Bad Words and Blasphemy.

#greekbiblestudy #biblestudy #greeknewtestament

The RSV translates Blasphemia in several places as slander rather than blasphemy in the modern sense of the word.

The parallel passages Matthew 15:19 and Mark 7:22 are two of those places.

So why Slander?

Blasphemy originally meant something more like "ILL SPEAKING"  to speak evil against someone, to slander , insult, to use words hurtfully, against other humans, not deities.

It translates a Hebrew / Aramaic word GUDAPHA.
(If any readers know Hebrew please comment my Hebrew Aramaic can best be described as sparse)

Blasphemia is a compound of BLAS +PHEMIA

The blas is NOT related to English Blast which is Germanic in origin or to the radical Blast- used in biology coming from a word meaning growth.

So in this passage Jesus is not just talking about blasphemy towards the divine but using insults and slander in general.

This doesn't mean you can't sometimes be sarcastic or snarky or you're sinning if you blurt out certain types of words  under extreme stress or provocation  but if your intent is to be willingly evil and hurt some one ...

This whole chapter speaks of how we need to be concerned with wilful error, and that following certain rituals and customs don't necessarily make you holy or righteous or pure if you sin in other ways.

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