Matters of Interpretation

Metaphorically, I hope.

Jesus repeats the instruction about cutting off your hand, or gouging out your eye.

Here’s Matthew 5:29-30:

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.

And here’s Matthew 18:8-9:

If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Never noticed the repetition, until this morning. And as Joseph said to Pharaoh (Genesis 41:32), “repetition means business, dude.”

Image: “La Grammaire,” Paul Sérusier, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons