Luke 17:1

The phrase τοῦ τὰ σκάνδαλα μὴ ἐλθεῖν employs a genitive articular infinitive, a construction common in classical and Koine Greek whereby an infinitive is substantivized through the definite article and declined. The genitive case here serves as the subject of the impersonal verb ἐστιν. Thus, the entire clause may be rendered literally as “the not-coming of the scandals,” functioning as the subject of Ἀνένδεκτόν ἐστιν (“it is inadmissable”). The presence of τοῦ marks this grammatical structure and should not be confused with a possessive or partitive genitive.

The phrase οὐαὶ δὲ δι' οὗ ἔρχεται can be translated as "Woe through whom they are coming." The word οὐαὶ is an interjection expressing lamentation or judgment, while δι' οὗ uses the genitive case (from the relative pronoun οὗ, "whom") to indicate the agent or means by which something occurs. This construction is not "woe to" (which would take the accusative or dative - cf. οὐαὶ woe and all its usages in the NT), but rather "woe through whom", identifying the individual responsible for bringing about the event. Therefore, the phrase expresses judgment on the one through whom the action takes place.