The Similar Sayings: Matthew 12:31, Mark 3:28, & Luke 12:10

And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

This article is part of a series on the Jesus verses that are similar, but not the same, in different Gospels. The list of articles in this series is here.

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Todays’ article examines verses where similar versions appear in all three Synoptic Gospels. All three of these verses differ in ways that add to Jesus’s meaning. Jesus uses different sentence structures as well as a number of different Greek words in different forms to convey the same general message but with a changing focus. In all three versions, key words from the Greek are left out of the English biblical translation. Since there are many translation problems in the modern English version of these verses, this discussion will often refer to their more literal translations.

In these verses, Matthew and Mark have similar contexts, but Luke’s is very different. In Matthew and Mark, Jesus said this after the Pharisees accused him of casting out demons by Beelzebub. Could there have been two such occasions? This seems likely, account for the two, different responses. In Luke, this verse appears after Jesus warned his students about the leaven of the Pharisees. All these verses are a warning about religion as taught by the Pharisees, but all seem spoken at different times, with a different emphasis.

Here are the translations of these verses in the NIV:

• Matthew 12:31And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

• Mark 3:28-29 Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.

• Luke 12: 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

Since key words are left out of the Biblical versions, here are more literal ones with the words examined below in boldface:

• By this I tell you: every mistake and blasphemy will be let go for these men. That, however, blasphemy about the spirit will not be let go.

• Amen I tell you that all mistakes and those blasphemies will be let go for these sons of the men: as often as when they blaspheme. That one, however, when he blasphemes against the spirit, the holy one, he doesn't have a letting go in this lifetime. Instead, he is guilty of perpetual failure.

• And all who will proclaim an idea about the son of the man will be let go for it. For the one, however, blaspheming about the holy spirit, it will not be let go.

The phrase “for these men/for these sons” is left out of the Matthew and Mark versions. This phrase targets the Pharisees, who are challenging Jesus, but it doesn’t mention them by name. If they take offense, they are choosing to identify with those who blaspheme.

Interestingly, the Mark version describes these people in the words that Jesus used to describe himself: “the sons of the men.” The Mark version is also more forgiving of these people, letting these mistakes go as often as they make them.

In the Luke verse, where the Pharisees are the topic but not part of the conversation, this “these people” phrase is left out. And only in Luke, does Jesus make this about himself, referring to these people as commenting on the son of the man, but when he does so, he drops the “mistakes and blasphemy” accusation. He doesn’t want to say that he can be blasphemed against because he would be claiming to be sacred.

The Spirit

In each version, there is a change in the reference to the “spirit.” In the Matthew version, the Greek word is in its most general form, simply “spirit.” The biblical translation tries to make it as though this clearly refers to the Holy Spirit by capitalizing it, but, at the time, all Greek was written in capital letters. However, in the Mark version, the reference changes to “the spirit, the holy one,” with both words treated like nouns. When we read “the Holy Spirit,” in the biblical translations of Jesus’s words, he usually says it this way, “the spirit, the holy one,” which indicates that there are other forms of spirit. Only in Luke to we see the formulation that we see in English, “the Holy Spirit,” the noun, “spirit,” modified by the adjective, “holy.”

The Changing Focus

While each of these verses makes a similar point about blaspheming the spirit, their focuses are very different.