What Does John 6:61 Mean?
When Jesus knew within himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said to them, Does this cause you to stumble?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?THE KEY
The word translated “offend” pictures a trip point: Jesus names how a saying can catch a hearer’s step.
THE MEANING
Jesus sees the disciples’ inward muttering before it is spoken openly, and his question brings that hidden response into view. The words that unsettle you can become the place where your footing gives way.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that an unspoken reaction is hidden: Jesus knows the disciples’ murmuring before he asks whether the words make them stumble.
THE ROOT
σκανδαλίζει
skandalízei
GROWS FROM
σκανδαλ-
skandal-
A trap or trip point that catches a foot and causes a stumble.
“cause you to stumble” in this verse is skandalízei. English “offend” can sound like hurt feelings, but the Greek word carries the image of a trap or stumbling point. Jesus asks whether his words have caught the disciples’ step.
ALSO GROWS
skándalon: Trap, snare, or stumbling block.
σκάνδαλον
The noun makes the image beneath “offend” concrete: something in the path catches the foot.
skandalízō: To cause someone to stumble or become caught.
σκανδαλίζω
This verb names what the saying does to the hearer when it becomes a trip point.
γογγύζουσιν
goggýzousin
GROWS FROM
γογγυζ-
gogguz-
To mutter or grumble in a low voice; the word has a muttering sound.
“murmured at” in this verse is goggýzousin. The Greek verb’s sound echoes low grumbling, giving the inward response an audible shape. The verse presents that murmur as already known before Jesus asks his question.
ALSO GROWS
goggysmós: Murmuring or grumbling.
γογγυσμός
This related noun names the kind of low complaint heard beneath the disciples’ response.
goggystḗs: A grumbler or murmurer.
γογγυστής
The related noun for a person who grumbles shows the same word family can name both the murmuring and the one who murmurs.
THE PATTERN
A word or presence can become a stumbling point where a hearer’s footing gives way.
And he shall be for a set-apart place; but for a stone of striking and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, for a trap and for a snare to those who settle in Jerusalem.And flourishing is the one who is not made to stumble over me.And a stone to strike against, and a rock that springs the trap, to those who strike against the word and will not yield, and to this they were also set.THE THREAD
These things have I spoken to you, so that you would not be made to stumble.“Offended” translates the same Greek verb, σκανδαλίζω (skandalízō, to cause to stumble), as in John 6:61. Here Jesus names the possibility as a question; in John 16:1 the same word shows the stakes within it: whether his words become a trip point.
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