Matthew 5:29-30

Counsel to the tempted, expressing keen perception of the danger and strong recoil from a sin to be shunned at all hazards, even by excision, as it were, of offending members; two named, eye and hand, eye first as mentioned before. ὁ ὀφ. ὁ δεξιὸς : the right eye deemed the more precious (1 Samuel 11:2; Zechariah 11:17). Similarly Matthew 5:30 the right hand, the most indispensable for work. Even these right members of the body must go. But as the remaining left eye and hand can still offend, it is obvious that these counsels are not meant to be taken literally, but symbolically, as expressing strenuous effort to master sexual passion (vide Grotius). Mutilation will not serve the purpose; it may prevent the outward act, but it will not extinguish desire. σκανδαλίζει, cause to stumble; not found in Greek authors but in Sept [25] Sirach, and in N. T. in a tropical moral sense. The noun σκάνδαλον is also of frequent occurrence, a late form for σκανδάληθρον, a trap-stick with bait on it which being touched the trap springs. Hesychius gives as its equivalent ἐμποδισμός. It is used in a literal sense in Leviticus 19:14 (Sept [26]). συμφέρει … ἵνα ἀπολ.: ἵνα with subjunctive instead of infinitive (vide on ch. Matthew 4:3). Meyer insists on ἵνα having here as always its telic sense and praises Fritzsche as alone interpreting the passage correctly. But, as Weiss observes, the mere destruction of the member is not the purpose of its excision. Note the impressive solemn repetition in Matthew 5:30 of the thought in Matthew 5:29, in identical terms save that for βληθῇ is substituted, in the true reading, ἀπέλθῃ. This logion occurs again in Matthew (Matthew 18:8-9). Weiss (Marc.-Evang., 326) thinks it is taken here from the Apostolic document, i.e., Matthew's book of Logia, and there from Mark 9:43-47.

[25] Septuagint.

[26] Septuagint.