proskomma

The noun is a verbal formation from προσκόπτω (πρός "against" plus κόπτω "strike"), and the lexica agree on a range with two poles: the object one strikes against (an obstacle, hence "stumbling block") and the act or experience of striking against it (hence "offense"). LSJ documents both for classical and Hellenistic Greek. BDAG assigns the Isaianic λίθος προσκόμματος texts (Rom 9:32-33; 1 Pet 2:8) and the παραινέσεις of Rom 14:13 and 1 Cor 8:9 to the obstacle pole, and treats the διὰ προσκόμματος ἐσθίειν of Rom 14:20 under the act of stumbling or taking offense. Stahlin's TDNT article on the whole προσκόπτω group traces the ethical and religious coloring the word acquires in the Greek Old Testament, where it renders both נֶגֶף and מִכְשׁוֹל, and argues that the New Testament stumbling carries genuine soteriological weight rather than mere mishap. Spicq observes that πρόσκομμα is idiomatic Attic Greek while σκάνδαλον is a Hellenistic-Jewish coinage, so Paul's juxtaposition of the two (Rom 9:33; 14:13) glosses the Semitic term with the more natural Greek one. Louw and Nida likewise file the object sense and the offense sense in separate semantic domains. The composite citation of Isa 8:14 with Isa 28:16 shared by Rom 9:33 and 1 Pet 2:8 tracks the Hebrew more closely than the Old Greek, which Dodd and Wagner take as evidence of an early Christian collection of "stone" testimonies. On the paraenetic passages there is broad consensus among modern commentators (Cranfield, Dunn, Moo, Thiselton) that the stumbling in view is real spiritual harm, potentially apostasy, and not offended sensibility; Rom 14:20 remains the crux, where commentators divide over whether ὁ διὰ προσκόμματος ἐσθίων is the weak believer eating against conscience to his own hurt or the strong believer whose eating occasions another's fall.