Punctuation of the Text:
As Nestle, Textus Receptus, Tischendorf, Kilpatrick, Merk, and Souter are punctuated, with no comma after anthrōpōn ‘men,’ the word panta ‘all’ modifies ta hamartēmata ‘sins,’ i.e. ‘all sins’ (so King James Version, American Standard Version, Revised Standard Version, Translator’s New Testament, Moffatt, The Modern Speech New Testament); if, however, a comma be placed after anthrōpōn ‘men’ as is done by Westcott and Hort, Lagrange, Taylor, panta ‘all’ is used absolutely as the subject of aphethēsetai ‘will be forgiven,’ i.e. ‘all (things) will be forgiven,’ while ta hamartēmata kai hai blasphēmiai ‘the sins and the blasphemies’ stand in apposition to ‘all,’ further explaining it (so Manson, Goodspeed, O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada).
Exegesis:
amēn (13 times in Mark) ‘truly,’ ‘verily,’ ‘solemnly’: the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew ʾamen from the verb ʾaman ‘to be firm.’ This Hebrew adverb is used to emphasize the importance of the statement that follows.
aphethēsetai (cf. 2.5) ‘will be forgiven’: the statement is not to be understood absolutely as if Jesus were saying that all sins will assuredly be forgiven by God, whether or not men change or repent. As the context makes clear, he is saying that there is forgiveness for all sins, all sins are capable of being forgiven, except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which cannot be forgiven.
tois huiois tōn anthrōpōn ‘to the sons of men’: the Semitic way of saying ‘men’ in a general way.
ta hamartēmata (here and next verse) ‘sins’: in Mark the distinction between hamartēma as ‘specific act of sin’ and hamartia as ‘sin in general,’ ‘the sinful principle,’ is not observed (cf. 1.5).
hai blasphēmiai hosa ean blasphēmēsōsin ‘and whatever blasphemies they may utter.’
hai blasphēmiai (7.22; 14.64) ‘blasphemies,’ i.e. impious or irreverent speech against God.
hosa (cf. 3.8) ‘as many … as’: though the neuter form of the word does not agree with the feminine hai blasphēmiai ‘the blasphemies’ the sense is quite clear: ‘as many times as they may blaspheme,’ ‘however often they utter blasphemies.’
blasphēmeō (cf. 2.7) ‘blaspheme’: “defiant hostility to God … in speech which defies His power and majesty” (Vincent Taylor).
Translation:
Truly qualifies the certainty of the statement all sins will be …. In many languages this type of qualifier must be more closely associated with the verb expression which it modifies, e.g. ‘I tell you, All sins will certainly be forgiven….’
For sins see 1.4; for forgiveness see 1.4; and for blasphemies see 2.7. In this context, however, an expression such as ‘bad words’ or ‘harmful sayings’ (often used as an equivalent of blasphemy, at least in certain contexts) is often inadequate. At the same time, one cannot use ‘to make oneself equal with God’ (as a rendering of blaspheme), for this is too specific. The better rendering would be more or less equivalent to ‘speaking against God’ or ‘talking God down.’
Sons of men, if translated literally into some languages, would mean nothing more than ‘children’ (San Mateo del Mar Huave, Shilluk). Of course, God is usually regarded as being quite forgiving toward children, and hence the reader is likely to miss completely the significance of this passage, in which the real meaning is simply ‘will be forgiven people.’ Toraja-Sa’dan uses the expression ‘the offspring of Adam.’
Since there are two subjects of will be forgiven, namely, all sins and whatever blasphemies … (see above, under Punctuation of the Text for the alternative), it is necessary in many languages to change the order so that both of the subject expressions are in a parallel relationship to the verb, whether preceding or following, e.g. ‘all sins and whatever blasphemies … will be forgiven.’
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .