σκανδαλίζω

Matthew 5:29 σκανδαλίζει causes to stumble

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Here: Present tense: 'keeps tripping you up.' The eye acts like a baited trap or an obstacle that brings you down into sin and ruin. It has nothing to do with being 'offended' in the modern sense.

Matthew 5:30 σκανδαλίζει causes to stumble

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to depart into hell.

Here: Present tense: "keeps tripping you up." It is the trap image. Something sets you up for a fall that ruins you and pulls you away from God. It means more than committing one wrong act.

Matthew 11:6 σκανδαλισθῇ shall fall away

Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of Me.”

Here: Aorist passive subjunctive: 'is made to stumble'. The picture is tripping over an obstacle and falling, here meaning losing hold of trust in Jesus and turning away from him. It is much more than being annoyed.

Matthew 13:21 σκανδαλίζεται. he falls away.

But since he has no root, he remains for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

Here: Present passive, 'he is tripped up': the hardship becomes the snare that catches him and he abandons the word. It does not mean his feelings are hurt.

Matthew 13:57 ἐσκανδαλίζοντο they were offended

And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown and in his own household is a prophet without honor.”

Here: The imperfect tense shows an ongoing or developing reaction: they kept stumbling over him, or began to. The point is not hurt feelings. Jesus became the obstacle that tripped them into rejecting him.

Matthew 15:12 ἐσκανδαλίσθησαν;¶ were offended?

Then the disciples came to Him and said, “Are You aware that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

Here: 'They were scandalised': the saying became a stumbling block they tripped over. The result is more than annoyance. They were repelled into rejecting Jesus and his teaching, which sets up Jesus' reply about uprooted plants and blind guides (vv.13–14).

Matthew 17:27 σκανδαλίσωμεν we may offend

“But so that we may not offend them, go to the sea, cast a hook, and take the first fish you catch. When you open its mouth, you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for My tax and yours.”

Here: 'We should trip them up.' The word means putting an obstacle in someone's path that could make them fall away or reject God's messenger. It does not mean hurting their feelings. The 'we' takes Peter into Jesus' decision.

Matthew 18:6 σκανδαλίσῃ may cause to stumble

But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Here: To set a trap or obstacle that makes someone fall, here meaning fall away from trusting Jesus or into sin. The tense pictures a single act; one act is enough.

Matthew 18:8 σκανδαλίζει causes to sin

If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands and two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire.

Here: Present tense: "keeps tripping you up". The picture is a snare or an obstacle that makes you fall, here meaning a fall into sin and away from God. It is not about feeling insulted.

Matthew 18:9 σκανδαλίζει causes to sin

And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

Here: Present tense, so an ongoing pull: 'is snaring you, is tripping you up'. In Matthew it means being brought down into sin, and often falling away from loyalty to Jesus altogether.

Matthew 24:10 σκανδαλισθήσονται will fall away

At that time many will fall away and will betray and hate one another,

Here: Future, passive form: 'they will be tripped up.' The picture is a trap or an obstacle that brings someone down. Here it means being brought down so that they give up their loyalty to Jesus under pressure. It is not about hurt feelings.

Matthew 26:31 σκανδαλισθήσεσθε will fall away

Then Jesus said to them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of Me. For it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’

Here: Future passive: 'you will be tripped up.' It means their loyalty will collapse and they will abandon him. It does not mean their feelings will be hurt.

Matthew 26:33 σκανδαλισθήσονται σκανδαλισθήσομαι.¶ will fall away, will fall away.

Peter said to Him, “Even if all fall away on account of You, I never will.”

Here: Peter repeats Jesus' exact verb from v31: 'will be tripped up' or snared, so that they fail in loyalty and desert. The passive voice pictures something that happens to them, a trap sprung on them.

Mark 4:17 σκανδαλίζονται. they fall away.

But they themselves have no root, and they remain for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

Here: Passive: they are tripped up, caught as if by a snare, and give up their allegiance. The present tense presents this as what typically happens with such people.

Mark 6:3 ἐσκανδαλίζοντο they were offended

Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? Aren’t His sisters here with us as well?” And they took offense at Him.

Here: “They kept stumbling over him.” The imperfect tense describes an ongoing reaction rather than a single moment. The picture is tripping over an obstacle: their familiarity with him became a barrier that kept them from accepting him, which leads straight to the “unbelief” of verse 6.

Mark 9:42 σκανδαλίσῃ shall cause to stumble

But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea.

Here: To set a trap or obstacle that brings someone down, here meaning to cause a believer to fall from trust in Jesus or into ruinous sin. It is far stronger than 'offend' in the modern sense of hurting feelings.

Mark 9:43 σκανδαλίζῃ shall cause to stumble

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two hands and go into hell, into the unquenchable fire.

Here: The present tense suggests something that keeps happening: if your hand keeps tripping you up. The picture is a snare or an obstacle that makes you fall, and in Mark that fall is often a falling away from God. It is the same verb as in verse 42.

Mark 9:45 σκανδαλίζῃ shall cause to stumble

If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.

Mark 9:47 σκανδαλίζῃ shall cause to stumble

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,

Here: Present tense: 'keeps tripping you up'. The picture is a trap or an obstacle that makes you fall. In Mark the fall in view is falling away from God and from faith, not a passing slip.

Mark 14:27 σκανδαλισθήσεσθε you will fall away

Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’

Here: Future and passive: “you will be tripped up.” Something will make their loyalty collapse, namely his arrest. The result is that they run away. Hurt feelings are not in view.

Mark 14:29 σκανδαλισθήσονται will fall away

Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I never will.”

Luke 7:23 σκανδαλισθῇ shall be offended

Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of Me.”

Here: 'Is tripped up' or 'is made to stumble'. The picture is someone who meets an obstacle, loses his footing and falls. It covers being put off by Jesus so badly that you turn away from him. It is much more than having your feelings hurt.

Luke 17:2 σκανδαλίσῃ he may cause to stumble

It would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.

Here: To bring about another person's spiritual fall, leading them into sin or away from faith and trust in God. It picks up the noun "stumbling blocks" from verse 1 and has nothing to do with hurt feelings.

John 6:61 σκανδαλίζει; does offend?

Aware that His disciples were grumbling about this teaching, Jesus asked them, “Does this offend you?

Here: Present tense: 'is this tripping you up?' It does not mean 'hurt your feelings'. It means 'is this becoming the obstacle that makes your faith fall over?' Verse 66 shows the answer: many stopped following him.

John 16:1 σκανδαλισθῆτε. you may fall away.

“I have told you these things so that you will not fall away.

Here: An aorist passive subjunctive: 'that you may not be made to fall'. The picture is of a snare or an obstacle in the road that brings a person down. Here the trap is persecution coming as a shock, and falling means giving up loyalty to Jesus altogether, not a small moral slip and not hurt feelings.

1 Corinthians 8:13 σκανδαλίζει σκανδαλίσω.¶ snares, I may snare.

Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to stumble.

Here: Present tense: 'is tripping up'. Not 'annoys' or 'upsets', but causes someone to fall: here, to be drawn by another's example into eating as an act of idol worship, against their own conscience (8:10–11).

2 Corinthians 11:29 σκανδαλίζεται, is led into sin,

Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not burn with grief?

Here: Present passive: someone is being tripped up, so that their faith falls or they slide into sin, and someone or something else is causing it. The passive points to an outside cause, such as a false teacher or a careless believer.