Whereas ancient Jewish teachers normally characterized as a prophet or pious man one who could know others' thoughts (as in t. Pisha 2:15), Jesus' opponents attribute his knowledge here to the same source to which they attributed his exorcisms.

People often thought magicians performed their acts through the help of spirit agents (compare PGM 1.88-89, 164-66, 181-85, 252-53; 2.52-54), hence the charge here is that Jesus was a sorcerer (compare Aune 1987:56). This is no small charge: magic was a capital offense (Meier 1980:134). Unable to deny Jesus' miracles, later Jewish sources continued to charge him with sorcery; these sources also complained that Christians, who were still working miracles well into the second century, were working them by Satan's power (Dalman 1973:37-38; Herford 1966:211-15; Bagatti 1971:95-96).