This is my first article in several weeks. I have been in the hospital with both lung and heart problems. Hope to be posting more regularly from now on, but I have another heart procedure next week but I should be in the hospital for one night, but who know about recovery time.
In Matthew, this verse comes after the Pharisees attack Jesus, saying that he casts out demons by the power of Beelzebub. Jesus responds with his verses about the demon’s house falling if it is divided against itself. He ends his defense by saying that if he casts out demons by the power of God, the kingdom of heaven has come to them. This verse seems related but disconnected from what went before.
NIV: 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 plunder his house.
This verse tells us something important about “casting out demons” (see this article), but does it tell us what the demon does in possessing a person or what Jesus does in casting demons out?
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The Greek word translated as "can" means “having the power.” This verb has the same root as the Greek noun that means “power.” This Greek word is the source of our words “dynamo” and “dynamic.” Here, it is the power to overcome the “strong man”.
The word that connects this verse to what comes before is the word translated as “house.” The Greek word refers to the building itself and all the people that dwell in it, including slaves and servants. In the “house divided” verses, its meaning was the “household,” referring to a group of demons. Their connection is what falls. However, in this verse, the “house” is what contains property. It is this property, which can be removed, that is the focus of the action.
This verse has four Greek words that are unusual for Jesus. All four are more common in the Greek Old Testament(OT), the Septuagint, but I have been unable to find an OT Greek verse that uses any two of them together as Jesus does here.
The Greek word translated as “strong man” appears only in this verse and in the similar verse in Mark 3:27. It is ischuros, from the Greek noun ischus, meaning “strength.” In this form it is an adjective. As an adjective, it means “strong,” “mighty,” and “powerful.” Since it is preceded by an article, it acts like a noun, “the strong one” or “the powerful one.”
The next two uncommon words in the verse are translated as “carry off” and “possessions.”
“Carry off” is from harpazo, which means to “snatch away,” “carry off,” and “overpower.” This word is only used in six verses, half of them forms of this verse. It is usually translated as “snatched away.” This word is also related to the final word in the verse, the punchline.
“Possessions” is skeuos, which means a “vessel,” “house-gear,” “utensils,” and “equipment.” This word is common in the Greek OT, used to describe the property that people carry with them. Translating it as “possessions,” however, makes it sound like those who are possessed, but it is unrelated to the Greek word meaning “possess.” Its form is singular, not plural so perhaps our word, “property,” works best for translating it.
Like “strong man,” the word translated as “can plunder,” appears only in this verse and in the similar verse in Mark 3:27. It is from diarpazo, which means, “tear to pieces,” “carry away,” and “seize as plunder.” It is a form of the Greek word, harpazo above translated as “carry off”. It has an added prefix, dia, that means “through”. In the Old Testament, it is used to translate several different Hebrew words including those for “rob” and “spoil.”
However, there is no Greek word meaning “can” in the last line. The form of “plunder” is the future tense so the word means “will plunder” instead of “can plunder.” The object of this plundering is the “house” but logically what is being “carried away” by this plundering is the property.
A more literal translation of this verse would be:
Listeners Heard: Or how does anyone have the power to go into the house of the strong one and to carry off that property of his when he doesn’t first tie up the strong one? And then he will plunder that house of his.
This verse is about having power.
It could be about the power of Jesus. If we assume the house is that of the demons, the “strong one” becomes the prince of demons, Beelzebub. The “property” is those who have been possessed, and “carrying them off” becomes freeing them from the demon. Jesus says that he does this by first “tying up” the strong one. His power will take away what Beelzebub possesses.
This verse could also be about the power of a demon, who goes into the “house” of a person’s mind. There he ties up the strength of a person and “plunders” his house in the sense of controlling him.
There are arguments for and against both of these interpretations (see these commentaries), which is what makes this verse so interesting. Perhaps knowing the range of meanings for the key words involved, you can develop your own opinions.
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