MATTHEW 18:9 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.”
And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. The eye-plucking teaching applied to the chapter's concern: the eye that causes stumbling must be removed. The hell of fire (Gehenna) is the eschatological judgment destination for those who are not protected by the radical self-surgery the previous verses command.
Church Fathers on Matthew 18:9
The Lord had said, that it is better for him who gives offence, that a mill-stone be hanged about his neck, which He now subjoins the reason, 'Woe unto the world from offences!' i. e. because of offences.
This we may understand not of the material elements of the world; but here the men who are in the world, are called the world. [ed. note: i. e. Mundus, whereas the word commonly used in this sense is, 'saeculum.']
This does not subvert the liberty of the will, or impose a necessity of any act, but foreshews what must come to pass. Offences are hindrances in the right way. But Christ’s prophecy does not bring in the offences, for it is not done because He foretold it, but He foretold it because it was certainly to come to pass.
Read all 13 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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