Mark 3:29 — Eternal Damnation or Eternal Sin? The Warning against Blasphemy

Complete textual-variant dossier

Adverse entailment established

Sections distinguish readings, edition history, evidence, theological consequences, and the Research Center's evaluation. CBGM is an analytical tool; editorial committees—not the software—make textual decisions.

1Passage and issue

Passage

Mark 3:29

Issue

The warning ends with either “eternal judgment” or “eternal sin.” Both readings exclude forgiveness, but they describe the offender’s condition from different angles.

Variant class

Substitution or composite variation

2Textus Receptus

Greek reading

“Is liable to eternal judgment” (ἔνοχός ἐστιν αἰωνίου κρίσεως), rendered “in danger of eternal damnation” in the Authorized Version.

Authorized Version

“He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.” — Mark 3:29

Edition note

The Research Center uses the received Greek text underlying the Authorized Version as its baseline; edition-specific differences are recorded when the variation unit requires them.

Historical annotation witness

Erasmus’s Annotationes

Erasmus’s printed Greek text, his Latin annotation, and the Research Center’s evaluation are distinct evidence. Each edition remains separately identified because Erasmus revised the Annotationes across his five editions.

Not yet assessed. No inference about Erasmus’s silence has been made. A Latin annotation and translation will appear here only after an edition and exact locus have been verified.

The Erasmus annotation audit has not yet been completed for this locus. Do not infer from this status that Erasmus was silent.

Westminster and Dutch annotation witnesses

Westminster Annotations

Not yet assessed. No inference from silence is made.

Dutch Annotations

Not yet assessed. No inference from silence is made.

3NA28 baseline and critical-text rationale

NA28 baseline reading

“Is guilty of an eternal sin” (ἔνοχός ἐστιν αἰωνίου ἁμαρτήματος).

Translation or explanation

“Is guilty of an eternal sin” (ἔνοχός ἐστιν αἰωνίου ἁμαρτήματος).

Metzger’s report of the UBS committee

Metzger reports the UBS4 committee's treatment of the variation unit. The note grounds the relevant decision in the balance of external and internal evidence described in the entry; the printed confidence rating represented here is {B}. This is a controlled synopsis rather than a quotation.

Locator: Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed., note on Mark 3:29

ECM / CBGM evidence and editors

No passage-specific ECM/CBGM editorial explanation is attached to this record. Official method sources describe the CBGM as a set of coherence procedures, not a decision-maker: editors define variation units and local stemmata and evaluate pre-genealogical, genealogical, and stemmatic coherence together with transcriptional, intrinsic, and other philological evidence.

4UBS6 and intended NA29 revision

No UBS6 / intended NA29 main-text change is recorded for this passage in the controlled 169-change ledger.

No change row is attached to this passage.

UBS6 is published, and the German Bible Society identifies its Greek main text as identical to the intended NA29 main text. The complete NA29 volume and its apparatus remain forthcoming. Project-ledger rows retain their source and verification statements until they are checked against the published UBS6 text and, when available, the NA29 apparatus.

5Doctrinal and four-point analysis

Effect class

Exegetical or interpretive consequence

Exact proposition affected

No single doctrinal proposition is directly changed; the principal consequence is exegetical, historical, or cumulative.

Doctrinal analysis

Recognizing that relationship prevents interpreters from exaggerating doctrinal divergence and focuses attention on the actual lexical question: which noun completed Mark’s warning?

Bahnsen four-point examination

Arbitrariness

At Mark 3:29, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. The received text says the offender is liable to eternal judgment; the critical text says he is guilty of an eternal sin. Critics argue that copyists replaced it with familiar words such as judgment or punishment.

Inconsistency

The criteria used at Mark 3:29 must be applied to comparable readings as well. A principle such as age, difficulty, brevity, or coherence cannot be decisive here and quietly reversed elsewhere merely to escape a historical, grammatical, or theological difficulty.

Consequences

Exegetical or interpretive consequence: Recognizing that relationship prevents interpreters from exaggerating doctrinal divergence and focuses attention on the actual lexical question: which noun completed Mark’s warning?

Preconditions of intelligibility

The argument presupposes stable authorship, meaningful language, objective logical norms, transmissible evidence, and a coherent account of how Scripture can be received and identified by the church. The analysis tests whether the method can make those conditions intelligible without reducing the text to an indefinitely revisable editorial construct.

This framework examines an argument and its conditions; it does not claim to read an editor's private motives.

6Argument for the received reading

External and historical evidence

Passage: Mark 3:29 Received reading: “Is liable to eternal judgment” (ἔνοχός ἐστιν αἰωνίου κρίσεως), rendered “in danger of eternal damnation” in the Authorized Version. The Authorized Version’s “eternal damnation” translates aiōniou kriseōs. The rival is ancient and cannot be dismissed as nonsense; it also bears the same terror.

Internal and transcriptional evidence

Critics argue that copyists replaced it with familiar words such as judgment or punishment. Several variant forms support the observation that scribes found the phrase difficult. A copyist can also create a strange phrase by substituting a nearby word or losing the ending of another.

Reception and ecclesiastical use

The received text says the offender is liable to eternal judgment; the critical text says he is guilty of an eternal sin.

Providential-preservation analysis

Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at Mark 3:29. It supplies the confessional context in which manuscript transmission, broad reception, and the church's actual possession of Scripture are evaluated together.

Canonical coherence with the rest of Scripture

Canonical coherence remains an explicit test: a proposed reading must make grammatical and theological sense within the immediate context and the rest of Scripture. No conflict is asserted merely because two editions differ; the claimed incoherence must be demonstrated at this passage.

Canonical-coherence verdict

The Authorized Version is retained where its representation of the TR forms a coherent reading within the immediate context and the rest of Scripture. Any competing form must demonstrate an equal or better canonical fit rather than merely invoke an edition or method label.

Response to the principal critical argument

Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. The received text says the offender is liable to eternal judgment; the critical text says he is guilty of an eternal sin. Critics argue that copyists replaced it with familiar words such as judgment or punishment.

Conclusion

The two nouns can also be related rather than opposed. Eternal judgment is the sentence attached to unforgiven sin; an eternal sin is guilt whose liability does not expire. The received wording states the judicial side, while the rival states the enduring offense. Recognizing that relationship prevents interpreters from exaggerating doctrinal divergence and focuses attention on the actual lexical question: which noun completed Mark’s warning?

The received judgment reading has wide transmission, fits enochos, and makes the sentence’s legal force explicit. The rival is ancient and cannot be dismissed as nonsense; it also bears the same terror. The textual choice changes the description, not Christ’s solemn conclusion that hardened blasphemy receives no forgiveness.

Logical entailment

The Authorized Version serves as the faithful English representation. The preservation claim applies immediately to the authentic Hebrew and Greek texts—not to an English translation as though it were the inspired source.

Canonical-status rule: Physical printing is not canonical inclusion. If an edition prints a passage in double brackets while judging it secondary or non-original, it disagrees with the received text concerning the identity and extent of inspired Scripture.

Status: Established

Immediate textual or doctrinal consequence

At Mark 3:29, the received text reads “Is liable to eternal judgment” (ἔνοχός ἐστιν αἰωνίου κρίσεως), rendered “in danger of eternal damnation” in the Authorized Version.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.” — Mark 3:29”. The assessed critical reading is “Is guilty of an eternal sin” (ἔνοχός ἐστιν αἰωνίου ἁμαρτήματος).”. The immediate consequence is that the critical text no longer states the received wording at this locus. The immediate local effect is exegetical or interpretive; this argument does not claim that a distinct Christian doctrine disappears from the verse.

Necessary reasoning chain

At Mark 3:29, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “Is liable to eternal judgment” (ἔνοχός ἐστιν αἰωνίου κρίσεως), rendered “in danger of eternal damnation” in the Authorized Version.”; the Authorized Version represents it as “He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.” — Mark 3:29”. The assessed critical form is “Is guilty of an eternal sin” (ἔνοχός ἐστιν αἰωνίου ἁμαρτήματος).”.
The received and critical forms are not the same at this locus. Therefore, if the competing critical form is original, the received form is secondary rather than the authentic wording at this place. The immediate consequence is: At Mark 3:29, the received text reads “Is liable to eternal judgment” (ἔνοχός ἐστιν αἰωνίου κρίσεως), rendered “in danger of eternal damnation” in the Authorized Version.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.” — Mark 3:29”. The assessed critical reading is “Is guilty of an eternal sin” (ἔνοχός ἐστιν αἰωνίου ἁμαρτήματος).”. The immediate consequence is that the critical text no longer states the received wording at this locus. The immediate local effect is exegetical or interpretive; this argument does not claim that a distinct Christian doctrine disappears from the verse.
If the received form at this place is secondary rather than original, then the authentic Hebrew/Greek text was not kept pure at this place in the received textual tradition; therefore the unqualified confessional preservation claim must be denied or redefined.

Ultimate preservation consequence

If the competing reading is original and the received reading is secondary, then God did not preserve and keep pure the authentic text at this place in the received textual tradition. The unqualified confessional claim that Scripture was kept pure in all ages must therefore be denied or redefined.

Sources

Westminster Confession of Faith (1647)Chapter 1, section 8 — Governing confessional preservation claim
F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text followed in the Authorized VersionReceived Greek reading
Digital ECM — Mark 3:29Current critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
German Bible Society — UBS6 publications and relation to NA29Current critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
German Bible Society — The Sixth Edition of the Greek New TestamentCurrent critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation

Read the full research essay and its sources

Passage: Mark 3:29

Received reading: “Is liable to eternal judgment” (ἔνοχός ἐστιν αἰωνίου κρίσεως), rendered “in danger of eternal damnation” in the Authorized Version.

Principal competing reading: “Is guilty of an eternal sin” (ἔνοχός ἐστιν αἰωνίου ἁμαρτήματος).

Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.

“He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.” — Mark 3:29

Jesus’ warning about blasphemy against the Holy Ghost ends in two notably different ways. The received text says the offender is liable to eternal judgment; the critical text says he is guilty of an eternal sin. Both stand after the declaration that he “hath never forgiveness.” Neither reading turns the saying into a temporary discipline.

The Authorized Version’s “eternal damnation” translates aiōniou kriseōs. In seventeenth-century English, “damnation” could name an adverse judicial sentence. The Greek word is judgment, not a separate term meaning the emotional state of being damned.

Sin and sentence

“Eternal sin” is the more unusual expression. Critics argue that copyists replaced it with familiar words such as judgment or punishment. Several variant forms support the observation that scribes found the phrase difficult. A rare expression can be original, but rarity does not confer immunity from corruption. A copyist can also create a strange phrase by substituting a nearby word or losing the ending of another.

The context is judicial. Jesus first says the blasphemer has no forgiveness, then states his liability. The adjective enochos commonly means answerable, liable, or guilty before a penalty. “Liable to eternal judgment” completes that legal movement with natural precision. Mark explains in verse 30 that the warning answered the charge, “He hath an unclean spirit.” Persistent slander of the Spirit’s work exposes the accusers to God’s sentence.

“Eternal sin” need not mean that one act continues forever as an independent substance. It may describe sin whose guilt and consequence endure. Even so, the phrase can be misunderstood as though the sin itself, rather than divine judgment, were the final object.

Pastoral use requires care whichever text is read. A tender conscience grieving over sin is not displaying the settled, malicious attribution found in this scene. The warning is severe, but it was spoken to men who watched works of mercy and called the Holy Ghost unclean.

The received judgment reading has wide transmission, fits enochos, and makes the sentence’s legal force explicit. The rival is ancient and cannot be dismissed as nonsense; it also bears the same terror. The textual choice changes the description, not Christ’s solemn conclusion that hardened blasphemy receives no forgiveness.

Sources and further reading

F. H. A. Scrivener, ed., The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (Cambridge, 1894).
Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition (Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010), text and apparatus.
Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed., notes on the stated passage.
Matthew 12:22–32; Mark 3:22–30; Luke 12:10.

7Related materials

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Record: VAR-2011
Status: Preliminary
Version: 1.1-dossier
Review: Level B — Editorial synthesis
Editor: Chris Thomas
Reviewer: Independent reviewer pending assignment
First date: 1st century · Date Range
Last revised: 2026-07-22

Evidence and editorial controls

Verification: Passage, principal readings, and stated editorial comparison checked against Scrivener’s received Greek text and the SBLGNT apparatus; exhaustive manuscript collation remains open. Metzger commentary entries were matched by exact passage where present; ECM/CBGM rationale is passage-specific only when an official editorial explanation is cited. Ledger rows are identified as UBS6 / intended NA29 data but retain their row-level verification caveats pending direct collation.
Rights and access: Original editorial synthesis. Biblical readings are short scholarly quotations; cited editions and digital witnesses retain their stated rights and access conditions.
Known limitations: This staging record summarizes the principal variation unit and representative evidence. It is not a fresh collation of every extant manuscript, version, lectionary, or patristic citation.

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Recommended citation

Chris Thomas, “Mark 3:29 — Eternal Damnation or Eternal Sin? The Warning against Blasphemy,” VAR-2011, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.

Revision history

July 22, 2026 1:57 pm — Chris Thomas