What Does Matthew 5:30 Mean?
And if your right hand trips you, cut it off 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.
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 thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, 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.THE KEY
The hand is not spared because it is yours: the verse weighs one member’s loss against the whole body’s ruin.
THE MEANING
The verse sets one member being cut off and cast away beside the whole body being cast into hell, and calls the whole body’s ruin the greater loss. Its violent image stays in view: belonging to you does not make a dangerous part harmless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that anything belonging to you must remain intact for you to be whole.
THE ROOT
σκανδαλίζῃ
skandalizē
GROWS FROM
σκάνδαλ-
skándal-
A trap or snare; something that trips or ensnares.
“trips” in this verse is skandalizē. English “offend” can sound like causing irritation; this word carries the sense of ensnaring or causing a stumble. The hand is pictured as a source of entrapment within the self, which explains why the verse sets it against the fate of the whole body.
ALSO GROWS
skándalon: A trap, snare, or stumbling block.
σκάνδαλον
It reveals the danger as something that catches and trips, not merely something unpleasant.
skandalízō: To cause someone to stumble or become ensnared.
σκανδαλίζω
This verb names what the hand does to the person: it becomes the source of the stumble.
συμφέρει
sympherei
GROWS FROM
συμφέρω
sympherō
To bring together or contribute; to be advantageous.
“profits” in this verse is sympherei. The word means “is advantageous” and joins σύν (syn, together) with φέρω (pherō, carry or bear), giving its parts the sense “bring together.” The verse makes the comparison itself decisive: one member’s loss is considered alongside the whole body’s fate.
ALSO GROWS
pherō: To carry or bear.
φέρω
This is the carrying element inside the word translated “profitable.”
sympherō: To bring together, contribute, or be advantageous.
συμφέρω
Its sense fits the verse’s weighing of one loss beside another.
ἀπόληται
apolētai
GROWS FROM
ἀπόλλυμι
apollymi
To perish, be destroyed, or lose the way.
“perish” in this verse is apolētai. The member’s “perishing” is set against the whole body’s casting into hell. The root holds the force of destruction and loss, so the comparison concerns ruin, not mere inconvenience.
ALSO GROWS
apōleia: Destruction or loss.
ἀπώλεια
It carries the same language of ruin that gives “perish” its severity.
apollymenos: Perishing or being destroyed.
ἀπολλύμενος
This form shows the root’s ongoing force of loss and destruction.
THE PATTERN
Life is guarded when what threatens the whole is put away or held in check, even when the danger lies close to the self.
Above every watch you keep, guard your heart, for from it flow the springs of life.For if you live after the flesh, you will die; but if by the breath you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.But if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter into the life bent or limping than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into the fire of the ages.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 σκανδαλίσῃ (skandalisē), meaning to ensnare or cause to stumble, the same root as the hand that “offend[s]” in Matthew 5:30. The shared word makes the danger a snare that trips someone, carrying severe consequences in both verses.
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