Matthew 5:29

Offend [σ κ α ν δ α λ ι ζ ε ι]. The word offend carries to the English reader the sense of giving offense, provoking. Hence the Rev., by restoring the picture in the word, restores its true meaning, causeth to stumble. The kindred noun is skandalon, a later form of skandalhqron, the stick in a trap on which the bait is place, and which springs up and shuts the trap at the touch of an animal. Hence, generally, a snare, a stumbling - block. Christ's meaning here is : "If your eye or your hand serve as an obstacle or trap to ensnare or make you fall in your moral walk." How the eye might do this may be seen in the previous verse. Bengel observes : "He who, when his eye proves a stumbling - block, takes care not to see, does in reality blind himself." The words scandal and slander are both derived from skandalon; and Wyc. renders, "If thy right eye slander thee." Compare Aeschylus, "Choephori," 301, 372.