Evidently it was between the time that Jesus' family left Nazareth to take custody of Him and the time they arrived in Capernaum (v. 31) that this incident occurred. Mark's account is shorter than Matthew's and stresses the nature of the mounting hostility of the religious leaders.
3:22 While well-meaning family opponents were coming from Nazareth, which lay to the west, hostile adversaries were moving up from Jerusalem to the south. The scribes (teachers of the law) who constituted an official delegation had concluded that Satan possessed Jesus and gave Him power to exorcize demons. They viewed Jesus as being allied with Satan.
"In the Greek, the name is always Beelzeboul; the familiar Beelzebub' is from the [Latin] Vulgate. Some view the name as a derisive corruption of the title of the god of Ekron, Baal-zebub, the lord of flies,' to make it mean the lord of dung. More probably it means lord of the dwelling, that is, the dwelling of the evil spirits. This agrees with the reference to the strong man's house' in verse 27, as well as Christ's comment in Matthew 10:25, that as the master of the house,' He has been called Beelzebub."99
3:23-27 Jesus replied to the charge against Him with parables (cf. Matt. 12:29; Luke 11:21-22). That is, He used comparisons. He pointed out that it was illogical for Him to cast out Satan's agents if He was one of Satan's agents. Satan would then be working against himself. Therefore Jesus must not be one of Satan's agents. Moreover since Jesus was really destroying Satan's work, He must be stronger than Satan (v. 27).
"Jesus occasionally avoids indictment by talking in riddles."100
3:28-30 Jesus followed His refutation up with a solemn warning. The words "truly I say to you"or "I tell you the truth"occur 13 times in this Gospel, always on Jesus' lips.101It denotes that Jesus was speaking out of His own authority. A comparable expression in the Old Testament is, "As I live, says the Lord."
"In light of the context this [sin] refers to an attitude (not an isolated act or utterance) of defiant hostility toward God that rejects His saving power toward man, expressed in the spirit-empowered person and work of Jesus. It is one's preference for darkness even though he has been exposed to light (cf. John 3:19). Such a persistent attitude of willful unbelief can harden into a condition in which repentance and forgiveness, both mediated by God's Spirit, become impossible. This person is guilty (enochos, liable to, in the grasp') of an eternal sin (sing., the ultimate sin because it remains forever unforgiven; cf. Matt. 12:32). Judas Iscariot (cf. Mark 3:29; 14:43-46) proved the reality of these words."102
We should not focus so exclusively on the exception to forgiveness that we fail to appreciate the breadth of forgiveness that Jesus offered here. "All sins"means all classes and types of sins, not all sins without exception. Jesus was not teaching universalism. Blasphemy is a type of sin, namely speech that is hostile, malicious, injurious, and derogatory of God. This was the type of sin the scribes were committing.
The scribes came perilously close to committing an unpardonable sin because they attributed the power of Jesus' exorcisms to Satan rather than to the Holy Spirit.
"Having rejected the testimony of the Father, the Son, and now the Spirit's miraculous authentication, nothing more could be done for the salvation of those religious leaders."103
"Those who most particularly should heed the warning of this verse today are the theological teachers and the official leaders of the churches."104
This saying of Jesus has caused many people great anxiety throughout the history of the church. Many have wondered if they have committed the unpardonable sin. Concern that one may have committed it is a good indication that one probably has not. The way to avoid committing the unpardonable sin is to believe the testimony that the Holy Spirit has given about Jesus in Scripture, namely that He is the Christ (i.e., the divine Messiah, cf. 1 John 5:1).
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