“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
Mark 10.42-50, NIV
I am sure I was still at school the first time I heard someone tell a congregation that a skandalon (σκάνδαλον) was a stone block in a doorway, designed to make an attacker stumble as they entered, thus opening them to a killing blow to the head or neck. As one does, I simply believed what I was told.
I am a little more critical now. As far as I can see dictionaries all repeat this fiction in a vague sort of way, without ever being able to reference a single occurrence where the word clearly references such a stumbling block.
So here’s the thing (I was disturbed to find that that phrase – here’s the thing – is something that is a sure fire tell tale of AI slop; I can only assume that AI has read everything I wrote since I was about 10 and that is where it comes from; I promise you I could always pass a Turing test…): a σκανδαλιστής is an acrobatic who swings on a trapeze (yes, another Greek word, from the geometric shape and also that famous trapezoid, a table); but σκάνδαλον is a trapeze, and also the kind of snare that an animal puts it head through and finds itself swinging from. Yes, like an acrobat who has made a fatal error on a trapeze.
By this point, my children are usually asking me if I am having a stroke, but there is a point to this: Jesus uses the associated verb throughout the first part of this passage. And whether you choose to believe that it is about stumbling or about being ensnared, I don’t think “cause to sin” is a helpful translation.
I guess my point is that “sin” is the responsibility of the sinner at the end of the day; and I don’t think that Jesus is saying that “these little ones who believe in Him” are committing sin.
To start with, He is talking about a person who ensnares one of these little ones who believe in Him. Is He talking about small children or about His disciples? Who cares. If you do this – whichever group you do it to – it would be better for you to have a donkey mill tied around your neck, and be cast into the sea. That is a combination of unbreakable harness and an unbearable weight – and deep dark water. I can only say: we have all been warned. Jesus never made an empty threat.
Then Jesus references three “excuses” for sin. Funnily enough, He doesn’t reference Flip Wilson’s Geraldine character (“the Devil made me do it”), so it doesn’t seem like even the Pharisees tried that one. But He does give three cases which it seems reasonable to assume the religious were employing. Each one starts with an implicit “it wasn’t my fault…”
My hand ensnared me; my foot ensnared me; my eye ensnared me. In other words, “I did something, went somewhere, or gazed upon something I shouldn’t have.” Jesus essentially says, if that is really your excuse, better you cut it off / gouge it out than end up in the fire of Gehenna.
Before you take any drastic action: I don’t believe Jesus was actually advising self-mutilation. Rather He was calling the bluff of those who thought they could disassociate themselves from responsibility for their sins. Your hand does nothing without your consent; nor does your foot or your eye. Since actions have real consequences, you had better take responsibility for yours. And no, that is not the whole answer; but the Pharisees are going to have to wait before the way of salvation will become clear for them.
So what about the last two verses, 49 and 50? I think we actually have three sayings here, that have been placed together by rather questionable word association.
“Everyone must be salted by fire” is where the trouble starts: I have covered the double meaning of ἁλισθήσεται in the Seeing the Kingdom book, regarding the “salt” saying Matthew 5. Yes one word can mean “make salty”; but its more common homonym means “gather together”. So here I think it is Jesus’s final word on the preceding passage: whether you are blaming your hand or foot or eye, better cut it off / out lest you end up in fire – Πᾶς γὰρ πυρὶ ἁλισθήσεται. “For all these in the fire will be gathered together.”
So that is not about “being salted”. We now have two half sayings which I am sure Jesus said, but not together.
καλὸν τὸ ἅλας· ἐὰν δὲ τὸ ἅλας ἄναλον γένηται, ἐν τίνι αὐτὸ ἀρτύσετε. This reads like someone who heard Jesus make His joke about “salt / wits becoming foolish” and didn’t understand, so recounted it with a different word. Here “salt is good but if it becomes unsalty how will it be seasoned?” True, but maybe not the whole story.
And finally, probably also referencing salt as a metaphor for wits, “have salt (common sense) in yourself, and live at peace with one another.” If Jesus did indeed speak those two sayings together, they still represent two separate thoughts.
You may be thinking this is not the most inspiring post I have written; and I am happy to agree: this one is mostly trying to tidy up a bit of a mess. But the warning at the beginning is one to take to heart. Whoever you are, and however important you think you are, ensnaring one of His little ones who believe in Him will not be overlooked.
Seeing the Kingdom 