Parable of the strong man

The Parable of the strong man (also known as the "parable of the burglar" and the "parable of the powerful man") is a parable attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Thomas.

The parable is found in four different forms:
* "Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house." ()
* "Jesus said, "It is not possible for anyone to enter the house of a strong man and take it by force unless he binds his hands; then he will (be able to) ransack his house." ( [http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gthlamb.html Thomas 35] )

Meaning

In the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, this parable forms part of the Beelzebul controversy, where Jesus's opponents accuse him of gaining his power to exorcise by being in league with Satan. According to some interpretations, the strong man represents Satan, and the burglar represents Jesus. Jesus thus says that he could not perform exorcisms (represented by stealing the strong man's possessions) unless he was opposed to Satan (represented by tying up the strong man) [Jürgen Becker, trans. James E. Crouch, "Jesus of Nazareth", Walter de Gruyter, 1998, [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN3110157721&id=pIFLSEAKne4C&pg=RA1-PA184&lpg=RA1-PA184&ots=B_FrbqUJr7&dq=mark+3:27&sig=JrA3GM8mO0vmzgTquFXHj6OAZDc#PRA1-PA184,M1 p. 184] ] [Duane Frederick Watson, "The Intertexture of Apocalyptic Discourse in the New Testament", Brill Academic Publishers, 2003, [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN9004127062&id=dIwYtuvc4KYC&pg=RA2-PA26&lpg=RA2-PA26&dq=%22mark+3:27%22&sig=4RCADUBU4axlm-kQbpsY4UA3kqU#PRA2-PA26,M1 p. 26] ] . It has been suggested that the image of the strong man's house was originally a wordplay on "Beelzebul", which literally means "house of Baal" [James R. Edwards, "The Gospel according to Mark", Wm. B. EerdmansPublishing, 2001, [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0802837344&id=0MjWS_4La_EC&pg=PA122&lpg=PA122&ots=ji5_WjJOSM&dq=thomas+35+strong+man&sig=9XDicHpjWs2a-vZBRU0ms7tYWCc#PPA121,M1 p. 121] ] .

An alternative interpretation, which does not depend on the context of the Beelzebul controversy, suggests that "shrewd planning and careful strategy" are necessary in order to accomplish one's goals [Richard Valantasis, "The Gospel of Thomas", Routledge (UK), 1997, [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0415116228&id=VLnYm7oKUmkC&pg=RA2-PA110&lpg=RA2-PA110&ots=tDl2JxuMYU&dq=thomas+35+strong+man&sig=GfJdUdZ-jWznj1n0pV3B-03bRMc#PRA2-PA111,M1 p. 111] ] .

References