Matthew 18:5,6 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And whoso shall receive, &c.— "All who in the sense above explained are little children, are unspeakably dear to me; therefore help them all you can, as if it were myself in person, and see that ye offend them not; that is to say, that ye neither turn them out of the right way, nor hinder them in it." Dr. Clarke thinks, thatlittle ones mean plain and sincere Christians, before compared, for their simplicity and sincerity, to little children; and that to offend them signifies to cast a stumbling-block before them, to cause them to sin, to discourage them in their duty, or attempt to offend them. So that whoever, by a scandalous life, should lead others to think ill of the Christian profession in general, or should bypersecution discourage the weak, or by sophistry, bad example, or otherwise, pervert them from the way of truth and goodness, would fall under the weight of the terrible sentence here denounced. Casaubon, Elsner, and others, have shewn at large, that drowning in the sea was a punishment frequently used among the Syrians, Greeks, and Romans; and that the persons condemned had sometimes heavy stones tied about their necks, or were rolled up in sheets of lead, καταποντιζεσθαι, to sink them with the weight. It seems to have grown into a proverb for dreadful and inevitable ruin. See on ch. Matthew 14:28 and Mintert on the word καταποντιζω. Μυλος ονικος probably signifies a mill-stone too large to be turned, as some were, by the hand; and requiring the force of asses to move it, as it seems those animals were generally used by the Jews on this occasion. See Raphelius, Riping, Antiq. Rom. lib. 2. 100. 7 and Lightfoot.