Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit: Speaking against our common Holy Wind

Many people still wonder about whether they've infringed upon something called "the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit."  A nebulous, but serious sounding act.  Translation is part of the problem. Here's how the new translation of Matthew, Jesus and the Presence of Mystery (JPM) has it:

Therefore I tell you, every failure and harmful word can go away from  us,
      but continual harmful words against our very Wind never really leave us.
Whoever speaks a harmful word against one child of humanity,
      it can go away from them.
but whoever speaks against our common Holy Wind, it never really leaves them,
      not in this stage of our unconditional being, nor in the next.
                                                                                                     Matthew Chapter 12

This translation from the 12th chapter of Matthew is strikingly different than many conventional renderings.  Yet, the language remains literal, though alternative in the way it conveys the original wording.  Rather than simply transliterate the Greek word BLASPHEMEO as blasphemy, JPM actually translates.  That is, we "speak against" or, if present tense, "continual harmful words."  Similarly, PNEUMA can be "spirit", but is more literally "wind."  And the etymology of "age" lies in the sense in which it is "unconditional being."  Though the phrase "blasphemy of the Holy Spirit" is not clear or helpful in today's cultural context, it is clear that "speaking against our common Holy Wind" still has important consequences in our lives.

Jesus and the Presence of Mystery

In the next few days  we'll announce the publication of a new translation of the Book of Matthew.  Jesus and the Presence of Mystery is based on the earlier translations of the Etymological New Testament (an ultra-literal, stilted English translation) and on The Immanence Bible.

There is a clear need for essentially literal translation of scripture that is also less anthropomorphic than our traditional renderings.  In Jesus and the Presence of Mystery (JPM), the Greek word THEOS is translated by the English word Mystery rather than by God.  The etymology of our English word God is quite distinct from that of its Greek counterpart, THEOS.  The goal is to set forth Jesus' life and teachings with fresh wording that uses much less of the traditional religious language.  Thus we hear Jesus teach, in the Sermon on the Mount, about "the realm of upward vision" rather than "the kingdom of heaven."  This new version often employs very literal translation, e.g. "upward vision" for OURANOS, to allow the reader to perhaps listen more deeply to the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth.