What Does Mark 9:43 Mean in the King James?
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
What feels like an extension of your will can become a snare, and this verse values life above an intact body.
THE MEANING
You are confronted with a brutal measure: if your hand causes you to stumble, it is cut off, because entering life maimed is better than keeping both hands and going into hell. The fire is named as unquenchable, and the warning leaves its cost exposed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that keeping your body intact must always take precedence over entering life.
THE ROOT
σκανδαλίζῃ
skandalizē
GROWS FROM
σκάνδαλον
skándalon
A trap, snare, or trigger that catches a foot and causes a fall.
“offend” in this verse is skandalizē. The Greek word σκανδαλίζῃ (skandalizē, causes to stumble or ensnares) carries the image of being caught in a trap. The hand is not described only as something that displeases; it can become the very means of a fall.
ALSO GROWS
skándalon: A trap, snare, or stumbling block.
σκάνδαλον
This gives the saying its image of a hand that becomes an occasion for stumbling.
skandalizō: To ensnare or cause someone to stumble.
σκανδαλίζω
This verb-family branch shows the hand acting as a trap that leads the person toward ruin.
ζωή
zōē
GROWS FROM
ζάω
zaō
To live, to be alive.
The destination is life, set against keeping both hands and entering hell. The contrast makes bodily completeness an insufficient measure of what is worth preserving.
ALSO GROWS
zōn: Living, alive.
ζῶν
The branch keeps the saying’s destination concrete: life is living, not merely an abstract idea.
zōopoieō: To make alive, give life.
ζωοποιέω
Its life-giving sense deepens the contrast between entering life and the ruin named in the warning.
THE PATTERN
When a path or deed leads toward ruin, the text places turning away or laying it aside above preserving it unchanged.
Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,THE THREAD
And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.Matthew uses the same Greek verb σκανδαλίζῃ (skandalizē, causes to stumble or ensnares): an eye, like a hand, can become a trap. The shared wording makes the severity unmistakable: no body part is exempt when it becomes the snare that leads to ruin.
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