To cause to stumble
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Skandalizo names causing someone to stumble, taking offense, or falling away under pressure. The word can describe a person being offended by Jesus, shallow hearers collapsing when trouble comes, disciples faltering in the night of Jesus' arrest, or someone placing a spiritual obstacle before another believer.
Reader summary
Full entry for σκανδαλίζω (G4624) · Open the biblical lexicon
Skandalizo names causing someone to stumble, taking offense, or falling away under pressure. The word can describe a person being offended by Jesus, shallow hearers collapsing when trouble comes, disciples faltering in the night of Jesus' arrest, or someone placing a spiritual obstacle before another believer.
The BSB source-word alignment has 29 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include causes you to sin (7), causes (3), does not fall away (2), fall away (2), they took offense (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:29. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (14), Mark (8), 1 Corinthians (2), John (2).
Skandalizo names causing someone to stumble, taking offense, or falling away under pressure. The word can describe a person being offended by Jesus, shallow hearers collapsing when trouble comes, disciples faltering in the night of Jesus' arrest, or someone placing a spiritual obstacle before another believer. It is not a general word for being annoyed. Nor does it make every disagreement a stumbling block.
In Matthew 18 and Luke 17, Jesus treats causing little ones to stumble with severe warning. In John 16, He teaches so that His disciples will not fall away when hostility comes. In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul limits liberty for the sake of a weaker brother. The word helps readers see that offense, pressure, and influence can become spiritually dangerous when they draw people away from faithful trust and obedience.
Skandalizo moves across personal offense, persecution pressure, failed endurance, and harmful influence. In the parable of the soils, shallow reception collapses when trouble comes because of the word. Jesus warns against causing little ones to stumble. The disciples themselves fall away during the passion night. John 16 presents Jesus' instruction as protection against apostasy. Paul then applies the concern to love that refuses to use freedom in a way that harms a brother.
But since he has no root, he remains for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.
The rocky-ground hearer falls away when trouble or persecution comes because of the word. The word exposes rootless reception under pressure.
But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Jesus warns against causing little ones who believe in Him to stumble. The passage gives the word a serious shepherding and accountability edge.
Then Jesus said to them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of Me. For it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
Jesus says the disciples will all fall away on account of Him that night. The word can describe real failure among disciples without erasing restoration.
It would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
Luke repeats the severe warning about causing little ones to stumble. The word guards vulnerable believers from careless or destructive influence.
“I have told you these things so that you will not fall away.
Jesus tells His disciples what is coming so they will not fall away. Truthful preparation becomes a means of perseverance.
Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to stumble.
Paul limits his own liberty rather than cause his brother to stumble. The word shapes love, conscience care, and self-denial in the church.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. To cause spiritual stumbling through offense, temptation, or obstacle to faith; to scandalize.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 30 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I cause to stumble
Read verseI cause to stumble
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Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 30 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 8 selected witnesses from 30 lexical occurrence verses.
σκανδαλίζω is built from this root:
Warns against rejecting Christ due to unmet expectations.
Describes the disciples’ coming failure.
Describes stumbling over Christ’s humble identity.
Highlights spiritual harm and accountability.
Skandalizo is pastorally weighty because it shows that spiritual harm can come through pressure, offense, or influence. Some fall away when the word brings trouble, revealing shallow roots. Some are caused to stumble by the behavior of others, which Jesus treats with frightening seriousness when little ones are involved. The disciples fall away in the passion narrative, proving that failure is not theoretical, yet Jesus also prepares His people so they will not fall away when hatred comes.
Paul extends the concern into church life: freedom is not love when it injures a brother's conscience. The word therefore lets teachers speak with moral clarity and pastoral care, resisting both hypersensitivity and careless strength.
Matthew 18:6
Skandalizo is a verb for causing to stumble, being offended, or falling away. Context determines whether the stress falls on the obstacle placed before another, the offense taken, or the collapse that follows pressure.
The word echoes the biblical pattern of stumbling over what God sets before people, yet the New Testament also warns against becoming an occasion of harm to others. Christ Himself is rejected by some, but He also protects and restores His own.