Mar 9:42 And whosoever shall offend one of [these] little ones...
Mar 9:42 And whosoever shall offend one of [these] little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.
Christ's words are almost always rendered in the same Greek in the different Gospels, despite the rich vocabulary available. This verse is an very illustrative exception. It shows what all the Gospels would look like in Greek if they were not taken from a common Greek translation of Christ's words. This is strong evidence that Christ actually taught in common Greek as well as Aramaic (discussed here).
Its version from Mat 18:6 uses a number of different Greek words to express the similar ideas. This is hidden in English where the differences are minimized. In the previous version, the words for "millstone" means specifically "millstone of an ass," while the words here means simply "stone of a mill." "It would be better" in Matthew is from a word that means "to be useful" while the word used here means "beautiful" and "good." And the word for "cast" in Matthew means specifically "to be thrown in the sea" or "downed" while here it is the more common "thrown" or "launched. Matthew also renders it as "the depths of the sea" rather than simply the "sea" as here.
The difference demonstrates the natural differences between the Greek vocabulary of Matthew and Mark. Despite these inevitable personal differences in language, this is the only verse with a significant difference in vocabulary thus far. How likely is that if the authors were not working from a common Greek version of Christ's words? It is impossible.
As discussed in that earlier version, Christ uses the sea and stone as metaphors for the temporary world while children as metaphors for the spiritual world. This contrast is even clearer here in Mark because the difference between the spiritual and physical is the focus of the chapter.
In several places (Mat 25:28-30, Mat 24:50-51, Mat 22:13, Mat 13:50) Christ describes someone being thrown into the outer darkness. This is the same concept but rendered into a more tangible form.
"Offend" is from skandalizô (skandalizo), which means "to cause to stumble," "to give offense," and "to scandalize."
"Little ones" is from mikros, which means "small," "little," and "young." It is a change from the word used in the previous verses to refer to children, paidion, which means "a young child."
"Believe" is from pisteuô (pisteuo), which means "to trust, put faith in, or rely on a person," "to believe in someone's words," "to comply," "to feel confident in a thing," and "to entrust in a thing."
"Better" is from kalos (kalos), which means "beautiful," "good," "of fine quality," "noble," and "honorable." It is most often translated as "good" juxtaposed with "evil" in the New Testament, but the two ideas are closer to "wonderful" and "worthless," "noble" and "base."
"Stone" is lithos (lithos) which means "a stone," "stone as a substance," and various specific types of stones, such as touchstones, and altar stones.
"Mill" is from mylikos (mylikos), which means "for a mill."
"Hanged around" is from perikeimai (perikeimai), which means "to lie around," "have round one," and "wear." It metaphorically means to have no advantage.
"Neck" is from trachêlos (trachelos), which means "neck" and "throat."
"Pour" is from ballo, which means "to throw," "to let fall," "to put," "to pour," or "to cast."
"Sea" is from thalassa, which means also means "sea" or "sea water."
