without blemish; free of any flaw that would make an offering or a life unfit to be presented to God
The word is built from a prefix meaning "not" and a noun meaning "blemish" or "blame," so at root it means "without blemish." In everyday Greek it was simply high praise for anything flawless: a beautiful face, a sound law, good health. Greek-speaking Jews then made it a technical word for an animal sound enough to be offered on the altar, and the New Testament inherited both the ordinary and the sacrificial uses.
Its two senses are two applications of one idea. Said of Christ, it means the unblemished victim: he had no defect that would disqualify the offering, and his flawlessness is moral, which is why his sacrifice accomplishes what animal sacrifices could not. Said of God's people, it means blameless before God: not a sinless perfection they achieve on their own, but a wholeness of devotion that fits them to stand in his presence.
The link between the two is the whole point of the word. The community can be presented blameless only because the victim was blameless. Behind both stands a Hebrew idea of wholeness, an undivided belonging to God, that the same word carries whether it describes an offering or a life.
Nuances
Which sacrificial background lies behind describing Christ as an unblemished lamb: the general requirement that offerings be unblemished, or the Passover lamb in particular.
- majorityA general sacrificial background; a key point is that the Passover lamb of Exodus 12:5 in Greek is called "perfect" (teleios), not "unblemished" (this word), so the specific term points to ordinary offerings rather than to Passover.; P. J. Achtemeier, 1 Peter, Hermeneia (Fortress, 1996), 128-129; J. H. Elliott, 1 Peter, AB 37B (Doubleday, 2000), 371-375; K. H. Jobes, 1 Peter, BECNT (Baker Academic, 2005), 116-119
- minorityThe surrounding language of ransom and redemption pulls the image toward the Exodus and Passover, even if the adjective itself is at home in the sacrificial law.; J. R. Michaels, 1 Peter, WBC 49 (Word, 1988), 65-66
- minorityThe image fuses Passover, the sacrificial law, and Isaiah's suffering Servant into a single picture of Christ.; J. B. Green, 1 Peter, THNTC (Eerdmans, 2007), 45-48; L. Goppelt, A Commentary on 1 Peter (Eerdmans, 1993), 115-117
Whether the blamelessness of the 144,000 is a sacrificial-symbolic image (unblemished firstfruits united with the Lamb) or a description of literal moral integrity, especially in truthful speech.
- contestedThe nearby firstfruits and Lamb imagery makes this an unblemished-offering picture; their blamelessness is innocence like the suffering Servant's against the world's false verdict, not moral achievement.; G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation, NIGTC (Eerdmans, 1999), ad loc.; I. Boxall, The Revelation of Saint John, BNTC (Hendrickson, 2006), ad loc.
- contestedThe blamelessness is literal moral integrity, especially in truthful speech, received through redemption rather than earned.; D. E. Aune, Revelation, WBC 52A-C (Nelson, 1997-98), ad loc.; G. R. Osborne, Revelation, BECNT (Baker Academic, 2002), ad loc.; R. H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation, NICNT rev. ed. (Eerdmans, 1997), ad loc.
- contestedBoth dimensions are held together: a sacrificial picture that also describes real moral integrity.; C. R. Koester, Revelation, AYB 38A (Yale University Press, 2014), ad loc.; S. S. Smalley, The Revelation to John (IVP, 2005), ad loc.
Disputed
Whether the word's force in the New Testament is primarily sacrificial (the unblemished victim fit for the altar), primarily moral (blameless character), or a deliberate fusion of both.
- majorityA fusion of both: the community's blamelessness rests on the victim's, and Paul's language of presenting a life to God (as in the "living sacrifice" of Romans 12:1) is the guiding paradigm.; H. W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Hermeneia (Fortress, 1989), 250-251; P. T. O'Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians, PNTC (Eerdmans, 1999), 99-103; F. Thielman, Ephesians, BECNT (Baker Academic, 2010), 47-50
- minorityThe sacrificial background dominates; the language of presenting believers to God is genuinely sacrificial, and they are portrayed as an unblemished offering.; M. Barth, Ephesians 1-3, AB 34 (Doubleday, 1974), 79-81; G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation, NIGTC (Eerdmans, 1999), ad loc.; D. M. Moffitt, Atonement and the Logic of Resurrection in the Epistle to the Hebrews, NovTSup 141 (Brill, 2011), 218-229
- minorityThe moral sense dominates; the word chiefly names moral integrity, drawing on the "blameless in the way" tradition of the Psalms and on ordinary Greek moral praise.; A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians, WBC 42 (Word, 1990), 17-18, 22-24; D. E. Aune, Revelation, WBC 52A-C (Nelson, 1997-98), ad loc.