Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Matthew 18:7

οὐαὶ τῶ κόσμῳ, woe to the world, an exclamation of pity at thought of the miseries that come upon mankind through ambitious passions. Some (Bleek, Weiss, etc.) take κόσμος in the sense of the ungodly world, as in later apostolic usage, and therefore as causing, not suffering from, the offences deplored. This interpretation is legitimate but not inevitable, and it seems better to take the word in the more general sense of humanity conceived of as grievously afflicted with “scandals” without reference to who is to blame. They are a great fact in the history of mankind, by whomsoever caused. ἀπὸ τ. σ.: by reason of; points to the ultimate source of the misery. τῶν σκανδάλων : the scandals; a general category, and a black one. ἀνάγκη γάρ : they are inevitable; a fatality as well as a fact, on the wide scale of the world; they cannot be prevented, only deplored. No shallow optimism in Christ's view of life. πλὴν : adversative here, setting the woe that overtakes the cause of offences, over against that of those who suffer from them. Weiss contends that it is not adversative here any more than in Matthew 11:24, but simply conducts from the general culpability of the world to the guilt of every one who is a cause of scandal, even when he does not belong to the world.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Matthew 18:7

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