What Does Matthew 18:7 Mean?
Woe to the world for its snares! For they must come; but woe to that man through whom the snare comes!
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
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 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.
“snares / they / snare” in this verse is skandalōn. 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.
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 he said to the disciples, It is impossible that the snares will not come, but woe to the one through whom they come!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.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.“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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