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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Luke 12:10 - 12:10
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10. ἀφεθήσεται αὐτῷ. Thus our Lord prayed even for His murderers. This large rich promise is even further amplified in Mat 12:31. It is the sign of a dispensation different from that of Moses, Lev 24:16.
τῷ δὲ εἰς τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα βλασφημήσαντι. The other passages in which mention is made of this awful ‘unpardonable sin’ and of the “blasphemy against the Holy Ghost” are Mat 12:31-32; Mar 3:29-30; 1Jn 5:16. The latter sin is expressly declared to be closely connected with the attributing of Christ’s miracles to Beel-zebul. On the exact nature of the ‘unpardonable sin’ theologians have speculated in vain, and all that we can see is that it must be the most flagrant degree of sin against the fullest light and knowledge.
οὐκ ἀφεθήσεται. St Matthew adds ‘neither in this age (or ‘this dispensation’), nor in the age to come’ (the ‘future dispensation,’ i.e. the dispensation of the Messianic kingdom). The two terms ‘this aeon’ and ‘the future aeon’ are of constant occurrence in Rabbinic literature. The passage—if it means more than ‘in either dispensation’—proves, as St Augustine says, that some would be forgiven if not in this life yet in the next (De Civ. Dei, XXI. 24).