Search
Offence
o-fens’, o-fend’ (mikhshol, ’asham, chaTa’; skandalon, skandalizo): "Offend" is either transitive or intransitive As transitive it is primarily "to strike against," hence, "to displease" "to make angry," "to do harm to," "to affront," in Scripture, "to cause to sin"; intransitive it is "to sin," "to cause anger," in Scripture, "to be caused to sin." "Offence" is either the cause of anger, displeasure, etc., or a sin. In Scripture we have the special significance of a stumbling-block, or cause of falling, sin, etc.
1. Old Testament Usage:
In the Old Testament it is frequently the translation of ’asham, "to be guilty," "to transgress":
2. New Testament Usage:
In the Apocrypha we have "offence" (skandalon, Judith 12:2), the Revised Version (British and American) "I will not eat thereof, lest there be an occasion of stumbling"; "offend" (hamartano, Ecclesiasticus 7:7), the Revised Version (British and American) "sin"; "greatly offended" (prosochthizo, Ecclesiasticus 25:2); "offended" (skandalizo, Ecclesiasticus 32:15), the Revised Version (British and American) "stumble."
W. L Walker