What Does Luke 17:2 Mean?
It is better for him if a millstone is hung around his neck and he is cast into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones 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
It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.THE KEY
The word translated “offend” carries the force of setting a trap that makes someone fall.
THE MEANING
This saying names a present danger: becoming the point at which one of the little ones is made to stumble. It calls a millstone-bound death in the sea preferable to causing that harm.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that causing a vulnerable person to stumble is a minor offense.
THE ROOT
σκανδαλίσῃ
skandalisē
GROWS FROM
σκάνδαλ-
skandal-
The Greek word family carries the sense of a trap or stumbling block, and of causing someone to stumble.
“cause one of these little ones to stumble” in this verse is skandalisē. “Offend” can sound like causing displeasure, but this Greek verb names an action that brings another person down. Its related noun σκάνδαλον (skándalon) means a trap or stumbling block, so the image of harm is already carried inside the word.
ALSO GROWS
skándalon: Trap; stumbling block.
σκάνδαλον
It reveals the danger inside “offend”: a person can become the obstacle or trap that makes someone else fall.
skandalízomai: To stumble or be caused to stumble.
σκανδαλίζομαι
This related verb shows the other side of the same event: what one person sets in another’s path becomes that person’s fall.
THE PATTERN
The seriousness of an action is measured by whether it becomes a stumbling point for someone vulnerable.
But whoever causes one of these little ones who lean their weight into me to stumble, it is better for him that a donkey's millstone be hung about his neck, and that he be sunk down into the deep of the sea.So let us no longer judge one another, but judge this instead, that no one sets a stone to strike against, or a trap, in his brother's way.But watch, lest somehow this right of yours become a stone for the weak to stumble over.THE THREAD
But whoever causes one of these little ones who lean their weight into me to stumble, it is better for him that a donkey's millstone be hung about his neck, and that he be sunk down into the deep of the sea.Matthew uses the same Greek verb, σκανδαλίζω (skandalízō), and repeats the millstone image, bringing the trap-and-fall force of Luke’s “offend” into view. The verse names the harm with the same severity: causing one who is little to stumble is worse than the violent death described.
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