What Does Matthew 18:7 Mean in the King James?
Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!
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
The word translated “offences” pictures traps that catch a person and make them fall, holding the presence of those traps together with the responsibility of whoever brings them.
THE MEANING
You live in a world where stumbling points do arise, and their presence brings grief. Their inevitability does not erase the accountability of the person through whom the stumble comes.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that, because stumbling points are bound to appear, no one is accountable for causing one.
THE ROOT
σκανδάλων
skandalōn
GROWS FROM
σκάνδαλ-
skandal-
A trap or obstacle that catches a person and causes a fall.
The Greek stem links the “offences” that arise with things that ensnare or trip someone. The verse holds two truths together: these stumbling points appear in the world, and the person through whom one comes still bears responsibility.
ALSO GROWS
skandalon: A trap, snare, or stumbling block.
σκάνδαλον
It gives “offences” the concrete image of something that catches a person and brings them down.
skandalizō: To cause someone to stumble or be ensnared.
σκανδαλίζω
This related verb makes the agent visible: a person can become the means by which another is tripped.
THE PATTERN
Stumbling points can appear, while responsibility remains with the one who places or brings them.
Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.THE THREAD
But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.“Offend” here is the related Greek verb σκανδαλίζω (skandalizō), from the same stem as “offences” in verse 7. Verse 6 shows the harm to the little one; verse 7 widens the view to the world and names the accountability of the one through whom the stumbling comes.
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