Matthew 11:18

he commentary on the parable showing that it was the reception given to John and Himself that suggested it. μήτε ἐσθ. μήτε πιν.: eating and drinking, the two parts of diet; not eating nor drinking = remarkably abstemious, ascetic, that his religious habit; μήτε not οὐτε, to express not merely the fact, but the opinion about John. Vide notes on chap. Matthew 5:34. δαιμόνιον ἔχει : is possessed, mad, with the madness of a gloomy austerity. The Pharisee could wear gloomy airs in fasting (Matthew 6:16), but that was acting. The Baptist was in earnest with his morose, severely abstinent life. Play for them, grim reality for him; and they disliked it and shrank from it as something weird. None but Pharisees would dare to say such a thing about a man like John. They are always so sure, and so ready to judge. Ordinary people would respect the ascetic of the wilderness, though they did not imitate him.