Dr. Lightfoot has sufficiently vindicated this passage from all false interpretation. "They that endeavour hence to prove the remission of some sins after death, seem little to understand to what Christ had respect when he spake these words. Weigh well this common and, most known doctrine of the Jewish schools, and judge.

"He that transgresses an affirmative precept, if he presently repent, is not moved until the Lord pardon him; and of such it is said, Be ye converted, O back sliding children! and I will heal your backslidings. He that transgresses a negative precept, and repents, his repentance suspends judgment, and the day of expiation expiates him; as it is said, This day shall all your uncleannesses be expiated to you. He that transgresses to cutting off (by the stroke of God) or to death by the Sanhedrin, and repents, repentance and the day of expiation do suspend judgment, and the strokes that are laid upon him wipe off sin, as it is said, And I will visit their transgression with a rod, and their iniquity with scourges. But he by whom the name of God is profaned (or blasphemed) repentance is of no avail to him to suspend judgment, nor the day of expiation to expiate it, nor scourges (or corrections inflicted) to wipe it off, but all suspend judgment, and death wipes it off. Thus the Babylonian Gemara writes; but the Jerusalem thus: Repentance and the day of expiation expiate as to the third part, and corrections as to the third part, and death wipes it off, as it is said, And your iniquities shall not be expiated to you until ye die: behold, we learn that death wipes off. Note this, which Christ contradicts, concerning blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. It shall not be forgiven, saith he, neither in this world, nor in the world to come; that is, neither before death, nor, as you dream, by death. Jerus. Sanhed. fol. 37. and Bab.

Yoma, fol. 86.

"In the world to come.-I. Some phrases were received into common use, by which, in common speech, they opposed the heresy of the Sadducces, who denied immortality, Of that sort were abh �lw[ olam ha-ba, aiwn o mellwn, The world to come. d[ g gan aden, paradeisov, paradise: �wnh wg gei hinnom, geenna, hell, &c.

"At the end of all the prayers in the temple (as we observed before) they said �lw[ d[ ad olam, for ever. But when the heretics (i.e. the Sadducees) brake in, and said there was NO AGE but one, then it was appointed to be said for ever and ever. �lw[h m �lw[h d[w min ha-olam, vead ha-olam. Bab. Beracoth, fol. 54. This distinction of hzh �lw[ olam hazeh, this world, and of abh �lw[ olam ha-ba, the world to come, you may find almost in every page of the rabbins.

"The Lord recompense thee a good reward for this thy good work in this world, and let thy reward be perfected in the world to come. Targum on Ruth.

"It (that is, the history of the creation and of the Bible) therefore begins with the letter b beth, (in the word ty�yrb bereshith,) because two worlds were created, this world and a world to come. Baal Turim.

"The world to come hints two things especially, (of which see Rambam, in Sanhed. cap. ii. Chelek.) I. The times of the Messiah: 'Be mindful of the day wherein thou camest out of Egypt, all the days of thy life: the wise men say, by the days of thy life is intimated this world: by all the days of thy life, the days of the Messiah are superinduced.' In this sense the apostle seems to speak, Heb. ii. 5; vi. 5. II. The state after death: thus Rab. Tancum, The world to come, is when a man has departed out of this world."

John Gill's Bible Commentary

But the sin against the Holy Ghost is such, as is not forgiven, neither before, nor at, nor after death, nor by it: all sins that are forgiven, are forgiven in this world, and that perfectly and at once; and all that are forgiven in this world, there will be a manifestation and declaration of the pardon of them in another; but such sins as are not forgiven here, there will be no declaration of the pardon of them hereafter. In short, the sense is, that the sin against the Holy Ghost never has forgiveness; it is not pardoned now, and consequently there will be no declaration of the pardon of it hereafter. The Jews use the phrase in the same sense f752 ; a certain sick man said to his son, �give me water, and such certain food; but if not, I will not �forgive thee, neither in this world, nor in the world to come�.�

That is, I will never forgive thee.

Matthew Henry Commentary

Greek Textus Receptus