Unforgivable? What does that mean? That's man's word. Most of the words we use are man's words when an understanding God would know "why" any sin would be committed, right? Guilt is a terrible thing and can cause man to resort to desperate measures if he feel his "soul" is lost. I am not going to go into all that represents now but if the truth were known we would be more forgiving entities ourselves. That is crux of all reason to understand "why" individuals do what they do. Hopefully one day when we stop pointing fingers because none are so pure, we will be able live in a world that is capable of rectifying our wrongs and proceed in the right direction.

William

I wish I had something more erudite to offer here. I read the Bible as fiction/poetry full of truth but not literal truth "for the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life." In a text as huge as the Bible there is bound to be at least a few lines of bad poetry. But there can be wisdom in bad poetry sometimes. To be Wise is to know ones limits and to know ones limits one must first know that there are limits...even to forgiveness.

The Holy Spirit is the least comprehensible of the the three components of the trinity. We know what fathers and sons are but what are spirits and how do they relate to fathers and sons. I flirt with the idea that the Holy Spirit is female. The Holy Spirit seems to be more sacred than both (though doctrinally he/she/it is equal) for the Holy Spirit remains a divine mystery even more than the other two.

What is the unforgivable sin? It is the limit. If all is forgivable then all is permitted. We know this not to be true in our heart of hearts. All is not permitted. There are things that we would not permit ourselves to do. Perhaps those verses that speak of the unforgivable sin are not such bad poetry after all. Indeed they may be some of the finest verses in the whole Bible.

Those verses speak of a limit to forgiveness and it is clear that the idea of a limit is necessary. It is possible to go to far. There is a last exit and it is possible to miss the last exit when driving on that proverbial highway to Hell. If there was no last exit the driver would forever be saying: "I'm doing fine, I'll take the next exit. There is still time."

Perhaps it is good poetry, perhaps bad but rendered into modern parlance this is what it means to me:

Take the next exit.

There is wisdom in recognizing that there is a point of no return.

I'm not a Christian, but for what it's worth, I vaguely understand the Holy Spirit to be that aspect of God which is present in all of us, and Jesus to be saying that to curse this spirit as demonic is itself a demonic thing to do. I think it's like what child abusers do to their victims; and perhaps Jesus's particular hatred of this particular sin is connected with his particular hatred of sins committed against children; but that may be just my own personal association.

I don't have a well thought-out answer for this one, either, but I think Twirlip's on the right track. The Holy Spirit, perhaps, refers to some "inner voice" or "intuitive conscience" or "moral imperative" inside all (or most?) people. Maybe?