This paper contends that the allegation that Jesus is possessed by Beelzebul in Mark 3:20–22 is not a baseless fabrication that Jesus’s opponents invented purely to discredit him. Although the claim that Jesus is possessed is undoubtedly false and is motivated in part by his opponents’ desire to undermine his ministry, their diagnosis is based to some extent on an apparently legitimate observation they make concerning Jesus’s behavior. Namely, it is Jesus’s refusal to eat that suggests to them that Jesus suffers from a spiritual affliction. The inability to eat food is a symptom of demon possession that is mentioned in certain ancient Near Eastern and early Jewish texts. For Jesus to abstain from eating, therefore, would have indicated to some of his contemporaries that he suffered from demonic affliction. Further, Jesus’s refusal to eat is likely the reason for his family’s concerns about his mental health in the same pericope, rather than their disbelief or rejection of his teaching. In addition to explaining the concerns raised about Jesus in Mark 3, this understanding of the story undermines scholarly attempts to read the passage as a critique of Jesus’s family members who were leaders in the early church.