The three synoptics record one of the most solemn warnings uttered by the Son of God:
“And whoever welcomes a child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a huge millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the open sea.” (Matthew 18:5–7)
Mark 9:42 & Luke 17:2 repeat this warning, in which we see a crime and a comparison.
The Crime
The crime in this text is offending “one of these little ones.” The Greek word translated “offend” is skandalizō, from which we get the English term scandalize. In our English Bibles it is commonly translated “stumbling-block” or “offence” and it means “make fall” or “stumble,” or at times “lead astray.” But it carries another sense as well. Liddell & Scott:
. . . trap or snare laid for an enemy, LXX Jo.23.13, 1 Ki.18.21, Ep.Rom.11.9, 1 Ep.Pet.2.7; prob. laid for animals, PCair.Zen.608.7 (iii B.C., written σκανδάνων, gen. pl.): metaph., stumbling-block, offence, scandal, Ev.Matt.18.7. . . (A Greek-English Lexicon)
Note the words “trap or snare laid for an enemy.” Skandalizō can import the idea of entrapment; thus the Septuagint in Joshua 23:13 & 1 Samuel 18:21, as well as Psalms 69:22, 106:36, 140:5, and 141:9. Certainly it means “cause offense,” but the concept of “snare” is part of the term’s background, such as “whoever shall trap, or ensnare, one of these little ones.”
So our Lord warns against stumbling “little ones” — children. He cautions against scandalizing them in any way. This for obvious reasons. Children are among the most vulnerable people in society (certainly the most harmless), along with the elderly and infirm. They cannot protect themselves.
The Comparison
The Lord does not state a punishment for the crime of scandalizing a child. He alludes to it with a vivid comparison: “it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” The point isn’t a miserable death by drowning. The point is that a person is better off dead than scandalizing a child. A dead man lying drowned at the bottom of the ocean has the advantage over a living person who has scandalized a child. This comparison implies a future judgment. That person is hopeless.
None of this denies forgiveness in Christ. This warning is to those bent on scandalizing a child.
I did not know that the original Greek for the word scandalize included the sense of entrappment, and yet, in this context it is exactly the meaning that makes the most sense. It is a prey and predator situation – perhaps that is why sex offenders are referred to as predators. We know that at one point predator Sitler was entrapped, and some may argue he still is. I don’t.
He is essentially free to come and go as he pleases. He does not have electronic monitoring (which in his case would certainly provide a record of his rambles around Moscow and the University of Idaho Campus).
And, he no doubt relishes being under the questionable scrutiny of his mother and wife since they have previously demonstrated that they were far more interested in protecting the predator than the prey. We have exactly the situation Scripture describes, that is, a trapped child at the mercy of his father, the woman who willingly married him knowing the scope of his predation, and a mother who is, in my opinion, a morally reprobate grandmother. “A dead man lying drowned at the bottom of the ocean has the advantage over a living person who has scandalized (aka entrapped) a child”
Rose Huskey