Matthew 12:32 - Exposition

Our Lord applies the general principle of Matthew 12:31 to "blasphemy" against himself. This might be, comparatively speaking, innocuous if it was merely defamation or detraction of him as man; but if, on the other hand, it referred to his work in such a way as to mean a real detraction of God's actions considered as Divine, it indicated a state of feeling which did not admit of forgiveness ( vide supra ) . If it be asked whether the individual Pharisees referred to in Matthew 12:24-28 had committed this sin, the answer depends upon whether they had recognized the hand of God as such, and had, notwithstanding, wilfully rejected it. If they had—as our Lord's tone seems to imply—then they had in fact committed it. Yet they may afterwards have repented, and so have come under a different category. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man ( Matthew 8:20 , note); e.g. his birth, the circumstances of his life on earth, or his decisions respecting the sabbath or meats, or his disregard of the conventionalities of his time in his treatment of "sinners" anti publicans. All such things must have been included in those which St. Paul once blasphemed ( 1 Timothy 1:13 ). It shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh (such a word) against the Holy Ghost ( the Holy Spirit , Revised Version), it shall not be forgiven him ( οὐκ ἀφεθήσεται ). The margin of Westcott and Hort, with the Vatican manuscript, represents it still more strongly ( οὐ μὴ ἀφεθῇ ). Neither in this world , neither in the world to come. "The age to come" ( אבה מלועה ) included all that followed the coming of Messiah. Sometimes it was restricted to, or practically identified with, the reign of Messiah upon earth, but usually it included much more—eternity as well as time. It is in its widest sense that our Lord here uses it—contrasting the present order of things with that which will be the final result of his coming, his thoughts travelling far beyond the present course of this world to that which is to be hereafter.