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BLASPHEMY

The act of cursing or slandering the name of God. It is not only an act committed against God (Exod. 22:28[MT 27]) but also an act of slandering, abusing, or reviling other people or groups (Rom. 3:8; 1 Cor. 4:13; 1 Pet. 4:4). Blasphemy also appears in Assyrian legal texts (cf. Dan. 3:29).

Generally, OT laws emphasize the personal responsibility of the individual who commits blasphemy, and thus it is the blasphemer, not his or her family, who incurs punishment for the sin (Lev. 24:10-16). Since one person’s blasphemy can pollute the entire community, punishment administered by the community itself functions to “purge the evil from from [its] midst” (Deut. 17:7). Nehemiah, however, accuses all of Israel of committing “great provocations (blasphemies)” (Heb. neʾāṣâ) when they made and worshipped a molten calf during their wanderings in the wilderness (Neh. 9:18).

Jesus’ opponents accuse him of blasphemy on several occasions (e.g., Matt. 9:3). At his trial, the Sanhedrin publicly accuse Jesus of “uttering blasphemy” and recommend the death sentence for him (Matt. 26:65-66 = Mark 14:64). Jewish authorities accuse many of Jesus’ followers of blasphemy and put them to death by stoning (Acts 6:11; cf. John 10:31-39). Before his conversion Paul “blasphemed and persecuted and insulted Christ” (1 Tim. 1:13) and reviled Christians (Acts 26:11). After his conversion, Paul admonishes Christians to “put no obstacle in anyone’s way” (2 Cor. 6:3), to avoid the sin of blasphemy.

In Matthew and Mark, Jesus teaches that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is an eternal sin. Matt. 12:31-32 reports that while “people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy. . . whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” Mark 3:29 cautions that “whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit. . . is guilty of an eternal sin.”

Henry L. Carrigan, Jr.






Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)

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