Mt 12:22-37. A BLIND AND DUMB DEMONIAC HEALED AND REPLY TO THE MALIGNANT EXPLANATION PUT UPON IT. ( = Mr 3:20-30; Lu 11:14-23).

      The precise time of this section is uncertain. Judging from the statements with which Mark introduces it, we should conclude that it was when our Lord's popularity was approaching its zenith, and so before the feeding of the five thousand. But, on the other hand, the advanced state of the charges brought against our Lord, and the plainness of His warnings and denunciations in reply, seem to favor the later period at which Luke introduces it. "And the multitude," says Mark (Mr 3:20, 21), "cometh together again," referring back to the immense gathering which Mark had before recorded (Mr 2:2) --"so that they could not so much as eat bread. And when His friends"--or rather, "relatives," as appears from Mt 12:31, and see on Mt 12:46 --"heard of it, they went out to lay hold on Him; for they said, He is beside Himself." Compare 2Co 5:13, "For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God."

      22. Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil--"a demonized person."
      blind and dumb, and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and the dumb both spake and saw.

JFB.