Gal 5.11 Scandal of the cross

What is the scandal of the cross?

"Scandal" is derived etymologically from
"skandalon" but is not synonymous
with it. "Stumbling block" is the usual
translation.

Ego de, adelphoi,ei peritomen eti
kuresso, ti eti diokomai? Ara katergetai
to skandalon tou staurou.

(The closing sentence is punctuated with a
period in my edition (by Kurt Aland et al.),
but I think it may be, like the preceding
sentence, a question.)

Thanks Roland. I understand the Greek, and whichever translation is used (I like scandal ; ) ), what does it refer to?

I have the Nestle-Aland GNT, and it has a period. As does what I have in the way of the Received Text. It is interesting though to consider how punctuation as a question might change the passage.

The reference to scandal of the cross seems often thought to be the shame of a death on the cross. I think though the reference may rather be to the freedom which Christ's sacrifice on the cross provides.

The scandal is freedom.

I think "stumbling block" is the better translation because it makes more contectual sense. But it is a scandal, too, in that God uses a symbol of shame as the central theme to humanity's salvation. That scandalous act - public criminal/political execution - is the stumbling block.

The question in the OP was not intended to ask how to translate σκανδαλον. The question was intended to ask what was it about the cross that tripped up those who would come to the faith.

It does not seem that the scandal of the cross was its disgrace, or even the idea that those who were hanged were cursed by God.

It is possible that the LXX rendering of Dt 21.23 suggested to Galatians that the crucified Jesus was cursed by God. I think Dt 21.23 reads differently in Hebrew, emphasizing that not burying someone defiled the land. Even the Greek seems to emphasize the importance of burying the dead.

Anyway, I am not sure that the Galatians were steeped in oral tradition of the Pharisees.

The scandal of the cross seems to be the freedom that results from Christ's sacrifice. His faith unto death won freedom. And that victory itself became the trip stick for many coming to their faith.

Many continued to believe that the law still had force for salvation. The gift of the cross was not entirely free.

My opinion is only that of a layperson, but I agree that in the context of the verse, "offense" or "scandal" indicates freedom from the requirement for circumcision. In other words, because of Christ's death on the cross, gentiles are free to become followers without becoming specifically Jewish - symbolized by circumcision.

A piece from Richard Rohr which refers to the Stumbling Stone

7> Thanks for sharing Rohr's Stumbling Stone.