A.T. Robertson Commentary Matthew 11:12

"And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and men of violence take it by force." — Matthew 11:12 (ASV)

Suffereth violence (βιαζετα). This verb occurs only here and in Lu 16:16 in the N.T. It seems to be middle in Luke and Deissmann (Bible Studies, p. 258) quotes an inscription "where βιαζομα is without doubt reflexive and absolute" as in Lu 16:16. But there are numerous papyri examples where it is passive (Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary, etc.) so that "there seems little that promises decisive help for the difficult Logion of Mt 11:12; Luke 16:16." So then in Mt 11:12 the form can be either middle or passive and either makes sense, though a different sense. The passive idea is that the kingdom is forced, is stormed, is taken by men of violence like "men of violence take it by force" (βιαστα αρπαζουσιν αυτην) or seize it like a conquered city. The middle voice may mean "experiences violence" or "forces its way" like a rushing mighty wind (so Zahn holds). These difficult words of Jesus mean that the preaching of John "had led to a violent and impetuous thronging to gather round Jesus and his disciples" (Hort, Judaistic Christianity, p. 26).