BLASPHEMY (bLEs'fb-m•, (Gr. f3Xacronula,blas iry-meeirh), signifies the speaking evil of God; Heb.
to curse the name of the Lord). 1. Meaning.
(I) The Greek word blasphemia is generic, denoting verbal abuse proceeding from an evil disposition. It is equivalent to defamation, or slander, involving an attempt to lessen the char acter of others, with the intention of doing thrm injury. All kinds of abusive language, whether called imprecation, calumny, or reviling, come under the term.
The English word blasphemy is more re stricted in its signification. It refers to God only. In like manner when blasphemia is directed against the Supreme Being, or when Jehovah is the object of it, it is specific. In these circum stances it corresponds to the English blasphemy. The Greek blasphemia is employed in reference to the defamation of men or angels equally with the Deity; but it is proper to use the term blas phemy only when God is spoken against. Thus the Greek and English words are not coextensive in import.
(3) Our English translators have not adhered to the right use of the term. They employ it with the same latitude as the Greek ; but it is generally easy to perceive, from the connection 4I1(1 subject of a passage, whether blasphemy, properly so called, be meant, or only defamation. It would certainly have been better to have em ployed detraction or calumny rather than blas phemy where man is the object ; reserving the latter for that peculiarly awful slander which is directed against the ever-blessed God.
(4) Blasphemy signifies a false, irreverent, in jurious use of God's names, attributes, words, and works. Whenever men intentionally and directly attack the perfections of Jehovah, and thus lessen the reverence which others entertain for him, they arc blasphemers. If the abusive language pro ceed from ignorance or if it be dishonoring to the majesty of Heaven only in the consequences deduced from it by others. blasphemy has no existence. It is wilful calumny directed against the name or providence of God that alone consti tutes the crime denoted by the term.
(5)Examples of the general acceptation of bias in the New Testament are common, where the objects of it are men, angels, or the devil, as in Acts xiii :45; xviii :6; Jude 9. The re stricted sense is found in such passages as Luke v :21 ; John x :36.
2. punishment. By the Mosaic law blas phemy was punished with death (Lev. XICiV :10 16) ; and the laws of sonic countries still visit it with the same punishment. Fines, imprison ment, and carious corporal inflictions are annexed to the crime by the laws of Great Britain. It is matter, however, of sincere satisfaction, that there are very few instances in which these enactments require to be enforced.
3. Blasphemy Against the Holy Ghost.
(T) Much has been written respecting the blas phemy against the Holy Ghost, usually, but improperly, denominated the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost. Some refer it to con tinued opposition to the Gospel, i. e., obstinate impenitence or final unbelief. In this view it is unpardonable, not because the blood of Christ is unable to cleanse from such a sin, nor because there is anything in its own nature which separates it from all other sins and places it beyond for giveness. but because, as long as man continues to disheheve. he voluntarily shuts himself out from the forgiving mercy of God. By not re ceiving the Gospel, lie refuses pardon. In the same manner, every sin might be styled the un pardonable, as long as an individual continues to indulge in it.
(2) Rut we object to this opinion, because it generalizes the nature of the sin in question. On the contrary, the Scripture account narrows it to a particular in of a special kind, discountenancing the idea that it is of frequent occurrence and marked by nn circumstances of unwonted aggra vation. Besides. all the not;ces which we have refer it not so much to a state of mind, as to the outward manifestation of a singularly malignant by the utterance of the lips.
(3) The occasn)o on wI•ch Christ introduced his mention of it (Matt. xii:3t, etc.; Mark iii :28, etc.), the subsequent context, and, above all, the words of Mark iii :30 'because they said, He bath an unclean spirit'), indicate, with tolerable plainness, that the sin in question consisted in at tributing the miracles wrought by Christ, or his apostles in Ills name. to the agency of Satan. It was by the power of the Holy Ghost, given to the Redeemer without measure, that he cast out devils ; and whoever maligned the Saviour, by affirming that an unclean spirit actuated and enabled him to expel other spirits, maligned the Holy Ghost.
(4) There is no connection between the descrip tion given in the Epistle to the Hebrews, vi :4-6, and this unpardonable blasphemy. The passages in the Gospels which speak of the latter are not parallel with that in the Epistle to the Hebrews; there is a marked difference between the states of mind and their manifestations as described in both. The sins ought not to be identical ; they are altogether dissimilar.
(5) It is difficult to discover the 'sin unto death,' noticed by the apostle John ( John v :16), al though it has been generally thought to coincide with the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit ; but the language of John does not afford data for pronouncing them one and the same. The first three gospels alone describe the blasphemy which shall not be forgiven ; from it the 'sin unto death' stands apart. S. D.