And that you may see that the scandal forbidden in the New Testament, is always of this nature, let us take notice of the particular texts where the word is used. And first, to scandalize is used actively in these following texts: in Matt. v. before cited, and in the other evangelists citing the same words, the sense is clear; that the offending of a hand or eye, is not displeasing, nor seeking of ill report; but hindering our salvation by drawing us to sin. So in Matt. xviii. 8; and Mark ix. 42, 43, where the sense is the same. In Matt. xvii. 27, "Lest we should offend them," &c. is not only, lest we displease them, but lest we give them occasion to dislike religion, or think hardly of the gospel, and so lay a stumblingblock to the danger of their souls. So Matt. xviii. 6, and Mark ix. "Whoso shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me," &c. that is, not who shall displease them, but whoso by threats, persecutions, cruelties, or any other means, shall go about to turn them from the faith of Christ, or stop them in their way to heaven, or hinder them in a holy life: though these two texts seem nearest to the denied sense, yet that is not indeed their meaning. So in John vi. 6, "Doth this offend you?" that is, doth this seem incredible to you, or hard to be believed, or digested? Doth it stop your faith, and make you distaste my doctrine? So 1 Cor. viii. 13, "If meat scandalize my brother;" our translators have turned it, "If meat make my brother to offend." So it was not displeasing him only, but tempting him to sin, which is the scandalizing here reproved.
View also the places where the word scandal is used. Matt. xiii. 41, Πάντα τὰ σκάνδαλα, All scandals, translated, "All things that offend," doth not signify All that is displeasing; but all temptations to sin, and hinderances or stumblingblocks that would have stopped men in the ways to heaven. So in Matt. xvi. 23, (a text as like as any to be near the denied sense; yet indeed,) "Thou art a scandal to me," (translated an offence,) doth not only signify, Thou displeasest me, but, Thou goest about to hinder me in my undertaken office, from suffering for the redemption of the world; it was an aptitudinal scandal, though not effectual. So Matt. xvii. 7, "It must be that scandals come," (translated offences,) that is, that there be many stumblingblocks set before men in their way to heaven. So Luke xvii. 1, to the same sense. And Rom. ix. 33, "I lay in Zion a stumbling-stone, and a rock of scandal," (translated offence,) that is, such as will not only be displeasing, but an occasion of utter ruin to the unbelieving, persecuting Jews; according to that of Simeon, Luke ii. 34, "This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel." Rom. xi. 9, "Let their table be made a snare, a trap, and a stumblingblock." The Greek word εἰς σκὰνδαλον doth not signify a displeasure only, but an occasion of ruin. So Rom. xiv. 13, expoundeth itself, "That no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall into his brother's way." The Greek word is, or a scandal. This is the just exposition of the word in its ordinary use in the New Testament.[136] So Rom. xvi. 17, "Mark them which cause divisions and scandals," (translated offences,) that is, which lay stumblingblocks in the way of christians, and would trouble them in it, or turn them from it. So 1 Cor. i. 23, "To the Jews a stumblingblock," that is, a scandal, (as the Greek word is,) as before expounded. So Gal. v. 11, "The scandal of the cross," translated the offence, doth signify not the bare reproach, but the reproach as it is the trial and stumblingblock of the world, that maketh believing difficult. So 1 John ii. 10, "There is no scandal in him," translated, no occasion of stumbling. These are all the places that I remember where the word is used.