the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Blasphemy
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or Blasphemy. Irreverent or insulting language fn regard to God. Psalms 74:18; Romans 2:24, and elsewhere. But the original words in scripture had often a wider signification, and meant evil-speaking, slander, reviling generally. Matthew 15:19; Luke 22:65, and elsewhere. The punishment prescribed by the Mosaic law for the crime of actual blasphemy was death by stoning. This we find executed on the son of Shelomith, Leviticus 24:10-16; and it was on this charge, though a false one, that our Lord and Stephen were condemned. Matthew 26:65-66; Acts 6:11. If Jesus had not been the Son of God, his assumption of equality with the Father would have been blasphemous. That assumption was true; but the Jews accused him of blasphemy because they knew not who he was. In regard to blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, the essence of this fearful sin seems to have been that the Jews, shutting their eyes to the proof of miracles which Christ gave, daringly attributed those good works to an unclean spirit. Mark 3:28-30. So a desperate resistance to the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit shuts up the soul to irretrievable ruin. It is not that the blood of Jesus Christ could not cleanse such a sinner, but that the man defeats the kind purpose that would lead him to it. He never applies to the fountain of unlimited virtue; and so he remains uncleansed forever.
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Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Blasphemy'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/b/blasphemy.html. 1893.
