“And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:”
If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out — the three stumbling-member sayings (hand, foot, eye) follow the millstone warning. The radical surgery metaphor communicates the absolute priority of eternal life over bodily completeness. The hand, foot, and eye are the instruments of action, movement, and perception — the means by which sin enters and is executed. If the instrument is the problem, the instrument must go. The literalism of the command is not the point; the priority it communicates is.
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