Lukas 11:15

11:15 But some of them said, “By the power of Beelzebul, ¹  the ruler ²  of demons, he casts out demons.”

Matius 12:31-34

12:31 For this reason I tell you, people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, ³  but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 12:32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven. ⁴  But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, ⁵  either in this age or in the age to come.

Trees and Their Fruit

12:33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad ⁶  and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is known by its fruit. 12:34 Offspring of vipers! How are you able to say anything good, since you are evil? For the mouth speaks from what fills the heart.

Yakobus 3:5-8

3:5 So too the tongue is a small part of the body, ⁷  yet it has great pretensions. ⁸  Think ⁹  how small a flame sets a huge forest ablaze. 3:6 And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents ¹⁰  the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It ¹¹  pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell. ¹² 

3:7 For every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and sea creature ¹³  is subdued and has been subdued by humankind. ¹⁴  3:8 But no human being can subdue the tongue; it is a restless ¹⁵  evil, full of deadly poison.

[11:15]  ¹ tn Grk “By Beelzebul.”

[11:15]  sn Beelzebul is another name for Satan. So some people recognized Jesus’ work as supernatural, but called it diabolical.

[11:15]  ² tn Or “prince.”

[12:31]  ³ tn Grk “every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men.”

[12:32]  ⁴ tn Grk “it will be forgiven him.”

[12:32]  ⁵ tn Grk “it will not be forgiven him.”

[12:32]  sn Whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. This passage has troubled many people, who have wondered whether or not they have committed this sin. Three things must be kept in mind: (1) the nature of the sin is to ascribe what is the obvious work of the Holy Spirit (e.g., releasing people from Satan’s power) to Satan himself; (2) it is not simply a momentary doubt or sinful attitude, but is indeed a settled condition which opposes the Spirit’s work, as typified by the religious leaders who opposed Jesus; and (3) a person who is concerned about it has probably never committed this sin, for those who commit it here (i.e., the religious leaders) are not in the least concerned about Jesus’ warning.

[12:33]  ⁶ tn Grk “rotten.” The word σαπρός, modifying both “tree” and “fruit,” can also mean “diseased” (L&N 65.28).

[3:5]  ⁷ tn Grk “a small member.”

[3:5]  ⁸ tn Grk “boasts of great things.”

[3:5]  ⁹ tn Grk “Behold.”

[3:6]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “makes itself,” “is made.”

[3:6]  ¹¹ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[3:6]  ¹² sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36).

[3:7]  ¹³ tn Grk (plurals), “every kind of animals and birds, of reptiles and sea creatures.”

[3:7]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “the human species.”

[3:8]  ¹⁵ tc Most mss (C Ψ 1739^c Ï as well as a few versions and fathers) read “uncontrollable” (ἀκατασχετόν, akatasceton), while the most important witnesses (א A B K P 1739* latt) have “restless” (ἀκατάστατον, akatastaton). Externally, the latter reading should be preferred. Internally, however, things get a bit more complex. The notion of being uncontrollable is well suited to the context, especially as a counterbalance to v. 8a, though for this very reason scribes may have been tempted to replace ἀκατάστατον with ἀκατασχετόν. However, in a semantically parallel early Christian text, ἀκατάστατος (akatastato") was considered strong enough of a term to denounce slander as “a restless demon” (Herm. 27:3). On the other hand, ἀκατάστατον may have been substituted for ἀκατασχετόν by way of assimilation to 1:8 (especially since both words were relatively rare, scribes may have replaced the less familiar with one that was already used in this letter). On internal evidence, it is difficult to decide, though ἀκατασχετόν is slightly preferred. However, in light of the strong support for ἀκατάστατον, and the less-than-decisive internal evidence, ἀκατάστατον is preferred instead.