Mark 9:42

9:42 “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a huge millstone 1  tied around his neck and to be thrown into the sea.

Mark 14:21

14:21 For the Son of Man will go as it is written about him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for him if he had never been born.”

Mark 14:49

14:49 Day after day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, yet 2  you did not arrest me. But this has happened so that 3  the scriptures would be fulfilled.”

1 tn Grk “the millstone of a donkey.” This refers to a large flat stone turned by a donkey in the process of grinding grain (BDAG 661 s.v. μύλος 2; L&N 7.68-69). The same term is used in the parallel account in Matt 18:6.

sn The punishment of drowning with a heavy weight attached is extremely gruesome and reflects Jesus’ views concerning those who cause others who believe in him to sin.

2 tn Grk “and”; καί (kai) is elastic enough to be used contrastively on occasion, as here.

3 tn Grk “But so that”; the verb “has happened” is implied.