The Fallible Study Bible

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Mark3:28–30

The Unpardonable Sin

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

Mark 3:28–30 — The Unpardonable Sin. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

28

Truly I tell you, the sons of men will be forgiven all sins and blasphemies, as many as they utter.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Amēn legō hymin hoti tois huiois tōn anthrōpōn aphethēsetai panta ta hamartēmata kai hai blasphēmiai hosa ean blasphēmēsōsin

Word by word18 · parsed
ἈμὴνAmēnTrulyG281
√ ἀμήν — properly, firm, iHebrew Word
ἀμήν: properly, firm A Hebrew word left standing inside Greek. Where a prophet said “thus says the LORD” to put the word behind himself, this speaker puts his own Amen in front of it. Cambridge notes the formula as a favourite of our Lord's, used when He would draw special attention to a Divine utterance: the solemnity here belongs to the promise of pardon, not only to the warning that follows it.
λέγωlegōI tellG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
λέγω: to lay forth, say Present indicative: the saying is happening, not reported.
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
τοῖςtoistheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
υἱοῖςhuioissonsG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounDative Masculine Plural
υἱός: a son, used widely of kinship Dative Plural, the party to whom the release comes. “The sons of men” is the Semitic idiom for the human race as such (compare its Hebrew counterpart throughout Ezekiel); the amnesty is declared over the widest possible category, which is exactly what makes the single exception in v. 29 so grave.
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
ἀνθρώπωνanthrōpōnof menG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounGenitive Masculine Plural
ἄνθρωπος: man, human being Genitive Plural, dependent on υἱοῖς: men as men, not Israel as Israel.
ἀφεθήσεταιaphethēsetaiwill be forgivenG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
ἀφίημι: to send away, let go, forgive The verb's own picture is dismissal: the debt is sent off. Future Passive, with no agent named, though the agent can only be God (the divine passive). Henry ties the breadth of this future to its cost: the gospel promises forgiveness for the greatest sins and sinners because Christ has purchased it. Gill adds the ordo he holds: pardon is procured before it is applied, and applied when the sinner is brought to a sense of the evil of his sins.
πάνταpantaallG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Neuter Plural
πᾶς: all, any, every, the whole Nominative Neuter Plural, agreeing with ἁμαρτήματα: not “many” and not “most.” The universal quantifier is the whole point of the verse, and it is stated before the exception, not after it.
τὰtaG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Plural
ἁμαρτήματαhamartēmatasinsG265
√ ἁμάρτημα — a sin (properly concrete)NounNominative Neuter Plural
ἁμάρτημα: a sin (properly concrete) A rare noun (4 verses) naming the concrete act rather than the condition. Paul uses it of “the sins previously committed” which the propitiation passes over (Romans 3:25), and the same word returns in v. 29 as the single ἁμάρτημα that is called eternal. The unit's whole hinge is that one rare word said twice: every concrete deed is dismissed, and then one concrete deed is not.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
αἱhaiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Plural
βλασφημίαιblasphēmiaiblasphemiesG988
√ βλασφημία — vilification (especially against God)NounNominative Feminine Plural
βλασφημία: vilification (especially against God) Nominative Feminine Plural, listed as a second subject beside the sins and so included in the amnesty. Blasphemy as a class is forgivable: the New Testament's own witness is Paul, who calls himself a blasphemer and was shown mercy. Only one target of blasphemy is excepted, and the next verse names it.
ὅσαhosaas many asG3745
√ ὅσος — as (much, great, long, etcPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Neuter Plural
ὅσος: as much, as many, as great The quantity-relative: however much, however great.
ἐὰνeanvvvG1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
βλασφημήσωσινblasphēmēsōsinthey utterG987
√ βλασφημέω — to vilifyVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
βλασφημέω: to vilify Aorist Subjunctive Active, 3rd Plural, under ἐὰν: an indefinite future act, whoever and however often. The subjunctive keeps the offer open-ended; the same verb reappears in the singular in v. 29 (βλασφημήσῃ), where the open door shuts on a single object.
29

But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of eternal sin.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

d’ hos an blasphēmēsē eis to to Hagion Pneuma ouk eis ton aiōna echei aphesin alla estin enochos aiōniou hamartēmatos

Word by word20 · parsed
δ’d’ButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
δέ: but, and Postpositive: it cannot stand first in Greek, though the brief's index order lists it first.
ὃςhoswhoeverG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ὅς: who, which, that With ἂν and the subjunctive this is the open indefinite “whoever,” the same construction as v. 28 and the same breadth. The exception is not carved out for a named group; it is drawn around a deed.
ἂνan. . .G302
√ ἄν — (what-, where-, wither-, who-)soeverParticle
βλασφημήσῃblasphēmēsēblasphemesG987
√ βλασφημέω — to vilifyVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
βλασφημέω: to vilify Aorist Subjunctive Active, now singular where v. 28 was plural. The verb is identical; only its object has changed, and the whole verdict turns on that. Cambridge insists the thing warned against is not so much an act as a state of set-purpose rejection, which is a reading of the aorist as summing up a settled course rather than clocking one outburst.
εἰςeisagainstG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
εἰς: to or into, the point reached or entered Blasphemy is aimed into the Spirit, not merely spoken about him. The preposition of arrival marks the target as reached.
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ἍγιονHagionHolyG40
√ ἅγιος — sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated)AdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
ἅγιος: sacred, morally blameless, consecrated Attributive with the article: the Spirit, the Holy one. In the accusation of v. 30 the same Spirit is called ἀκάθαρτον, unclean. The unpardonable word is precisely the inversion of this adjective.
ΠνεῦμαPneumaSpiritG4151
√ πνεῦμα — a current of air, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
πνεῦμα: a current of air, breath, spirit Accusative, the object reached by the blasphemy. Mark's narrative has just shown this Spirit at work driving out demons; Benson reads the charge of v. 30 as ascribing to the devil the miracles Christ wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost. The offence is not against a doctrine of the Spirit but against his visible operation.
οὐκouk{will} neverG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
οὐ: the absolute negative Flat denial, with the indicative: not a warning of what might follow but a statement of what is.
εἰςeis. . .G1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὸνton. . .G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
αἰῶναaiōna. . .G165
√ αἰών — properly, an ageNounAccusative Masculine Singular
αἰών: properly, an age Accusative after εἰς: the duration of the withholding is measured in ages, and the measure is then transferred to the sin itself in αἰωνίου.
ἔχειecheibeG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἔχω: to hold, to have Present Indicative Active. He does not have release. The same verb, same form, is the accusers' own word in v. 30: “He has an unclean spirit.” Mark sets the two sentences of having side by side, and only one of them is true.
ἄφεσινaphesinforgivenG859
√ ἄφεσις — freedomNounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἄφεσις: freedom, release The noun cognate to ἀφίημι in v. 28, and the standard word for remission of sins in the apostolic preaching (it is the very thing offered with the gift of the Holy Spirit at Acts 2:38). The man who reviles the Spirit is refusing the hand that holds the only ἄφεσις there is.
ἀλλὰallaG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
ἐστινestinhe isG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
εἰμί: I exist, I am Present indicative again: an existing standing, not a sentence yet executed.
ἔνοχόςenochosguiltyG1777
√ ἔνοχος — liable to (a condition, penalty or imputation)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἔνοχος: liable to a condition, penalty or imputation A rare legal term (8 verses). Jesus used it of the man liable to the council for calling his brother a fool (Matthew 5:22), and James of the man who breaks one point of the law; Mark's only other use is 14:64, where the council declares Jesus ἔνοχος of death for blasphemy. The word that names the accusers' liability here will be pronounced over the accused.
αἰωνίουaiōniou[of] eternalG166
√ αἰώνιος — perpetual (also used of past time, or past and future as well)AdjectiveGenitive Neuter Singular
αἰώνιος: perpetual, age-long Genitive Neuter, agreeing with ἁμαρτήματος, not with any word for judgment. Ellicott judges the harder reading original precisely because a copyist would more plausibly ease “sin” into “judgment” than the reverse.
ἁμαρτήματοςhamartēmatossinG265
√ ἁμάρτημα — a sin (properly concrete)NounGenitive Neuter Singular
ἁμάρτημα: a sin (properly concrete) The rare concrete noun of v. 28 returns in the singular. Every ἁμάρτημα is forgivable; this one ἁμάρτημα is age-long. Pulpit draws out what that means: there are sins whose effects and punishment belong to eternity, and he sends the reader to John 9:41, “therefore your sin remaineth.” The permanence is predicated of the sin, and so of the sinner's grip on it, before it is predicated of any penalty.
30

Jesus made this statement because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Hoti elegon echei akatharton Pneuma

Word by word5 · parsed
ὍτιHoti[ Jesus made this statement ] becauseG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ὅτι: demonstrative, that, because Causal here. Mark alone supplies the motive clause; without it the saying would float free of any occasion.
ἔλεγονelegonthey were sayingG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ἔπω / λέγω: to speak or say Imperfect: the repeated, ongoing charge. Tense is doing theological work in this verse. The sin Jesus names is not a syllable that slipped out but a course of speech maintained against evidence, and it is the imperfect that says so.
ἔχειecheiHe hasG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἔχω: to hold, to have Present Indicative Active, the same form as 3:29's ἔχει. The man who says of Christ “he has” is the man of whom Christ has just said “he does not have.”
ἀκάθαρτονakathartonan uncleanG169
√ ἀκάθαρτος — impure (ceremonially, morally (lewd) or specially, (demonic))AdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
ἀκάθαρτος: impure, ceremonially, morally or demonic The word Mark's own narrative has been using of the spirits Jesus expels. The accusers take the term from the exorcised and pin it on the exorcist: the power that cleanses is named as the filth it drives out. Gill holds that they knew better in their own consciences, that these were works wrought by the finger and Spirit of God.
ΠνεῦμαPneumaspiritG4151
√ πνεῦμα — a current of air, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
πνεῦμα: a current of air, breath, spirit One noun, two adjectives, one unforgivable exchange. Whether this particular sentence already is the eternal sin, or only tends toward it, is disputed: Gill and Benson say the scribes were guilty of it; Ellicott declines to identify the two absolutely and says only that the words tended to that sin and so made the warning necessary.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The amnesty stated before the exception — 3:28

⚙ The sentence opens under oath. Ἀμὴν is a Hebrew word carried untranslated into Greek, and Cambridge notes that the formula is a favourite of our Lord's, used when He would draw special attention to a Divine utterance. What it introduces is not the warning everyone remembers from this passage but a promise of astonishing width: πάντα τὰ ἁμαρτήματα καὶ αἱ βλασφημίαι, all the sins and the blasphemies, as many as men may ever blaspheme. The grammar puts the sins in the nominative and the men in the dative, so that what Greek actually says is that the sins shall be dismissed to the sons of men; the release is the subject of the clause. Matthew Henry grounds the width in its price, that the gospel promises forgiveness for the greatest sins and sinners because Christ has purchased it, and Gill adds his own careful sequence, that pardon is procured before it is applied and applied when the sinner is brought to a sense of the evil of his sins. Blasphemy itself, as a class, stands inside the amnesty. Only the order of the paragraph is usually reversed in memory: Jesus swears to the pardon first.

ii. One sin, and the word for it is not the word for punishment — 3:29

⚙ The verb does not change: βλασφημήσῃ is the same aorist subjunctive as v. 28, only singular. What changes is the object, εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον, blasphemy aimed into the Holy Spirit. Two things in the Greek are usually smoothed away in English. First, οὐκ ἔχει ἄφεσιν is present indicative with a noun: he does not have release, a standing condition rather than a future verdict, and the Pulpit Commentary renders the picture as a chain of sin from which he can never be loosed. Cambridge reads the same present as a state rather than an act, the settled course of one who in defiance of light and knowledge rejects and perseveres in rejecting the Grace of the Holy Spirit. Second, the predicate αἰωνίου ἁμαρτήματος attaches eternal to the sin, not to a judgment. Ellicott defends that reading on textual grounds, judging it likelier that a transcriber eased “sin” into “judgment” than the reverse, and Gill records the older Latin witness for it; Pulpit prints the Greek and draws the inference that there are sins whose effects and punishment belong to eternity, sending the reader to John 9:41. The doctrine the Greek yields is therefore stranger and more exact than “God will not forgive this one”: the sin is described as age-long in itself, and forgiveness is described as something this man does not presently hold.

iii. Because they kept saying it — 3:30

⚙ Mark alone anchors the saying to a sentence actually spoken, and Ellicott notes that this comment is peculiar to St Mark, as though he would explain what had called forth so awful a warning. The Greek is a bare Ὅτι and an imperfect, ἔλεγον: they were saying, they kept saying. The Pulpit Commentary treats this verse as decisive and narrows the charge accordingly, holding that our Lord does not speak of every sin against the Holy Spirit but of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, a sin of the tongue especially. Benson goes further and treats the identification as beyond doubt, the ascribing to the devil of those miracles which Christ wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost; Gill agrees and adds that they knew in their own consciences that these were works wrought by the finger and Spirit of God. Ellicott is the dissenting voice worth keeping: he does not absolutely identify what had been said with the sin against the Holy Ghost, only that it tended to that sin. The vocabulary itself makes the collision: Πνεῦμα is one noun in both verses, called Ἅγιον by Christ and ἀκάθαρτον by the scribes, and the verb ἔχει is identical in both mouths. He does not have release; he has an unclean spirit. Mark leaves the two sentences standing opposite each other and says nothing more.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text. Read the paragraph in the order Mark wrote it and the terror is framed by mercy, not the other way around: an oath, then a universal pardon including blasphemy, then one exception, then the reason. Two grammatical facts discipline how the exception should be preached. The Greek does not say “God will refuse to forgive this”; it says οὐκ ἔχει ἄφεσιν, he does not have release, in the present tense, and it calls the sin itself αἰώνιον. That describes a man's grip, not merely God's verdict. And v. 30's imperfect describes not an outburst but a refrain kept up in the face of works the speakers had seen with their own eyes. Put together, the sin looks less like a sentence a person might trip over and more like a door held shut from the inside: the Spirit is the only one who applies the pardon the Son purchased, so to name him unclean and go on naming him unclean is to refuse the hand that holds the only ἄφεσις there is. On that reading the Pulpit Commentary's pastoral inference is sound, though it is an inference and not a statement of the verse: a conscience frightened of this sin is a conscience the Spirit is still addressing. Where the commentators divide, we should divide with Ellicott rather than Benson and decline to pronounce on whether these particular scribes had crossed the line; Mark says the warning was occasioned by their words, and stops. The line set apart below is the tool's own summary, not a verse of Scripture.

The one sin without release is not the loudest word against God but the door held shut from the inside against the only hand that pardons.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

ἁμάρτημα: the rare word for the deeds the blood passes over verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ ἁμάρτημα (G265), the concrete noun for a sin committed, is scarce: the Verifier's candidate list records it in only 4 verses, and two of those are this unit's own vv. 28 and 29. One of the remaining two is Romans 3:25, where Paul speaks of the sins previously committed which God passed over in setting forth the propitiation; the other is 1 Corinthians 6:18, where the Verifier records not only the same rare noun but also the indefinite particle ἐάν (G1437), the same pairing that builds Mark's open clause in v. 28. So the rare word that Paul uses for what the blood covers is the word Jesus uses for what will be forgiven, and then for the one thing that will not be. The link is lexical and verifiable; any theology drawn from it is ⚙ and should be weighed as such.

Romans 3:25 · 1 Corinthians 6:18

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G265 ἁμάρτημα (in only 4 vv, two of them Mark 3:28 and 3:29), plus G1437 ἐάν with 1 Corinthians 6:18. A rare shared lexeme within one Testament, not a quotation of one text by another.

ἔνοχος: the docket word turned back on the accused verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ ἔνοχός (G1777, “liable to a condition, penalty or imputation”) is rare, in 8 verses; βλασφημία (G988) in 17. The Verifier pairs both with Mark 14:64, where the council hears what it calls blasphemy from Jesus and pronounces him ἔνοχος of death; Matthew 26:65 carries the same two lexemes. Mark uses ἔνοχος exactly twice, at 3:29 and 14:64, and both times in a blasphemy charge. Here the men who call the Holy Spirit unclean are told they are liable; there, the court declares Jesus liable and hands him over. Elsewhere the word is the law's ordinary language of exposure to a verdict (Matthew 5:22; James 2:10). The frequency data and the pairing are the Verifier's; the irony of the reversal is ⚙ observation, not a claim that Mark 14:64 cites Mark 3:29.

Mark 14:64 · Matthew 26:65 · James 2:10

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1777 ἔνοχος (in 8 vv) and G988 βλασφημία (in 17 vv) with Mark 14:64 and Matthew 26:65; G1777 alone with James 2:10. Rare shared lexemes, all New Testament, so a verbal link within one Testament; no text quotes another.

The same logion in Matthew and Luke structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The saying stands in all three Synoptics. The Verifier matches Matthew 12:31 on βλασφημία (G988, 17 vv), ἀφίημι (G863) and πνεῦμα (G4151), and Luke 12:10 on βλασφημέω (G987), ἀφίημι and υἱός (G5207). Barnes and JFB both simply refer the reader across to Matthew 12:22-37 and Luke 11, and Gill twice ends his note by sending the reader to his own exposition of Matthew 12:31-32. The shared lexemes are common words, so the strength of this link is not lexical rarity but the fact that it is one saying recorded three times, with the Markan form alone attaching the occasion (v. 30) and alone reading “eternal sin” rather than a clause about the age to come. Tiered structural rather than verbal deliberately: the common vocabulary would not carry a verbal claim on its own.

Matthew 12:31 · Luke 12:10

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G988 βλασφημία (17 vv), G863 ἀφίημι (131 vv), G4151 πνεῦμα (344 vv) with Matthew 12:31; G987 βλασφημέω (34 vv), G863, G5207 υἱός (344 vv) with Luke 12:10. All high-frequency, so the basis recorded is the shared logion and pattern, not a rare lexeme; no quotation claimed.

The sin with no sacrifice provided for it structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Israel's law already knew a category of offence that the sacrificial system did not cover: the sin committed with a high hand, for which the offender was cut off rather than atoned (Numbers 15:30-31), and blasphemy of the Name, for which the law prescribed death and no offering (Leviticus 24:10-16). Jesus' sentence reproduces that legal shape in the vocabulary of the gospel: an amnesty over every ἁμάρτημα, and outside it one deed that οὐκ ἔχει ἄφεσιν. The Torah's blasphemy case is also strikingly close in its occasion, a word spoken against the Holy One in the hearing of witnesses. No shared Strong's number is possible or claimed: Mark is Greek, Numbers and Leviticus are Hebrew, so the recorded basis is the shared legal and structural pattern only, and the connection is ⚙ inference from the texts, not something the Verifier or any voice in this brief states.

Numbers 15:30-31 · Leviticus 24:16

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so shared Strong's lexemes are impossible by definition and no verbal tier is available. Basis: a shared legal structure, a bounded category of sin that the sacrificial provision does not reach, plus a shared occasion, blasphemy of the divine Name. Pattern only, no quotation.

They rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The charge of v. 30 is not new in the canon. Isaiah 63:10 says of the wilderness generation that they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit, one of the very few places in the Hebrew Scriptures that names the Spirit as holy and as the party offended; and Isaiah 6:9-10 describes the hardening in which people see and hear the works of God and still will not perceive, which is the condition Cambridge describes as defiance of light and knowledge. Mark's scribes have watched an exorcism and assigned it to the devil. Again the pairing is cross-Testament and therefore carries no shared-lexeme basis; it is a motif claim, and the specific reading of Isaiah 63:10 here is ⚙, not sourced from the commentators in this brief.

Isaiah 63:10 · Isaiah 6:9-10

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): no shared Strong's numbers possible, so no verbal tier. Basis: the shared motif of the Holy Spirit as the party grieved and resisted, and of hardening against evidence already seen. Motif only, not a quotation or echo of wording.

Is this the “sin unto death” of 1 John? flagged: verify source

✦ Cambridge ends its note by identifying the state it has described with “the sin unto death spoken of in 1 John 5:16.” That identification is an interpretive move, not a datum: the Verifier's candidate list produces no shared lexeme between this unit and 1 John 5:16, John's phrase is ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον rather than αἰώνιον ἁμάρτημα, and the Johannine context is prayer for a brother rather than blasphemy by opponents. It is recorded here because a named voice in the brief asserts it, and flagged because the link rests on that voice's judgment alone.

1 John 5:16

basis: No Verifier-computed basis: the pair shares no Strong's lexeme in the candidate list. The only support is Cambridge's own cross-reference at Mark 3:29, and the two phrases differ in wording (ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον versus αἰωνίου ἁμαρτήματος). Contested; recorded, not confirmed.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Anointed works by the Spirit, so the slander strikes the anointing ancient/widely-held

⚙ The reason blasphemy against the Spirit is singled out is not that the Spirit ranks above the Son; Jesus has just said that blasphemies whatsoever are forgiven, his own included. It is that the works in front of these witnesses were the Messiah's works done in the Spirit's power. Benson states the identification plainly, that the sin is the ascribing to the power of the devil those miracles which Christ wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost, and Gill says they knew in their own consciences that the works were wrought by the finger and Spirit of God. That reading joins Mark's scene to the promise of the Anointed on whom the Spirit rests (Isaiah 42:1) and to the apostolic summary that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and he went about doing good and healing (Acts 10:38). To call that Spirit unclean is to attack the anointing by which the Christ is Christ. This is the widely-held reading, recorded in this unit by Benson, Gill and the Pulpit Commentary alike.

Isaiah 42:1 · Acts 10:38

“All sins” is a purchased word ancient/widely-held

⚙ The scope of v. 28 is not divine leniency but a transaction. Henry ties the two together in one clause, that the gospel promises forgiveness for the greatest sins and sinners because Christ has purchased it, and Gill distinguishes pardon procured by the blood of Christ from pardon applied by the Spirit. Paul's word for the deeds so covered is the rare ἁμάρτημα of this very unit: the sins previously committed, passed over in the propitiation (Romans 3:25). Mark 3:28 is therefore the widest statement of the atonement's reach on Jesus' own lips before the cross that secures it, and the accompanying warning is not a limit on the purchase but a description of what it is to refuse the Spirit who applies it (the same Spirit given with the ἄφεσις preached at Acts 2:38).

Romans 3:25 · Acts 2:38

ἔνοχος: he warns of the charge and then receives it novel

⚙ Mark uses ἔνοχος twice. At 3:29 it falls on men who call the Holy Spirit unclean; at 14:64 the high priest's court declares Jesus ἔνοχος of death for blasphemy, and hands him to be led out and killed, as Leviticus 24 directed for the blasphemer. The one person in the narrative who could not possibly be liable is the one the court convicts, on the charge he had warned others of, spoken with words that were in fact true confession. So the guilt named in 3:29 as unforgivable ends up pronounced over the Forgiver. ⚙ marks this as the tool's own reading: no voice in this brief draws the connection, the Verifier supplies only the shared lexemes, and it is offered as a novel observation to be tested, not as the church's settled exegesis.

Mark 14:64 · Leviticus 24:16

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbers as supplied in the brief; the commentary is verbatim public-domain material, quoted by anchors and expanded mechanically, never retyped.

Word order: the brief's index sequence for 3:29 and 3:30 follows English reading order rather than Greek. At 3:29 index 0 is δ’, though δέ is postpositive and cannot stand first, and indices 5 to 8 list two accusative articles before Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα, which is the interlinear's way of aligning the Greek τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον with “the Holy Spirit.” The literal renderings above restore the standard Greek sequence; every surface form, gloss, Strong's number and parse is taken unchanged from the brief.

Variant: 3:29 ends, in the reading the brief carries and the Pulpit Commentary prints, ἔνοχός ἐστιν αἰωνίου ἁμαρτήματος, “guilty of an eternal sin.” Ellicott records the alternative behind the older English “eternal damnation” and argues on internal grounds for “sin”; Gill notes the Vulgate and an ancient copy of Beza's reading “an eternal sin.” The notes and synthesis above follow the brief's text but the reader should know that the English tradition he may have memorised rests on the other reading.

Lexical honesty: the lexicon entries supplied are terse, and several break off mid-clause in the source (G1519 εἰς ends inside its parenthesis, G3004 λέγω at “properly, to ‘lay’ forth, i”, G4151 πνεῦμα at “a current of air, i”); the root glosses quoted in the notes above are those entries as given, with nothing added to them and no fuller lexicon consulted. The form ἔλεγον is filed in the brief under G2036 ἔπω, the defective verb supplying these tenses, which is why the lexicon shows no separate entry for it as λέγω.

Uncertain: whether these scribes had actually committed the sin, or only approached it, is genuinely disputed inside this brief. Gill and Benson say they were guilty of it; Ellicott expressly declines to identify their words with it. The synthesis sides with Ellicott's restraint and says so. Frequency counts cited in the thread badges are the Verifier's, not independently recounted here. Several voices (Poole above all, who only cross-refers to Mark 3:22, and JFB, who refers to Matthew 12) carry no substantive comment on these three verses, so the unit necessarily leans on Pulpit, Cambridge, Ellicott, Gill and Benson.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)