[B-Greek] Does blasphemeo always carry the meaning of speaking?

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Mar 4 08:45:30 EST 2007


On Mar 3, 2007, at 11:20 PM, Carl Unger wrote:

> Thank you Mr. Holymard.
> Many people think the the verses regarding blasphemy against the  
> Holy Spirit
> is a wilful rejection of the Holy Spirit all the way until death.
>
> I was thinking "speak a word against" could also mean to say "no"  
> to, like
> saying "no" to the Holy Spirit, that's without looking at the Greek of
> course.
>
> Anyway, you have told me in the case of Luke 12:10 with BLASFHMEW  
> that it
> refers to speech, I'm going to assume there is no doubt in this.

On the other hand, I would question this conclusion.

Text: Luke 12:10 KAI PAS hOS EREI LOGON EIS TON hUON TOU ANQRWPOU,  
AFEQHSETAI AUTWi; TWi DE EIS TO hAGION PNEUMA BLASFHMHSANTI OUK  
AFEQHSETAI.

While opposition to the Son of Man here is clearly verbal statement,  
I'm not so sure that "blaspheming" against he Spirit must be. My own  
interpretation of this passage has been, rightly or wrongly, that the  
reason why this is unforgivable is precisely because it is closing  
one's heart and mind to any invitation by the Spirit: one condemns  
oneself by refusal to open one's heart and mind. Of course, one may  
say that BLASFHMEIN must necessarily involve a public action, but I  
don't see why that must be the case.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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