BLASPHEMY
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BLASPHEMY
cated his errors to the King of Poland, Sigismund Au- gustus. He afterward went to the court of John Si- gismund, prince of Transylvania, and in 15GG he held at Wei senburg (Alba Julia') a public conference with the Lutherans, and with such success that he persuaded that prince and man}- of the nobility of the province to embrace his heresy. See Transylvania. After the death of Sigismund he returned once more to Po- land, and became physician to the king, Stephen Ba- thori. Socinus complained that Blandrata, in his later years, favored the Jesuits. He is said to have been at last strangled by his nephew in a quarrel between 1585 and 1592. — Biog. Univ. iv, 572; Mosheim, Ch. Hist. cent, xvi, sec. iii, pt. ii, ch. iv, § 13; Henke, G. ■'■" roii/i'ssin Antitrinitaria, ejusque confutatio, auctore Matthia Flacio ; Landon, Eccl. Diet. s. v.
Blasphemy is an Anglicized form of the Greek •word ji\aa<pi]ixia, and in its technical English sense signifies the speaking evil of God (in Heb. U'd 2j?3 (TllTP, to curse the name of the Lord), and in this sense it is found Psa. lxxiv, 18 ; Isa. Hi, 5 ; Rom. ii, 24, etc. But, according to its derivation (jSXanrw <p<)^y quasi jSAaif^n/tifaj), it may mean any species of calumny and abuse (or even an unlucky word, Eurip. Ion. 1187) ; see 1 Kings xxi, 10 ; Acts xviii, 6; Jude 9, etc. Hence in the Sept. it is used to render ~"?3, Job ii, 5; tj'ia, 2 Kings xix, 6; H3^, 2 Kings xix, 4; and 3SP, Hos. vii, 16, so that it means " reproach," "derision," etc. ; and it has even a wider use, as 2 Sam. xii, 14, where it means "to despise Judaism," and 1 Mace, ii, 6, where f3\aff<j>t]itia = idolatry. In Sir. iii, 18 we have it applied to filial impiety, where it is equivalent to "accursed" (Schleusner, Thesaur. s. v.). In the Auth. Engl. Vers, "blaspheme," etc., occasionally represent the following Heb. words: tPS, barak' ; "HS, ga- daph' ; Cj'lH, charaph' ; 2J?3, nakaV ; VW, naats'.
I. Among the Israelites injurious language toward Jehovah was punished, like a heathenish and enpit .1 crime, with stoning, as in the case of the son of Shelc- niith (Lev. xxv, 16; Josephus, Ant. iv, 8, 6; comp. Otho, Lex. Rabb. p. 104 sq.). This, however, did not include any prohibition of blasphemy against foreign deities (Exod. xxii, 28 ; Lev. xxiv, 15), as Philo (Opp. ii. 166, 219) and Josephus (Ant. iv, 8, 10; Apion, ii, 33) suppose, the practice of which among the Jews seems to be alluded to by Pliny (xiii, 9: "gens contumelia numinum insignis"). The injunction against disre- spect in Exod. xxii, 28, refers to magistrates (DiflPN) ; comp. Selden, Jus nat.etgent. ii, 13; Michaelis, Mos. I; < It. v, 158 sq. The Jews interpreted the command in Lev. xxiv, 16 as prohibiting the utterance of the divine name under any circumstance (comp. Num. i, 17; see Hartmann, Verbind. d. A. unci N. T. p. 49 sq., 434 ; also Philo, Opp. ii, 166), and hence never pro- nounce the word Jehovah (q. v.), a superstition that still lias its analogous customs in the East (see Eosen- muller on Exod. iii, 13; Michaelis, Mos. RecM, v, 163 Bq. i. They also construed Exod. xxiii, 13 so as to hold themselves bound to give nicknames to the hea- then deities ; hence their use of Bosheth for Baal, Beth- aven for Bethel, Beelzebnl for Beelzebub, Hos. iv, 5, etc. When a person heard blasphemy lie laid his hand on the head of the offender, to symbolize his sole re- sponsibility f,,r the guilt, and, rising on his feet, tore his robe, which might never again be mended. (On the mystical reasons for these observances, sec Light- foot, Ear. ffebr. Matt, xxvi, 65.)
II. Blasphemy, in the theological sense, consists in irreverent or insulting language toward God or his perfections < Blasph mia > si locutio cowtum Uosa inDeum; and AagUBtine, De Morib. Munich, lib. ii, c. 11, Jam vero Blasphemia non accipitur nisi mala verba de Deo dicere). Primarily, according to Dr. Campbell, blas- phemy denotes calumny, detraction, reproachful or almsive language, against whomsoever it be vented.
It is in Scripture applied to reproaches not aimed against God only, but man also (Rom. iii, 8 ; xiv, 16 ; 1 Pet. iv, 4, Gr.). It is, however, more peculiarly re- strained to evil or reproachful words offered to God. According to Lindwood, blasphemy is an injury offer- ed to God by denying that which is due and belonging to him, or attributing to him what is not agreeable to his nature. "Three things," says a divine, "are es- sential to this crime : 1, God must be the object ; 2, the words spoken or written, independently of conse- quences which others may derive from them, must be injurious in their nature ; and, 3, he who commits the crime must do it knowingly. This is real blasphemy ; but there is a relative blasphemy, as when a man may be guilty ignorantly, by propagating opinions which dishonor God, the tendency of which he does not per- ceive. A man may be guilty of this constructively; for if he speak freely against received errors it will be construed into blasphemy." See Cavils.