One of the "Minor Agreements" which is really a "Major Agreement" of Matthew and Luke against Mark involves Mt. 18:7b and Luke 17:1b. The agreement is not very straightforward, but it is extremely interesting, and cannot have come from Mark.
First, let's put the verses in context. The following quotations are from the NASB, one of the few English versions literal enough for our purposes:
Matthew:
"but whoever causes one of these little one who believe in me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.
"Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!" (Mt. 18:6-7, but I would like to point out that Mt. 18:6-9 all contain the catchword "stumble" or "stumbling.")
Mark:
"And whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea." (Mk. 9:42. The second part, corresponding to Mt. 18:7, is not present in Mk.)
Luke:
"And he said to his disciples, 'It is inevitable that stumbling blocks should come, but woe to him through whom they come!
" 'It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble.' "
The unquoted verses Mt. 18:8-9 are about hand/foot and eye causing to stumble, as Mk. 9:43-47 are about hand, foot, and eye causing to stumble.
Mt. 18:7 is present in Luke (though Luke has reversed the order of the verses) but it is not present in Mark at all.
Naturally, I wanted to see if Hebrew Matthew could shed any light on this situation. Here is a screen capture of pp. 88-89 of George Howard's book (op. cit.):
The print is a little bit small, but here are the relevant verses, in Howard's English translation:
"He who causes one of the small lads who believe on me to stumble, it would be good for him to tie a millstone upon his neck and be cast into the depth of the sea.
(Woe to the inhabitants of the world because of confusion, because confusion must come.) He also said: Woe to the man who comes because of it."
The part placed in parentheses by George Howard does not appear in the two best manuscripts he examined at all. To get anything similar to canonical Matthew, he had to cobble together readings from several manuscripts that he considers inferior. I would like to point out that the part in parentheses does not contain the catchword "stumble/stumbling blocks." In other words, it is likely that those words have been placed into a context in which they do not belong. Mark does not have that verse; Luke does, although he reverses the order, and neither Greek Matthew nor Luke says anything about "confusion." The canonical gospels are talking about stumbling blocks.
The "stumbling block" usage is common enough in Hebrew, going back to the Old Testament books. It is also used in elsewhere in Greek, including some of the Epistles. So where does "confusion" come in, and why is it interrupting a series of catchwords? A clue may be found in a superficial similarity between the Hebrew words מכשׁול (stumbling block) and מבוכה, though I am not convinced.
To me it seems more likely that the words have been inserted where they do not belong. According to my Layered Matthew Hypothesis, Mark would not have seen the words, since he used an early version of Matthew (Matthew I, still lacking most of the "Q" material). Luke, who used a later, intermediate version of Matthew (Matthew IIa), has seen and included the words, though "confusion" has been replaced by "stumbling blocks" in the Greek text. But the absence of these words in the best manuscripts of Hebrew Matthew (generally Matthew IIb), indicates that these words are a relatively late addition. Luke has, in fact, seen fit to reverse the order of the verses to make these words fit in better.
But there is another strange thing in the Hebrew: It says, "Woe to the man who comes because of it." Canonical Matthew says, "but woe to the man through whom the stumbling block comes," and Luke is similar.
If we assume for the moment that the Hebrew is more correct than the Greek, what could these words mean?
This is pure speculation, but I read Mt. 18:6 as a warning against pedophilia, in very strong and graphic language. If we consider the first part of Mt. 18:7 to be an insertion, then we can reconnect the last part of the verse to the catchword series to which it belongs. In other words, we connect "but woe to the man who comes because of it" to the warning about "causing these little guys to stumble," and painting a picture of an unsavory type who becomes a hanger-on in a family movement because of the opportunities for pedophilia that it presents. I could be wrong, but it seems to me to be a possibility.
I would like to add a word here about shifting meanings. The Greek word used in these verses is "skandalon," which literally means a stumbling block, something that causes one to stumble. In Latin and in English this became "scandalize" which has come to be similar to "to shock." Modern English translations use many circumlocutions such as "offend," "tempt," "cause to sin," and so on, but I feel that it is best to be more literal. The English translations that I found to be most satisfactory in this regard were the NASB and the New English Bible. In Spanish, I found the RVR to be not bad, since it talks about "tropezar" and "tropiezos," and the Spanish is magnificent. Zamenhof's Esperanto is not bad in this case either (translating "stumbling block" as "falilo"), although it generally reflects the Received Text. I regret that I no longer have the French Version Synodale, which was one of my favorite Bibles. I had to part with many things in my move from one continent to another.
