Last week, I lamented that the meaning of a word changes over time. This week, a good example springs up. Let me give a few examples before taking up the key word today.
The most infamous example is the word "suffer" which nowadays refers to pains, discomfort and sorrows. However, in 9 out of 13 occurrences of "suffer" in KJV, it means "allow/tolerate" and only 4 of them mean "suffer" as we know it nowadays. The word "spell" meant an announcement/news and now a charm / incantation etc. Today, we will look at another S-word: scandal.
Let's begin in Latin!
Qui conversus dixit Petro: Vade post me Satana, scandalum es mihi: quia non sapis ea quæ Dei sunt, sed ea quæ hominum. (Vulgate)
Seeing some keywords such as Petro, Satana, Dei, hominum, I am sure you have guessed it right. Yes, it is Matthew 16:23 in which Jesus scolded Peter, calling him Satan when he tried to dissuade Jesus from suffering martyrdom. The Latin translation is a good approximation of the Greek original, which is
ὁ δὲ στραφεὶς εἶπεν τῷ Πέτρῳ Ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου Σατανᾶ σκάνδαλον μου, εἶ ὅτι οὐ φρονεῖς τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων (GNT)
How do the English translations go?
But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. (KJV)
But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men." (RSV)
and he having turned, said to Peter, 'Get thee behind me, adversary! thou art a stumbling-block to me, for thou dost not mind the things of God, but the things of men.' (YLT)
What about the Chinese translations?
耶穌轉過來，對彼得說：撒但，退我後邊去吧！你是絆我腳的；因為你不體貼神的意思，只體貼人的意思。(和合本Union version)
耶穌轉身對伯多祿說：「撒殫，退到我後面去！你是我的絆腳石，因為你所體會的，不是天主的事，而是人的事。」(思高Catholic Version)
"Scandal" which causes public outrage nowadays was only a hindrance, a stumbling block in the age of the Apostles!
Let's do a little statistics.
σκάνδαλον appears 14 times in LXX and another 14 times in GNT (in various forms). However, scandalum appears 57 (17 in OT and 40 in NT) times in Vulgate. Within a short span of about 250 years, more things (from 14 to 40) were regarded as "scandalous"!
Now, is "stumbling-block" a proper rendering of σκάνδαλον?
Let us see how Matthew make use of the word (RSV).
The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers (13:41).
But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men." (16:23)
Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the man by whom the temptation comes! (18:7)
So Matthew restricts the usage to hindrance.
Paul does not apply σκάνδαλον to Peter. He applies it to Christ instead! E.g. the scandal/stumbling block of the Cross (1 Corinthians 1:23, Galatians 5:11). He also applies it to the Torah which caused some Israelites to reject the gospel (Romans 9:30, 11:9) and warns the believers not to become stumbling blocks to each other (Romans 14:13, 16:17).
Peter also refers to Jesus as the stumbling block of the Israelites (1 Peter 2:8).
John's use is similar to that of Matthew. σκάνδαλον is something upon which people would stumble. (1 John 2:10, Revelation 2:14).
Was Peter Satan?
Remember that Jesus once said that God allows Satan to attack Peter (Luke 22:31). Therefore, when Jesus scolded Peter, it sounds more like an exorcism to me than anything. Jesus chased Satan, not simply any other ordinary evil spirit, away from Peter in order to protect him. Then Jesus explains to Peter, and to us, that we should mind the things of God, not things of men. Satan will make use of our human weaknesses to hinder, to cause troubles to the redemptive project of Jesus. Let us be vigilant.
Dear Lord, exorcise the demons in us so that we will not be a stumbling block to our brethren. Amen.
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