Only a few of the 45 examples in the N.T. of ‘skandalon’ and its associated verb can be clearly placed in the ‘trap’ category. One of the clearest is the last: Revelation 2.14. The church at Pergamon is accused of harbouring those “who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality” (NIV – more literally, “who taught Balaam to throw a snare - 'skandalon' - in front of the sons of Israel”). This refers to an incident in Numbers 25.1-2, when the Israelites succumbed to the sexual temptations of the Moabite women, and were led into spiritual apostasy, worshipping false gods: the honey-trap again! A more familiar example of ‘skandalizo’ in this sexual context occurs in Jesus’ teaching on adultery in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5.27-30). He radically reinterprets the seventh commandment, saying that “any man” (not “any one” as in the NIV: the gender here is specifically masculine) “who looks at a woman so as to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” He then goes on: “If your right eye ‘scandalizes’ you, cut it out.” This clearly means “entices you into sexual sin”, or ‘traps’ you. The apostle John must have taken this teaching to heart, for in his First Epistle (2.16) he includes among the evils of the world which we must avoid “the lust of the eyes”. Better, as Jesus says, to cut out the offending eye than be seduced by it into sin, and so into the “fire of hell” (gehenna). Just as a man’s lips can be a snare, so can his eyes be a trap. And, just in case women feel that they are ‘off the hook’ here, they might remember that Eve ate the forbidden fruit when she saw that it was “pleasing to the eye”.
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
SKANDALON 2: a TRAP (a): the lust of the eyes
Only a few of the 45 examples in the N.T. of ‘skandalon’ and its associated verb can be clearly placed in the ‘trap’ category. One of the clearest is the last: Revelation 2.14. The church at Pergamon is accused of harbouring those “who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality” (NIV – more literally, “who taught Balaam to throw a snare - 'skandalon' - in front of the sons of Israel”). This refers to an incident in Numbers 25.1-2, when the Israelites succumbed to the sexual temptations of the Moabite women, and were led into spiritual apostasy, worshipping false gods: the honey-trap again! A more familiar example of ‘skandalizo’ in this sexual context occurs in Jesus’ teaching on adultery in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5.27-30). He radically reinterprets the seventh commandment, saying that “any man” (not “any one” as in the NIV: the gender here is specifically masculine) “who looks at a woman so as to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” He then goes on: “If your right eye ‘scandalizes’ you, cut it out.” This clearly means “entices you into sexual sin”, or ‘traps’ you. The apostle John must have taken this teaching to heart, for in his First Epistle (2.16) he includes among the evils of the world which we must avoid “the lust of the eyes”. Better, as Jesus says, to cut out the offending eye than be seduced by it into sin, and so into the “fire of hell” (gehenna). Just as a man’s lips can be a snare, so can his eyes be a trap. And, just in case women feel that they are ‘off the hook’ here, they might remember that Eve ate the forbidden fruit when she saw that it was “pleasing to the eye”.
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