Cutting it off.

Matthew 5.29-30, 18.8-9, Mark 9.43-46.

When I was a kid, I watched a Little House on the Prairie episode (“A Matter of Faith,” season 2, episode 15) where Caroline injured her foot, it got infected, and she was delirious from fever. At one point she read her bible—specifically, today’s passage, in which Jesus tells you to lop off an offending foot. So she got out a knife and got started.

Freaked me out a little. Because even as a kid, I knew this teaching is hyperbole. Jesus is saying something outrageously extreme in order to make a point: Sin is so awful, you’d be better off amputating your limbs than letting your sins destroy you. Especially destroy you eternally.

As a result he uses this teaching more than once. Once in Mark and twice in Matthew—and one of those times is in his Sermon on the Mount, which is why I bring it up here.

Matthew 5.29-30 KWL

29“If your right eye trips you up,

pluck it out and throw it from you!

For better for you

that you might destroy one of your bodyparts

and might not have your whole body

thrown into Gehenna.

30If your right hand trips you up,

lop it off and throw it from you!

For better for you

that you might destroy one of your bodyparts

and might not have your whole body

go off to Gehenna.”

Γέενναν/Géhennan is a transliteration of the Aramaic word ܓܗܢܐ/Gehenna, the wadi of Hinnom, just outside Jerusalem, where the people of the city burnt their trash. The fires burned day and night—same as hell, which is why Judeans used Gehenna as a euphemism for hell. When Jesus talks about Gehenna, he might only be talking about negative consequences, like getting dumped in society or history’s trash heap. But most of us Christians are entirely sure he’s talking about the lake of fire at the End, Rv 20.14-15 the “everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and its angels.” Mt 25.41 There are four words translated “hell” in the bible; Gehenna refers to that one.

This story is where some Christians get the idea of mortal sins, sins which are so bad, committing ’em means you’re guaranteed hell. This belief is not biblical; there are no such sins. Only a lifestyle of unrepentant sin in defiance of God is gonna put people in hell.

But certain things, certain temptations, are gonna nudge us ever so slightly towards that lifestyle. I knew plenty of kids in my high school youth group who wanted to fornicate so badly—as kids do, ’cause they’re full of hormones. Certain people in our Fundamentalist church told ’em if they did, they’d be unrepentantly defying Jesus; they’d be apostate. (No, they actually wouldn’t, but you know how certain Fundies get whenever people go against their “God’s” will.) You can kinda guess how things turned out: Super horny, and presented with this false dilemma, the kids sadly chose to quit Jesus. Some of ’em came back to him. Some still haven’t.

And no doubt there were certain Israeli kids, certain Pharisees, in Jesus’s day, who figured either they had to obey Pharisee teachings, or they were going to hell… and they were greatly tempted to choose hell. Yes the Pharisees offered tons of loopholes for God’s laws… but there was no getting around Pharisee customs. Break a Law and there’s forgiveness; break tradition and there’s not.

Fundies are the very same way, which is why whenever Jesus broke Pharisee custom (as he regularly did) some of ’em actually claim Jesus broke God’s laws. No he didn’t; that’d make him a sinner! He only broke traditions which God never implemented; which might be “biblical principles” but they were never God’s principles.

So what Jesus is talking about here, are actual sins. Deliberate violations of the Law of Moses. And yes, God forgives those sins too. But if you’re tempted to enter an unrepentant lifestyle of those sins, however you justify it to yourself: Better you stop lopping off bodyparts.

“If thy right eye offend thee.”

In older bibles like the King James, Jesus’s words get translated “If thy right eye offend thee.” That’s not an accurate translation anymore, but 500 years ago it was. “Offend” comes from the Latin offendō, “trip up.” Over time it’s come to mean “cause displeasure, be disagreeable.” English evolves, folks. It’s why we gotta keep retranslating bibles.

Jesus used the word σκανδαλίζει/skandalídzei, which like offendō also means “trip up.” A deliberate trip; it’s not a poorly-placed paving stone. A σκάνδαλον/skándalon was what they called the bent stick in a booby-trap; tap it and it springs the trap. If you’re following God’s path, but something makes you trip, stumble, fall over, fall off the path; even go a whole other direction. If it tempts you.

Since today’s passage comes right after Jesus’s instruction to not covet a woman who’s not yours, plenty of Christians have taken this passage—correctly!—in context, and said it’s about lusting for people you can’t have. And since one’s hand is involved, acting upon it.

Some of ’em take it a little too far. I once had a youth pastor who insisted the reference to one’s right hand, and only that hand, means Jesus is specifically talking about self-gratification. We kids joked later, “Now we know which hand he uses,” and “I gotta start using my left!” No I don’t think that’s what Jesus means. He refers to one’s right hand because, for most people, it’s our dominant hand; it’s the one we do most everything with. In his culture, it’s the hand you’d keep clean all the time so you could eat with it. (The left, you did all your not-so-clean stuff with.) As for your right eye: Dominant eyes typically match dominant hands.

Here’s the other cultural thing today’s Christians regularly miss: If you were Levite, and were missing a hand or eye, you can’t serve in temple.

Leviticus 21.18 JPS

17 “Speak to Aaron and say: No man of your offspring throughout the ages who has a defect shall be qualified to offer the food of his God. 18No one at all who has a defect shall be qualified: no man who is blind, or lame, or has a limb too short or too long; 19no man who has a broken leg or a broken arm; 20or who is a hunchback, or a dwarf, or who has a growth in his eye, or who has a boil-scar, or scurvy, or crushed testes. 21No man among the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall be qualified to offer the LORD’s offering by fire; having a defect, he shall not be qualified to offer the food of his God. 22He may eat of the food of his God, of the most holy as well as of the holy; 23but he shall not enter behind the curtain or come near the altar, for he has a defect. He shall not profane these places sacred to me, for I the LORD have sanctified them.”

And a number of Pharisees, who figured they may not be Levite but they were facilitating a form of worship in their synagogues, likewise forbade people from ministering in synagogue if they were “defective.” Some of ’em even went so far as to forbid ’em in the services.

Again, Jesus is using hyperbole. No he doesn’t want us to literally lop off bodyparts. Especially since you have another eye to covet stuff with, and another hand to sin with. Even so, he’s making the case that sin is so bad, better to be disabled, and shunned by ungracious hypocrites.

The other times Jesus used this teaching.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is speaking about covetousness and lust. In the other two instances of his “cut-it-off” teaching, it’s about leading children astray. Comes right after, in both Mark and Matthew, he says you may as well drown ’em in the sea. Mk 9.42, Mt 18.6

Mark 9.43-46 KWL

43“When your hand trips you up,

amputate it!

What’s good for you?

To enter the life maimed,

or having two hands

and going to Gehenna,

into the inextinguishable fire?

44{Where their maggots don’t expire,

and the fire isn’t extinguished?}

45When your foot trips you up,

amputate it!

What’s good for you?

To enter the life limping,

or having two feet

and getting thrown into Gehenna?

46{Where their maggots don’t expire,

and the fire isn’t extinguished?}

47When your eye trips you up,

throw it out!

What’s good for you?

To enter God’s kingdom one-eyed,

or having two eyes

and getting thrown into Gehenna?

48Where their maggots don’t expire,

and the fire isn’t extinguished?”

Matthew 18.8-9 KWL

8“If your hand or your foot trips you up,

lop it off and throw it from you!

What’s good to enter the life?

Maimed or limping,

or having two hands or two feet—

to be thrown into the fire

of the age to come.

9If your eye trips you up,

pluck it out and throw it from you!

What’s good to enter the life?

One-eyed,

or having two eyes—

to be thrown into fiery Gehenna.”

Y’notice in Mark there are two verses in braces; I do that with words which are in the Textus Receptus but not in the most ancient copies of the New Testament. It’s why current bibles put those verses in the footnotes, not the text. They got added to Mark in the fourth century. Some scribe thought it was profound to have “where the maggots don’t expire, and the fire isn’t extinguished” said thrice; possibly because it was part of a popular hymn. But it’s more likely Jesus said it without repeating himself.

As for what maggots and inextinguishable fire mean… well that largely describes the literal Gehenna outside Jerusalem. Lots of trash—lots of food waste and dung, so plenty of maggots and flies. And lots of fire, because they burned trash day and night. We’re meant to get the idea the lake of fire outside New Jerusalem is just like Gehenna outside Old Jerusalem: Stinky, wormy, buggy, and hot. Nowhere you ever wanna go! Better to lop off bodyparts.

But not literally. Just resist temptation, wouldya?