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29. ὁ ὀφθαλμός σου, suggested by the preceding verse. The eye and the hand are not only in themselves good and serviceable, but necessary. Still they may become the occasion of sin to us. So pursuits and pleasures innocent in themselves may bring temptation, and involve us in sin. These must be resigned, however great the effort implied in ‘cast it from thee.’
σκανδαλίζει σε, ‘allure thee to destruction.’ This verb which is confined to Hellenistic Greek is derived from σκάνδαλον also Hellenistic; the classical form σκανδάληθρον, itself very rare, is defined as, ‘the crooked stick forming the part of a trap on which the bait is placed’ (the root-meaning of the word is swift darting movement, as of falling or gliding away, Curtius, Greek Etymology, 166). Hence σκάνδαλον and its cognates have first the meaning of temptation, combined with those of entrapping and swift destruction. Cp. σκάνδαληθρʼ ἱστὰς ἐπῶν, Arist. Ach. 647, ‘setting word-traps.’ κρεάδιον τῆς σκανδάλης ἀφάψας, Alciphr. III. 22, ‘having attached a bait to the trap.’ ἐσκανδαλίσθη εἰς ἐμέ. Joan. Mosch. 3049 c. (quoted E. A. Soph. Greek Lex. and there rendered ‘tempted to fall in love with me’). This sense of the word conveying, by a vivid and apt imagery, the idea of temptation or allurement to ruin, is applicable to the use of σκάνδαλον in most passages of the N.T. See notes, chs. Mat 13:41, Mat 16:23, Mat 18:7. It appears also to be the primary thought in σκανδαλίζειν. In other passages the notion of ‘entrapping’ is prominent. Hence to ‘impede,’ ‘bring into difficulties’; so to ‘irritate,’ ‘offend.’ At this point begins the correspondence with the figurative sense of προσκόπτειν and πρόσκομμα, the Latin rendering of which supplies the English words to offend, offence, &c., by which σκανδαλίζειν and σκάνδαλον are translated in the A.V. And though differing in their origin and literal meaning σκάνδαλον appears in parallelism with πρόσκομμα in Rom 9:31 and 1Pe 2:7, and σκανδαλίζεσθαι is nearly synonymous with the figurative sense of προσκόπτειν.
συμφέρει γάρ σοι κ.τ.λ. Cp. Cic. Phil. VIII. 15, In corpore si quid ejusmodi est quod reliquo corpori noceat, uri necarique patimur; ut membrorum aliquod potius quam totum corpus intereat.