put in order — so furnished that anyone would be powerfully attracted to dwell there.
Lk 11:26 Then
it goes and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and
they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse
than the first — since he is now tormented not by one demon but by
many and worse ones. What Christ says in Matthew about this most wicked
generation is presented here in a general way, yet such that the
application to individuals is readily drawn. I have discussed this
passage more fully in the Commentary on Matthew, vol. I, pp. 503–506.
Depicted in this parable is also the condition of those who, having
recognized the truth, fall away from it (Bede), and Christ warns in the
same vein of teaching: "Behold, you are made well; sin no more, lest
something worse befall you" (John 5:14; St. Bonaventure). And St. Peter:
"For if, after escaping the defilements of the world through the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and
overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For
it would have been better for them never to have known the way of
righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy
commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened
to them: 'The dog returns to its own vomit,' and 'The sow, after washing
herself, returns to wallow in the mire'" (2 Pet. 2:20–22; Prov. 26:11).
While
the Pharisees and scribes were hurling slanders against Christ, a
simple, guileless woman extols him (Theophylact), and while others
remain silent, one woman, kindled by faith and benevolent affection
toward Jesus, could not restrain herself from declaring her admiration
by a cry, and from bursting out with such a word as would publicly
defend and praise Jesus, fearing nothing the authority of the
adversaries of Jesus present (Luke):
Lk 11:27 And
it happened, while he was saying these things, that a woman from the
crowd, raising her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore you
and the breasts that you sucked. "She reveals a great depth of
feeling and a great faith bursting into a cry; she was speaking from the
inmost feelings of her soul, crying out with all the force she could.
He indicates that she was an unknown, obscure, and common woman, since
she was in the middle of the crowd — and yet, while the men who thought
themselves wise did not believe, she believed so firmly that she cried
out as though inspired by a divine impulse" (Maldonado). She declares
blessed, happy, and supremely honored the mother who bore and nurtured
such a great man as his words and deeds manifest. It is a periphrasis
for "mother," similar to 23:29 (Luke). Already beginning to be fulfilled was that word: All generations will call me blessed (1:48; cf. 1:28,
45). The woman praises the mother and the office of motherhood, though
it is probable that she was moved by the Holy Spirit to speak in a way
that highlighted the role of the mother alone in giving birth. Moreover,
with the mother praised and celebrated on account of the son, the son's
excellence is greatly commended by such a tribute; for it follows that
if the mother is blessed by reason of the son, the son is all the more
blessed.
Lk 11:28 But he said: Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.
The Greek particle (where the first element affirms the matter under
discussion and the second creates a conclusion or transition; cf. Klotz
on Dev. p. 663; W. Grimm, Lexicon s.v.) — Euthymius
explains the term. And this blessedness applies in an eminent degree
also to the Blessed Virgin, "because she first conceived in her heart
the word heard and carried it before she conceived it bodily in her
womb, and from the blessedness of spiritual conception was caused, in
the manner of fittingness, the blessedness of her special motherhood"
(Albert the Great); for "so much the more blessed was she because she
remained the eternal guardian of the same Word, which was to be loved"
(Bede). Christ therefore completes the woman's proclamation (Erasmus),
adds something to it, and directs it to the profit of all, so that
blessedness may arise for everyone, and from it the greatest glory may
spring also for his own mother. For she herself opens her soul saying: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, etc.; she herself is praised by Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit: Blessed are you who believed (1:45); cf. 8:20–21.
And Bede aptly observes: "Beautifully does the Savior assent to the
woman's testimony, declaring blessed not only the one who had merited to
bear the Word of God bodily, but also all who shall strive to conceive
that same Word spiritually by the hearing of faith and to bring it forth
and as it were nourish it in their own hearts or those of their
neighbors by the keeping of good works." And St. Augustine too writes:
"This the Lord magnified in her, that she did the will of the Father —
not because flesh gave birth to flesh; she is blessed because she keeps
the word of God" (In John, tract. 10, 3; PL 35:1468). Yet it is
by no means evident that the blessedness of motherhood is denied, and
elsewhere he writes: "Mary is more blessed in receiving the faith of
Christ than in conceiving the flesh of Christ" (De virginitate, ch. 3; PL 40:398).
Others
teach that the particle serves to correct what preceded (meaning "on
the contrary") and to confirm it (meaning "certainly"). Hence the sense
in which the particle is to be understood here must be carefully
examined; cf. Hartung, Partikellehre II, p. 400; Kühner on Xen. Mem.
1.3.9 and 2.7.5 (in Weiss). In the sense that some correction is added
to the woman's words — such that what is added is held to be of greater
worth — the particle is to be taken in this passage, as it has been
taken in their explanations by St. Augustine, Bede, Bonaventure (truly,
also more blessed is he who receives the word spoken by me), Cajetan,
Maldonado, Toledo (that blessedness is great, this one greater),
Jansenius, Lapide, Calmet, Bisping, Fil. Others understand the particle
in such a way that Christ neither accepts nor denies what the woman said
(Jansen on Luke), or so that he does not affirm the woman's praise
(Schegg, Schanz, Weiss), but rather tacitly reproves the woman somewhat
for declaring the mother blessed solely on the basis of physical
kinship. The last interpretation, however, seems too harsh. For physical
kinship is rightly held in great esteem even among men; the woman
recognizes in Jesus his extraordinary gifts; hence she can rightly
celebrate the mother as well, since the mother can reasonably be
considered as having by superior right a share in the benefits of her
son. Moreover, is not motherhood itself to be counted among the number
of eminent graces? Indeed this is implied by the angel when he says: You have found favor with God; behold, you will conceive in your womb,
etc. — The older Protestants indeed interpreted the words of Jesus as a
denial of what the woman had said (cf. Calvin, cited in Maldonado); but
today even they fully acknowledge that Christ does not contradict the
woman, and does not deny that his mother is blessed.
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