Matthew 18:8

"And if thy hand or they foot causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee; it is good for thee to enter into life maimed or halt, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into a fire of unconditional-being."

Much of the Bible is not literally true. That sounds like an odd thing to say. "God is Light." Literally true? Of course not, God is not a set of photons (or particles, depending on your theory of light).  We know that God is spirit (or "wind" as in the Etymological New Testament). But we still speak of many of his bodily parts in a very anthropomorphic way.

But some readers of the NT tend to miss the point of this figure of speech, above, as Matthew quotes Jesus. Yes, Jesus is using hyperbole to make a very clear point about offending other human beings.  And about the importance of life and entering into it as freely and gracefully as possible.

To become a stumbling block in the way of others is to find ourselves "cast into a fire of unconditional-being."  Another figure of speech to help us grasp the importance of his teaching.  As noted earlier, the family of words typically translated as "age" or "eternal" or "everlasting" stem from the literal three part word UN-IF-BEING.  Or, unconditional-being.  We can find ourselves growing into this "life without limits."  Or spiraling downward into a fire of our unconditional being.

Matthew 18:7

"Woe unto the system because of occasions of stumbling! For it must be that the occasions come; but woe to that human through whom the occasion cometh!"

The Greek word KOSMOS indicates an orderly or systematic arrangement.  It is translated most frequently as "world" in conventional Bibles. But they also translate this word as "jewelry" and "order" etc.  The Etymological New Testament consistently translates with the ultra-literal English word "system."  In the verse above, the system is the culturally organized system of human beings. Too often this system works against human life.  The structures of our society can become our enemies if they become an end unto themselves.

Jesus pronounces a woe upon the type of culture, or system, that harms children. Because of the way society is structured, this occasion will come, but woe to the particular people who implement the harm to others.  Just because the system is evil, we are not innocent in our participation within it.  To listen to Jesus' teaching is to feel the imperative to challenge the system within which we find ourselves.