scandal
A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...
in the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...
, or in politics (including history), is a
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...
for a behaviour or attitude that leads another to
sin
In a religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, s ...
or to destructive behaviour.
Bible use
Hebrew Bible
The origin of the metaphor is the prohibition of putting a stumbling block before the blind (). Geoffrey W. Bromiley calls the image "especially appropriate to a rocky land like Palestine". In the
Septuagint
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond ...
, is translated into
Koine Greek
Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...
(), a word which occurs only in Hellenistic literature, in the sense "snare for an enemy; cause of moral stumbling".OED "scandal", etymology. In the Septuagint a stumbling block means anything that leads to sin.
New Testament
The New Testament usages of , such as , resemble Septuagint usage. It appears 15 times in the New Testament in 12 unique verses according to Strong's Concordance. These passages are: , , (3 times), , , , , , , , , , and .
The noun has a derived
verb
A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...
, (formed with the suffix as English "scandalize"), meaning literally "to trip somebody up" or, idiomatically, "to cause someone to sin." This verb appears 29 times in 27 New Testament verses.
Apart from ''skandalon'' the idiom of "stumbling block" has a second synonym in the Greek term ''proskomma'' "stumbling." Both words are used together in
1 Peter
The First Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament. The author presents himself as Peter the Apostle. The ending of the letter includes a statement that implies that it was written from " Babylon", which is possibly a reference to Rome ...
2:8; this is a "stone of stumbling" ( λίθος προσκόμματος) and a "rock of offense" ( πέτρα σκανδάλου). The antonymous adjective (ἀπρόσκοπος), "without causing anyone to stumble," also occurs three times in the New Testament.
Later use
Judaism
The Leviticus warning is developed in
rabbinical Judaism
Rabbinic Judaism ( he, יהדות רבנית, Yahadut Rabanit), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, or Judaism espoused by the Rabbanites, has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century CE, after the codification of the Babylonian ...
as ''
lifnei iver
In Judaism, Lifnei Iver (Hebrew: לִפְנֵי עִוֵּר, "Before the Blind") is a Hebrew expression defining a prohibition against misleading people by use of a " stumbling block," or allowing a person to proceed unawares in unsuspecting dang ...
'' "before the blind."
Christianity
Catholicism
"Scandal" is discussed by
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wit ...
in the ''
Summa Theologica
The ''Summa Theologiae'' or ''Summa Theologica'' (), often referred to simply as the ''Summa'', is the best-known work of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), a scholastic theologian and Doctor of the Church. It is a compendium of all of the main th ...
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt not kill (LXX; ), You shall not murder (Hebrew: ; ') or You shall not kill (KJV), is a moral imperative included as one of the Ten Commandments in the Torah.
The imperative not to kill is in the context of ''unlawful'' killing resu ...
) section "Respect for the Dignity of Persons".
''Active scandal'' is performed by a person; ''passive scandal'' is the reaction of a person to active scandal ("scandal given" or in Latin ), or to acts which, because of the viewer's ignorance, weakness, or malice, are regarded as scandalous ("scandal received" or in Latin ).
In order to qualify as scandalous, the behavior must, in itself, be evil or give the appearance of evil.Vander Heeren 1912, "Cases in which the sin of scandal occurs (1)" To do a good act or an
indifferent act
An indifferent act is any action that is neither good nor evil.
When acts are considered in general, with respect only to their object, there are acts that can be said to be neither good nor bad, but indifferent. It is a topic of much dispute wh ...
, even knowing that it will inspire others to sin — as when a student studies diligently to do well, knowing it will cause
envy
Envy is an emotion which occurs when a person lacks another's quality, skill, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it.
Aristotle defined envy as pain at the sight of another's good fortune, stirred b ...
— is not scandalous. For example, to ask someone to commit
perjury
Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...
is scandalous, but for a judge to require witnesses to give an oath even when he knows the witness is likely to commit perjury is not scandalous. It does not require that the other person actually commit sin; to be scandalous, it suffices that the act is of a nature to lead someone to sin. Scandal is performed with the intention of inducing someone to sin. Urging someone to commit a sin is therefore active scandal. In the case where the person urging the sin is aware of its nature and the person he is urging is ignorant, the sins committed are the fault of the person who urged them. Scandal is also performed when someone performs an evil act, or an act that appears to be evil, knowing that it will lead others into sin. (In case of an apparently evil act, a sufficient reason for the act despite the faults it will cause negates the scandal.) Scandal may also be incurred when an innocent act may be an
occasion of sin
In Christian hamartiology, occasions of sin are "external circumstances--whether of things or persons--which either because of their special nature or because of the frailty common to humanity or peculiar to some individual, incite or entice one ...
to the weak, but such acts should not be foregone if the goods at stake are of importance.Vander Heeren 1912, "Cases in which the sin of scandal occurs (3)"
Protestantism
The term "stumbling block" is common in Protestant writings. An early use was
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...
's consideration that the common belief that the Mass was a sacrifice was a "stumbling block."
Modern "scandal"
The Greek word was borrowed from Greek to Latin to French, and finally to English as "scandal". The modern English meaning of ''
scandal
A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...
'' is a
development
Development or developing may refer to:
Arts
*Development hell, when a project is stuck in development
*Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting
*Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped
* Photograph ...
from the religious meaning, via the intermediate sense of "damage to reputation".OED "scandal", senses 1–4.