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Bible Dictionaries
Eternal Sin
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or ETERNAL SIN.—The Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 of Mark 3:29 (αἰωνίου ἁμαρτήματος, so אBL [Note: L Bampton Lecture.] ; C* vid D [Note: Deuteronomist.] read ἀμαρτίας); Authorized Version ‘eternal damnation’ (κρίσεως, so Acts 2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] ), ‘a strong translation of an incorrect text’ (Morison). It is not surprising that the latter explanation of a difficult word (ἀμάρτημα) should have found its way into the text of some later MSS [Note: SS Manuscripts.] . As an explanation of the correct text, ‘eternal judgment’—or, as the judgment is clearly adverse, ‘eternal condemnation’—is not without force. It has the merit of emphasizing the essential matter, which any interpretation, to be adequate, must take into account, that an ‘eternal sin’ is a sin which ‘hath never forgiveness.’ But this early gloss is inadequate. There is more than the emphasis of repetition. It is not the penalty of the sin, but its nature, which is declared; not the mere duration of the sin or of the sinning, but the guilt; not eternally sinning, but an eternal sin.
That sin tends to propagate itself is witnessed to by experience, and that continuance in sinning must exclude forgiveness is an essential principle of all moral judgment. Sin and penalty are of necessity coterminous. But unforgiven because unrepented of is true of all sin, and is no adequate explanation of an ‘eternal sin’ which carries the judgment ‘unforgivable.’ The absoluteness of the sentence is already declared in the words ‘hath never forgiveness;’ it is the ultimate ground of this judgment which is further declared.
‘Eternal sin’ finds its contrast and opposite in ‘eternal life,’ which is not simply or characteristically endless life, but essential, perfect life, ‘the life which is life indeed’ (1 Timothy 6:19 Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885), the life of the Kingdom of God (cf. Mark 9:43; Mark 9:45; Mark 9:47 and John 3:3; John 3:5; John 3:15) the life of God (1 John 1:2 Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885). So ‘eternal sin’ is more than ‘sin eternally repeating itself,’ it is a fixed state of sin, sin which has become character, nature, moral death, which is death indeed. But see art. Blasphemy, p. 209b. This is the final revolt of man, free will carried to its ultimate in the defiance of God, a final condition, hopeless and beyond recovery, beyond the reach even of Divine illumination and influence. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews certainly contemplates in 6:1–8 the possibility of such fatal apostasy, cf. also 1 John 5:16 ‘sin unto death’ (see Westcott, ad loc.); but neither of these passages appears to the present writer to afford help here.
Two questions must be distinguished—the actuality and the possibility of this state of moral depravity. That the grace of God should prove unavailing is indeed hard to believe, and by many the thought is rejected utterly. Yet there is much in the teaching of Jesus and in human life to justify the fear that this possibility may become an actual fact. The hardening of the heart which follows all unfaithfulness is the witness in human life to what must inevitably result if unfaithfulness is persisted in, a fixed state of spiritual blindness and insensibility. There is a law of degeneration in the moral world as in the natural. But it is in the Scripture doctrine of sin that the full ground of this fear is seen. According to the teaching of Jesus, the measure of responsibility is ‘the light that is in thee’ (Matthew 6:23), and sin is wilful disregard of the light of truth. To be blind is to be without sin; but to those who say ‘we see,’ and yet walk in darkness, ‘sin remaineth’ (John 9:41). So every increase of light brings increased responsibility (John 3:19; John 15:22); and for self-willed deliberate refusal of the Divine grace, refusal not in ignorance or misunderstanding but with full consciousness and choice of will so that the will itself becomes identified with evil, there can only be judgment, not because the Divine compassions fail, but because the redemption, as the Redeemer, is despised and rejected of men. In the final issue the free will of man is valid even against the beseechings of God (John 5:40, Matthew 23:37).
The doom of the finally impenitent is here negatively told: ‘hath never forgiveness’; but that includes the uttermost penalty, exclusion from the Kingdom of the Father, loss of the ‘eternal life.’ This is sin’s last stage and uttermost working; it cuts the soul off from God, its source and life. ‘Sin, when it is full grown, bringeth forth death’ (James 1:15). See, further, art. Sin.
Literature.—The Commentaries on St. Mark; Salmond, Christian Doctrine of Immortality, pp. 306, 493; Row, Future Retribution, p. 254; Bruce, Kingdom of God, p. 319; Wendt, Teaching of Jesus, English translation ii. 87; Stevens, Theology of the NT, p. 102; Expos. ii. iii. [1882] p. 321 ff.
W. H. Dyson.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Eternal Sin'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/e/eternal-sin.html. 1906-1918.
