I agree with you, Jesus taught a parable about binding the strong man...
Home Content Index Books of the Bible Mark Bind the strongman
QUESTION
What does it mean to bind the strong man?
ANSWER
The phrase
bind the strong man (or
strongman) is a reference to a passage in the book of Mark, where Jesus is responding to some Jewish scribes who were accusing Him of being possessed by
Beelzebul. Their argument was that “by the prince of demons he is driving out demons” (
Mark 3:22). In other words, the reason the demons listened to Jesus was that they were in league with Him and recognized Him as their commanding officer, so to speak.
Jesus refuted their blasphemous argument with plain logic: “How can Satan cast out Satan?” (
Mark 3:23) and then gave them a parable. First, Jesus spoke of the principle of a
divided kingdom, which cannot stand (verses 24–26). Then He told them, “No one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house” (
Mark 3:27). Jesus refers to Satan as the “strong man” and to Himself as the One who enters the house and plunders the place. Of course, before Satan allows his domain to be “plundered,” he must be incapacitated. Jesus was not in league with Satan, as the scribes suggested, but had come to the earth, to what is essentially Satan’s “house” (
1 John 5:19), in order to bind Satan and plunder his “goods,” which are the souls of men (
John 17:15;
Luke 4:18;
Ephesians 4:8).