Blasphemy (slander)(988) blasphemia

Slander (988) (blasphemia from blapto = hinder, injure, hurt + pheme = report, rumor, fame from phemí = to speak; see study of verb form blasphemeo) refers to verbal abuse against someone which denotes the very worst type of slander. It is speech which seeks to wound someone's reputation by evil reports, evil speaking. Abusive speech against someone by telling lies or otherwise offending them. In Classical Greek blasphemia/blasphemeo represented the strongest expression of personal defamation. Blasphemia means literally to speak to harm and in general therefore means to bring into ill repute and so to slander, to defame (to harm the reputation of by libel or slander), speak evil of, to rail at (revile or scold in harsh, insolent, or abusive language and rail stresses an unrestrained berating), to speak calumny (noun form = a misrepresentation intended to blacken another’s reputation = the act of uttering false charges or misrepresentations maliciously calculated to damage another’s reputation), to calumniate (verb form = to utter maliciously false statements, charges, or imputations about - calumniate imputes malice to the speaker and falsity to the assertions) Blasphemia is speech that is harmful, which denigrates or defames and thus refers to reviling, denigration, disrespect, slander, abusive speech (as against a person's reputation), evil speaking. In the Revelation blasphemia refers to that evil speech directed against the nature and power of God and especially characterizes the speech of the Antichrist (Rev 13:1, 5, 6) The idea of blasphemia is that the words spoken hurt or smite the reputation of another. It means to destroy or discredit another's good name by speaking evil against them. Blasphemy is an injury offered to God, by denying that which is due and belonging to him, on attributing to him that which is not agreeable to his nature. -- Linwood. It is worth noting that in the OT blasphemy was a most serious sin, so serious in fact, that the Law of Moses decreed that anyone who blasphemed the name of Jehovah God should be stoned (Lv 24:10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16). This law even included foreigners who were guests in the camp of Israel. Barclay... When this is used of words against man, it means slander; when it is used of words against God, it means blasphemy. It means insulting man or God. J. Vernon McGee explains we are not to repeat gossip. It has been said that you can’t believe everything you hear today, but you can repeat it! ... Many evil reports are passed from person to person without even a shred of evidence that the report is true. Another old saying is that some people will believe anything if it is whispered to them! (McGee, J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson) The Life Application Bible has an interesting note on this gossip, referring to it as "passive slander" -- "We don’t often call it by its right name, but gossip is passive slander, and it is a massive problem in churches today. It may be even worse than slander due to its dishonesty. A slanderer actively wants to attack and hurt someone, so that person is easily identified. Gossipers don’t care whether or not a person is hurt as they pass along dishonest and harmful information. Churches can save a lot of headaches and heartaches by not allowing gossip (or gossipers) to gain a foothold." (Barton, B, et al: The NIV Life Application Commentary Series: Tyndale) Matthew Henry comments that we are "to speak evil of none, unjustly and falsely, or unnecessarily, without call, and when it may do hurt but no good to the person himself or any other. If no good can be spoken, rather than speak evil unnecessarily, say nothing. We must never take pleasure in speaking ill of others, nor make the worst of any thing, but the best we can. We must not go up and down as tale-bearers, carrying ill-natured stories, to the prejudice of our neighbour’s good name and the destruction of brotherly love. Misrepresentations, or insinuations of bad intentions, or of hypocrisy in what is done, things out of our reach or cognizance, these come within the reach of this prohibition. As this evil is too common, so it is of great malignity." (Bolding added) (Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible) The related verb blasphemeo refers to a “malicious misrepresentation”. Note that in several of the New Testament uses of blasphemeo, we see that the actions of professed Christians can speak louder than their words and thus convey "malicious misrepresentation" of God and/or the Gospel to those who observe those actions. In such situations God and His Gospel have in effect been blasphemed. Thus Christians for their part must take care that they do not, by their own conduct, give cause for blasphemy against God or against his word. Wiersbe - Blasphemy involves much more than taking God’s name in vain, though that is at the heart of it. A person blasphemes God when he takes His Word lightly and even jests about it or when he deliberately defies God to judge Him. (Bolding added) (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor) MacArthur adds that... To slander people, however, is to blaspheme God, inasmuch as He created men and women (cf. James 3:9)...People are to be treated with dignity because they are made in the image of God. The believer’s speech must not be marred by insults or disparaging remarks directed at others. James laments that “from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way” (James 3:10). (MacArthur, J. Colossians. Chicago: Moody Press) (Blasphemia in context is) the ongoing defamation of someone that rises from a bitter heart. (MacArthur, J: Ephesians. Chicago: Moody Press) Webster 1828 - An indignity offered to God by words or writing; reproachful, contemptuous or irreverent words uttered impiously against Jehovah...In the middle ages, blasphemy was used to denote simply the blaming or condemning of a person or thing. Among the Greeks, to blaspheme was to use words of ill omen, which they were careful to avoid. Blasphemia in the present context is related to wrath and anger but is a more enduring manifestation of inward anger, that shows itself in reviling. It refers to an attempt to belittle and cause someone to fall into disrepute or receive a bad reputation. Blasphemia is the ongoing defamation of someone that rises from a bitter heart. Poole - And evil speaking - either with respect to God or man, though the latter seems particularly meant here; railing, reviling, reproaching, &c., the ordinary effects of immoderate anger. Vincent - The word does not necessarily imply blasphemy against God. It is used of reviling, calumny, evil-speaking in general. Blasphemia - 18x in 17v - Mt 12:31; 15:19; 26:65; Mk 3:28; 7:22; 14:64; Lk 5:21; Jn 10:33; Eph 4:31; Col 3:8-note; 1Ti 6:4; Jude 1:9; Rev 2:9-note; Rev 13:1-note, Rev 13:5-note, Rev 13:6-note; Rev 17:3-note. NAS = abusive language(1), blasphemies(4), blasphemous(2), blasphemy(6), railing(1), slander(3), slanders(1). In the non-apocryphal Septuagint only in Ezekiel 35:12 Matthew 15:19 (cp Mk 7:21, 22) For out of the heart (the unregenerate, God hating, "black" heart is the source) come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. Mark 14:64 “You have heard the blasphemy (false accusation against Jesus, cp Lk 5:21, Jn 10:33 = they were going to stone Him!); how does it seem to you?” And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death. Col 3:8-note But now you also, put (aorist imperative) them all aside (because you have been raised up with Christ, because Christ is your life, because you are looking for His appearance - see Col 3:1, 2, 3,4): anger, wrath, malice, slander (blasphemia), and abusive speech (aischrologia = foul-mouthed from aischros = filthy or improper + lego = say) from your mouth. Lawrence Richards - In the NT, blasphemy indicates a hostile attitude toward God that is expressed directly or indirectly in contemptuous or slanderous ways. The verb is found some thirty-five times of the fifty-nine occurrences of the word group. What we call swearing may be categorized as blasphemy in that it treats God's name contemptuously or lightly. But the hostility implied in the NT use of the word shows us that, biblically, blasphemy is far more than a casual curse. It is striking that one cause of the contempt in which unbelievers may hold the Lord is the actions of those who claim to believe. The Gentiles blasphemed God's name because of the hypocrisy they saw in the Jews (Ro 2:24-note). How important it is, then, that our lives honor the Lord so that we elicit praise, rather than contempt, for him. (Richards, L O: Expository Dictionary of Bible Words: Regency) The point of Richard's note is that not only one's speech but one's behavior (including believers) can be blasphemous! It is tragic that many Christians speak contemptuously of politicians and other public figures, not realizing that in doing so they hinder the work of redemption. David's prayer is apropos when we are tempted to speak inappropriately and in a malicious, demeaning way of others Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips. (Ps 141:3) (See Spurgeon's comment) You are writing a Gospel, A chapter each day, By the deeds that you do And the words that you say. Men read what you write, Whether faithful or true: Just what is the Gospel According to you? --- Author unknown Put away (142) (airo) means to lift up something, such as an anchor of a ship to that the ship could set sail (see Acts 27:13). It is used figuratively here to picture taking up and carrying away (removing) these evil works just mentioned along with malice. It means to make a clean sweep of these vices! Imagine these vices as the worn out, filthy, dirty coat our old unregenerate self once wore continually, for it was the only "coat" we owned, having inherited it from our forefather Adam (Ro 5:12-note, 1Cor 15:22). Now, that the old self has been crucified with Christ and made effectively inoperative (it can still spring into action if "fed" or stimulated!), let us put off the old "coat" (put away) and put on the new garment of Christ-likeness, that the world might see Him in our words and works (His life lived out through us, a new life, a supernatural life, an aroma of life to some who see, and an aroma of death to others who see and reject Christ's offer of eternal life). The aorist imperative is a command to be carried out even with a sense of urgency. The means to let it BE put away - I get the idea that we have to yield to the Holy Spirit, so that He can exert the influence or effect on our hearts which allows us to carry out this command. And if you doubt that this is the sense, just try to put away one of these negative traits in the "heat of the moment!" Expositor's Bible Commentary - "let it be removed" and therefore "have no more to do with it." Every kind or any trace (pas = "all") of these blemishes is to be forsaken. (Gaebelein, F, Editor: Expositor's Bible Commentary 6-Volume New Testament. Zondervan Publishing) ALONG WITH ALL MALICE: sun pase kakia: (Genesis 4:8; 27:41; 37:4,21; Lv 19:17,18; 2Sa 13:22; Pr 10:12; 26:24,25; Eccl 7:9; Ro 1:29; 1Co 5:8; 14:20; Col 3:8; Titus 3:3; 1Jn 3:12,15) With (sun) is a conjunction signifying a closer, more intimate relationship than the other Greek word for "with" (meta), and here indicates the intimate association of all previous 5 vices into one evil bundle with malice. All (3956) (pas) means all without exception. We are called to be holy and holy is practically related to wholly, necessitating that we put all malice wholly away that we might be holy as He is holy! H A Ironside emphasizes "all" of "all malice"... “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all—a-l-l—malice.” Now, you see, if you do not live up to that, you are not living a real Christian life. This is Christianity in the power of the Holy Ghost. And we are not merely told to put these things away, there must be the positive side. (Practical Expository Addresses on the Epistle to the Ephesians) I wish that as Christians we would be obedient to this word of God! Is there any bitterness in your heart against anyone on earth? Do you say, “but you don’t know how I have been tested, how I have been tried, insulted, offended?” If you had not been offended there would be no reason for the bitterness at all, but Paul said, “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.” If you do not live up to that, you are not living a real Christian life. This is Christianity lived in the power of the Holy Ghost. (Ephesians 4 - Ironside's Notes) Expositor's Bible Commentary... The poisonous source of all theSe regrettable reassertions of the "old self" (Ep 4:22-note) is named as "malice" (kakia "bad feeling"). (Gaebelein, F, Editor: Expositor's Bible Commentary 6-Volume New Testament. Zondervan Publishing)

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Blasphemy (slander)(988) blasphemia

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