The Greek adjective blasphēmos means blasphemous, slanderous, or speaking injuriously. It describes a person who utters blasphemy against God or who slanders people. The noun form blasphēmos can also refer to a blasphemer as a person. In 2 Timothy 3:2 it appears in a list of characteristics of people in the “last days.”
When Paul lists blasphēmoi among the marks of ungodliness in the last days (2 Timothy 3:2), he places slanderous speech in the same category as boastfulness, ingratitude, and lovelessness — as symptoms of a society that has lost its reverence for God and neighbor. Paul himself acknowledges having been a blasphēmos before his conversion (1 Timothy 1:13) — "a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent man." His transformation demonstrates that even the most hardened blasphēmos is not beyond the reach of mercy. Grace received transforms the blasphemer into a worshipper.