The Funny Word that Became "Scandalous"
Some words that seem innocuous in Biblical translation are very interesting in the original Greek. Many of our English words come from these Greek words in the Bible. But some of them are almost invisible in translation. Words like “scandalize” came almost directly from Jesus’s Greek but are entirely hidden in translation. Many of these words were adopted first into Latin in the Latin Vulgate, then into other languages. In the case of this word, the Latin version was scandalizat. In Old French, it was escandle. This became scandle in Anglo-French. In these transitions, the sense of the word “evolves,” often from a humorous meaning to a moralistic one, which is what happened here. This evolution makes it difficult for us to hear Jesus’s words as he meant them.
The Greek form of the verb is skandalizo (σκανδαλίζω), which is most commonly translated in the KJV as "offend" and, in more recent English translations, more accurately as "stumble." The source of the verb is the noun form, skandalon (σκάνδαλον), which is usually translated in KJV as "offenses" but in other versions somewhat clumsily as “the things that cause you to stumble” or, more inaccurately, as “the things that cause you to sin.”
The Source of the Word
Jesus seems to have invented the verb form, skandalizo. It is not found in Greek writing prior to Jesus. It appears for the first time in Matthew 5:29. The verb is used afterward by those familiar with Jesus’s use of the words. All definitions for this word come back to how we interpret Jesus’s use.
The source of the verb is the Greek noun, skandalon. This word appears first in the Greek OT, the Septuagint, which was Jesus's source for much of his language. This word seems to have been invented by the Judaic scholars who translated the OT into Greek. Again, this word is found nowhere in ancient Greek before the Septuagint. Jesus only uses skandolon in six verses, but it appears in the Septuagint fourteen times.
Despite the lack of their use elsewhere in Greek, Jesus’s use of these words was clearly memorable. All four Gospels have him using them. The quotes appearing in Matthew, Mark, and Luke are all parallels of each other. Matthew and Mark duplicate almost all of each other's uses. Again, this hardly seems a coincidence. Other writers in the NT, such as Paul and the Gospel writers Matthew and Mark, also use these words in their writing. They are used much more in the NT than in the OT, which originated the noun.
This Greek noun is used to translate the Hebrew words mikshowl and moqesh. These Hebrew words have also been translated in various ways in Greek and in English, so their meaning is hard to pin down, but we can get their general sense. Milkshow is translated in the KJV as "stumbling block" or "putting or laying a stumbling block" (8 times), "offence" or "offend" (3 times), "ruin" (twice), and "fall" (once). Moqesh is always translated in the KJV as "snare," "trap," or "ensnare." As you can see, the Hebrew words are translated as both as nouns and verbs in English, while the Greek word is always a noun.
When it comes to “invented” words like this, translators have the freedom to interpret what they mean. And unfortunately, consistency is not a priority with Biblical translators.
The Humorous Side
Why do I see these words as humorous? Simply because I look at the verses in which Jesus uses them. And because I think about how we use similar concepts in English. References to things “tripping you up” or them being a “trap” are usually funny. Like many of Jesus’s humorous words, these are ideas that you can act out in front of an audience, pretending to trip or pretending to be trapped. When you act them out, they are even funnier.
In the first verse that Jesus invents the verb form, the message is about plucking out an eye that makes you stumble. The humor is in the exaggeration, but it also seems like a reference to the first occurrence of the noun in the Greek OT, which is funny in a similar way. That verse is Lev 19:14 (KJV) "Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD." “Cursing the deaf” is funny because the deaf cannot hear while putting a stumbling block or a “trap” in front of the blind is funny because it is so mean.
Most of the verses in which Jesus uses the verb are among Jesus’s most extreme forms of exaggeration. This is to say, they are either the most humorous or gruesome, depending on how you want to see Jesus’s message. This word comes up when Jesus is talking about things such as lopping off hands and plucking out eyes. This form of exaggeration seems as though it was entertaining in Jesus’s time in the same way that pratfalls are funny in modern times.
Jesus used the noun form in only four verses. All four verses are poorly translated, but all are funny in their way. In Matthew 16:23, Jesus is teasing Peter because he says that he doesn’t want Jesus to die. In Matthew 18:7 and Luke 17:1, the humor is revealed by using the Greek word, ou-ai, translated as "woe." Jesus uses this word, usually in comic repetition, like the Yiddish “oy-vey,” which it strongly resembles. In English, we might say "boo-hoo." It is an expression of grief but a light-hearted one.
Conclusion
Today, I am not sure if the English word describing something as “scandalous” is humorous or not. It certainly has become more sensational than moralistic. However, at its root, the idea came from the humor of Jesus joking about the things that trip us up and trap us.
Jesus’s humor was often a little dark, which might be scandalous in our time, but it seems like all humor is becoming scandalous in one way or another. Personally, I like Mark Twain’s take: Man is the only animal that laughs—or need to.”
If you like this article, please click on the HEART below.