Therefore (literally “Because of this,” see verse 27) I tell you is translated “And so I tell you this” by New English Bible and “And so I tell you” by New Jerusalem Bible. Normally the phrase implies a conclusion based upon something previously said. However, the context is less than clear regarding what Jesus refers to by “this.” One of the problems is the presence of verse 30, which apparently disrupts the connection between verse 31 and the Beelzebul controversy of verses 24-29. New English Bible gives some help to the reader by making verse 30 a separate paragraph. Some have changed the meaning slightly with a phrase such as “In conclusion I tell you.”

Every sin and blasphemy: some languages will expect the nouns sin and blasphemy to be reformulated as verbs or verb phrases. Good News Translation renders blasphemy as a noun phrase (“any evil thing they say”), though retaining the noun sin. In the Septuagint the noun blasphemy is used primarily of the evil things that are said against God, and so Good News Translation gives the alternative restructuring “evil things they say against God.” Even here, this is perhaps the more satisfactory interpretation; Barclay and Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition, for example, have “insult to God” as a rendering of the noun. The only other major English translations that avoid the technical term blasphemy are New English Bible (“slander”) and An American Translation (“abusive speech”). The word occurs also in 15.19; 26.65.

For more on blasphemy, see 9.3. Here it can be “insulting God,” “spoiling God’s name,” “saying evil about God,” or “speaking against God.”

Sin can be “evil” or “evil things,” or, since it contrasts with blasphemy, “wrong things against others.” The text says every sin and blasphemy. Depending on the type of sentence constructed, it may be rendered “all the evil things and every insult of God” or “any of the evil things and any of the things they say against God.”

Will be forgiven men: two observations are important: men is here equivalent to people in general, and the assumed agent of the passive will be forgiven is God. The following translation may then result: “God will forgive the evil things that people do to one another, and he will even forgive the evil things that they say against him.” Will be forgiven is often rendered “can be forgiven” (so Good News Translation) because the forgiveness is not automatic. It means God will forgive if the conditions are met.

But the blasphemy against the Spirit is literally “but the blasphemy of the Spirit.” However, it is evident that “of” here means against. As the use of the capitalized Spirit indicates, Revised Standard Version understands the reference to be to the “Holy Spirit” (Good News Translation) or “Spirit of God.”

Blasphemy in this second occurrence in the verse should be translated as the first time, except it now refers to speaking evil about or insulting God’s Spirit.

For Spirit see 1.18, where “Holy Spirit” is discussed. Here “God’s Spirit” will probably be best.

Will not be forgiven may need to be transformed into an active construction: “God will not forgive.” The second half of this verse may then be translated “but God will not forgive those people who say evil things about the Holy Spirit” or “but God will not forgive you when you say evil things against the Holy Spirit.”

What Jesus meant by the blasphemy against the Spirit must be decided upon the basis of the context alone. Immediately before making this pronouncement Jesus had healed a man who was born blind and who could not talk. He had not done this on his own power. The healing was the work of God’s Spirit, a conclusion which should have been obvious (and probably was obvious) to the Pharisees. However, they refused to believe and willfully ascribed this work of God’s Spirit to Satan. The reason that they could not be forgiven was because they were unwilling to open their eyes to the truth and acknowledge the presence of God active in the ministry of Jesus.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .