Bible Lexicons

σκάνδαλον, σκανδάλου, τό, a purely Biblical ((occurring some twenty-five times in the Greek O. T., and fifteen, quotations included, in the New)) and ecclesiastical word for σκανδάληθρον, which occurs occasionally in native Greek writings; the Sept. for מוקֵשׁ (a noose, a snare) and מִכְשׁול;

a. properly, "the movable stick or tricker (`trigger') of a trap, trap-stick; a trap, snare; any impediment placed in the way and causing one to stumble or fall" (a stumblingblock, occasion of stumbling): Leviticus 19:14; πέτρα σκανκαλου (A. V. a rock of offence), i. e. a rock which is a cause of stumbling (Latinoffendiculum) — figuratively applied to Jesus Christ, whose person and career were so contrary to the expectations of the Jews concerning the Messiah, that they rejected him and by their obstinacy made shipwreck of salvation (see πρόσκομμα), Romans 9:33 and 1 Peter 2:8 (7) (from Isaiah 8:14).

b. metaphorically, "any person or thing by which one is (`entrapped') drawn into error or sin" (cf. Winer's Grammar, 32); α. of persons ((Joshua 23:13; 1 Samuel 18:21)): Matthew 13:41; Matthew 16:23 (where σκάνδαλον "non ex effectu, sed ex natura et condicione propria dicitur," Calov.); so Χριστός ἐσταυρωμένος is called (because his ignominious death on the cross roused the opposition of the Jews), 1 Corinthians 1:23. β. of things: τιθέναι τίνι σκάνδαλον (literally, in Judith 5:1), to put a stumbling-block in one's way, i. e. to do that by which another is led to sin, Romans 14:13; the same idea is expressed by βάλλειν σκάνδαλον ἐνώπιον τίνος (to cast a stumbling-block before one), Revelation 2:14; οὐκ ἐστι σκάνδαλον ἐν τίνι (see εἰμί, V. 4. e.), 1 John 2:10; plural σκάνδαλα, words or deeds which entice to sin (Wis. 14:11), Matthew 18:7 (cf. Buttmann, 322 (277) n.; Winer's Grammar, 371 (348)); Luke 17:1; σκάνδαλα ποιεῖν παρά τήν διδαχήν, to cause persons to be drawn away from the true doctrine into error and sin (cf. παρά, III. 2 a.), Romans 16:17; τό σκάνδαλον τοῦ σταυροῦ, the offence which the cross, i. e. Christ's death on the cross, gives (cf. α. at the end above), (R. V. the stumbling-block of the cross), Galatians 5:11; equivalent to a cause of destruction, Romans 11:9, from Psalm 68:23 ().