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Mat_18:8 f. Comp. Mar_9:43 ff. A passing direction, suggested by Mat_18:7, for avoiding certain specified offences, and substantially the same as in Mat_5:29. A repetition depending here, no doubt, on Mark (Weiss), yet not to be regarded as out of place, because the proverbial saying refers to one’s own temptations as coming through the senses, while here the point in question is the temptation of others (de Wette, Kuinoel, Strauss, Holtzmann, Hilgenfeld), but on the contrary as quite appropriate, inasmuch as the σκάνδαλα occasioned from without operate through the senses, and thereby seduce into evil.
καλόν σοι ἐστὶν … ἤ ] a mixture, by attraction, of two constructions: It is good to enter into the life (of the Messiah’s kingdom at the second coming) maimed (and better) than, etc. See Fritzsche’s note on this passage, and Dissert. II. ad 2 Cor. p. 85; Winer, p. 226 [E. T. 302]; Buttmann, p. 309 [E. T. 360]. For examples from classical writers, see Kypke, Obss. I. p. 89; Bos, Ellips., ed. Schaefer, p. 769 ff. See besides, the note on Mat_5:29-30. But in the present passage the material representation of mortification as the condition of eternal life is somewhat more circumstantial and graphic.
χωλόν ] refers to the feet, one of which, indeed, is supposed to be awanting (comp. Hom. Il. ii. 217: χωλὸς δʼ ἕτερον πόδα ); while, according to the context, κυλλόν here (more general in Mat_25:30) refers to mutilation of the arm, from which the hand is supposed to be cut off. Hence: limping ( χωλόν ) or maimed ( κυλλόν ). But the circumstance of χωλόν being put first is due to the fact that the cutting off of the foot ( αὐτόν , see critical notes) had been specified, although at the same time an identical proceeding in regard to the hand is, of course, to be understood.
μονόφθαλμ .] Herod. III. 116, IV. 27; Strabo, II. p. 70. According to the grammarians, we should have had ἑτερόφθαλμ . in contradistinction to μονόφθαλμ ., which denotes the condition of one born with one eye. See Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 136 f.; Becker, Anecd. I. p. 280.