Bible Lexicons

For the meaning ";I set a trap for"; rather than ";I put a stumbling-block in the way of,"; for this important Biblical word, reference may be made to two recent discussions. The first by the Rev. A. Carr appeared in his Horae Biblicae (1903) p. 58 ff., where, after a survey of the evidence of the LXX, he comes to the conclusion that the underlying thought of enticement or temptation can hardly be dissociated from the word. And much the same conclusion is reached by Archdeacon Allen as the result of an independent inquiry in his St. Mark (1915) p. 199 ff., where, following out a hint by Dr. J. H. Moulton (Exp T xxvi. p. 331 f.), he again lays the emphasis on the idea of ";snare"; rather than of ";stumbling-block."; The etymological connexion of the word with Skr. skand, ";leap,"; ";spirt,"; Lat. scando, makes this clearer, leading on, as it does, to the Aristophanic use of σκανδάληθρον for ";the stick of a mouse-trap"; (cf. Acharn. 687 σκανδάληθρ᾽ ἱστὰς ἐπῶν, ";setting word-traps";).