What Does Mark 9:47 Mean?
And if your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out. It is better for you to enter the governance of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be thrown into the fire of Gehenna.
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
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire:THE KEY
When your eye becomes the snare, the verse names its removal as preferable to keeping both eyes and being cast into the fire.
THE MEANING
The command remains severe: if your eye ensnares you, pluck it out; entering the governance of God with one eye is better than being cast into the fire with both. The verse places bodily loss beside destruction and gives no reason to preserve the offending part at any cost.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that whatever is part of you must be kept, even when it carries you toward destruction.
THE ROOT
σκανδαλίζῃ
skandalizē
GROWS FROM
σκανδαλ-
skandal-
A word family for a trap, snare, or cause of stumbling.
“causes you to stumble” in this verse is skandalizē. “Offend” here carries the sharper image of being tripped or ensnared. The eye is named by the danger it creates: it can become the snare that pulls you toward a fall.
ALSO GROWS
skandalon: trap, snare, or cause of stumbling
σκάνδαλον
The noun reveals the trap-like image beneath the verse’s “offend.”
skandalizō: cause to stumble or ensnare
σκανδαλίζω
This verb names an active force that trips someone, rather than a mere irritation.
ἔξελε
exele
GROWS FROM
αἱρέω (haireō), with ἐξ- (ex-, out)
The word family carries the sense of taking or choosing; the prefix gives the command its force of taking out.
“pluck out” in this verse is exele. The verse’s image is removal: the eye that ensnares is taken out. Its stark verb matches the stark comparison between losing an eye and being cast into the fire.
ALSO GROWS
exaireō: take out, remove, or rescue
ἐξαιρέω
This related verb makes the force of “pluck out” plain: something is taken away.
haireomai: choose or take for oneself
αἱρέομαι
The shared stem retains the idea of taking, showing the action beneath the command.
βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ
basileia tou theou
GROWS FROM
βασιλ-
basil-
Royal rule or governance.
“the governance of God” in this verse is basileia tou theou. The destination is not only a place called a kingdom; the word also carries the sense of living under God’s rule. The verse measures the loss of one eye against entry into that governance.
ALSO GROWS
basileus: king
βασιλεύς
The related noun names the ruler whose authority defines the governance.
basileuō: reign or rule
βασιλεύω
This verb makes the active sense of the governance in “kingdom” visible.
THE PATTERN
What becomes a cause of stumbling is dangerous enough to remove, restrain, or never place in another’s path.
You shall not curse the deaf, nor set a stumbling block before the blind; but you shall stand in awe of your God. I am the LORD.And if your right eye trips you, tear it out and throw it from you. For it profits you that one of your members perish, and not that your whole body be thrown into Gehenna.Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will eat no flesh while the age stands, lest I make my brother stumble.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 word rendered “offend” for making one of the little ones stumble. The shared word widens the danger: what ensnares you can also become something placed in another person’s path, and the millstone image keeps that harm severe.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us