Blasphemy was not exclusively a Jewish and Christian conception. To the Greeks also it was a high otl'ence ^\a<y (prjixelv els ^eot/s (Plato, Bej). 281 E). The majesty of the gods and the sacredness of the temples were jealously guarded. St. Paul, who reasoned against idolatry, never used oppro- brious language about the religion of Greece or Rome. It was better to light for the good than to rail at the bad. The town-clerk of Ephesus re- minds his fellow-citizens, roused to fury at the bare
152
BLASTUS
BLINDNESS
suspicion of dishonour to Artemis, that St. Paul and his companions were no blasphemei's of their goddess (oiVe /SXacr^T^/ioDcres rryv dtav vfjLujp, Ac 19'*^). ToAvards tlie cult of Ca3sar, wliicii was still kept within some bounds, the Apostle always main- tained the same correct attitude. But in the Apocalypse, written in the reign of Domitian, there is a startling change. That emperor, ' prob- ably the wickedest man who ever lived' (Renan), was the first to demand that Divine honours should be paid to himself in his lifetime. Not content, like his predecessors, with the title Divus, he caused himself to be styled in public documents ' Our Lord and God.' In Asia Minor the deification of Ctesar, the erection of temples in his honour, and the establishment of communes for the pro- motion of his worship became imperative, while the ottering of incense to his statue was made the ordinary test of loyalty to the Empire. To the prophet of Ephesus all this seemed rank blasphemy, and he delivered his soul by denouncing it. He personified the Empire as the Beast whose seven iieads had names of blasphemy (Rev 13^), to whom was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies (13^), who opened his mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle (13^); as the scarlet-coloured Beast who was covered all over with names of blas- phemies (17^). That a creature called an emperor should assume the attributes of the Creator, and compel the homage of an infatuated world, was nothing less than a Satanic triumph ; and whether men knew it or not, they ' were worshipping the dragon' (13^). Cf. art. Emperor- worship.
Literature. — In addition to artt. on 'Blasphemy' in HDB, EBi, SDB, and ERE, with the literature there cited, see the relevant Commentaries, esp. Sanday-Headlam, Romans^ (ICC, 1902) ; H. B. Swete, The Apocalypsie of St. John-, 1907 ; J. Armitagfe Robinson, Ephesians, 1903. See also CE, s.v., and Roman Catholic literature cited there.
James Strahan. BLASTUS. — Blastus, a chamberlain of Herod Agrippa I., is mentioned in Ac 12-* in connexion with an embassy which the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon sent to Herod at Csesarea in order to obtain terms of peace. The ambassadors obtained an audience of the prince through the infiuence of Blastus, who no doubt had been liberally bribed for his services. The incident of the embassy is not mentioned by Josephus nor is the name of Blastus, and this omission has been regarded by some {e.g. Krenkel) as throAving doubt on St. Luke's narrative, while others regard the incident as a proof of St. Luke's independence, or as an intentional supplement to the account of the Jewish historian. W. F. BOYD.
BLESSEDNESS This word occurs three times
in the AV (Ro 46- », Gal 4^5), but rightly disappears in the KV,* for the Gr. word fxaKapia/xos means not blessedness itself, but a pronouncement that some one is blessed. ' Blessedness ' is simply a convenient generalization, expressing the meaning which NT writers convey by the adjectives translated 'blessed' or 'happy' ( fiaKapios, evXoyyjTo^) and tlie participle euXoyrj/x^vos, ' blessed ' (practically an ad- jective) ; cf. tlie verb ^vevXoy^ofiat. (Ac 3'-^ Gal 3**) and /j-aKapl^o} (Lk P^, Ja 5'*). The various forms of evXoy^onat refer, literally, to being 'well spoken of,' and apparently always contain at least the latent thought of praise being conferred or hap])i- nesa ascribed ; fiaKcipios, however, expresses simply the possession of a quality, and for the ascription of this by others the verb /xaKapl^o} is needed.
Blessedness being a personal possession, any kind of action or utterance by others is of secondary importance in regard to it. Hence the crucial
* In the two passages in Roio. the RV substitutes 'blessing,' in Gal. ' gratulacion.'
word is /jiaKclpios, not evXoy^ofiai,, etc. The RV has in Jn 13", 1 P 3'^ 4" altered the AV tr. of fiaKdpios from ' happy ' to ' blessed ' ; it might well have made the same alteration in Ro 14-"-, 1 Co T'*". Massie would banish ' happy ' from the NT except in Ac 26^ {HDB, art. ' Happiness'). In the OT n-^x, ' O the happiness (or blessedness) of,' has been even more frequently translated ' hajipy ' when it might have been rendered ' blessed ' (cf. Ps 89'^ with 144'^, where the Hebrew is nif-x in both cases). Still, ' happy ' is more suitable in the OT than in the NT, for the rewards promised to the OT saints are of a far more material and temporal order (see Ps P'® ; the epilogue even of Job 42"''i' ; and HDB, art. 'Blessedness'). For the NT it is signi- ficant not only that /j-aKapios, which occurs very frequently, rejiresented to the Greeks the higher and even the Divine bliss, but also that the lower and more ordinary word fudalfidiv, with its sugges- tion of good luck, is entirely absent. For the use of ixaKcipios in the Gospels, see art. ' Beatitude ' in HDB and in DCG. This was the regular term in NT times for 'departed' (to the world of blessed- ness) ; cf. Germ, selig, and see Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East'-, 1911, p. 166. On the whole, it bears an exceedingly lofty meaning, though it is less spiritual in Luke than in Matthew. In 24'*^ Matthew need not be understood as ottering a coarsely material ' blessedness ' ; the servant is ad- vanced in the confidence of his master. There is no need to question the inwardness of any blessed- ness ottered elsewhere in Matthew. In Lk 12^^' ^ the spread table, and the flattering attentions re- ceived thereat, are somewhat prominent ; but Jesus is speaking metaphorically, and elsewhere literal, materialistic views are rebuked (IP^- ^'^ and perhaps ^4i5ff. y 'Yqq much stress must not therefore be laid on 6-"- 21, although there the blessedness of being ' filled ' seems to refer to food rather than, as in Matthew, to righteousness.