(12:12) and respond with bitter defiance rather than repentance. The parable only hardens their intransigence and opposition to God as these opponents become all the more determined to put Jesus to death. Their eyes see, but they are loathe to see the truth about Jesus and themselves. In the same way, the teachers of the law from Jerusalem may have understood the parable about the divided kingdom and the strong man in 3:23–27, but they do not repent. They may be silenced for the moment, but they