StrongerBible

proskoptō

προσκόπτω

GreekG4350“stumble, beat against, ...”

Appears 8 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 4:6Mat 7:27Luk 4:11Jhn 11:9Jhn 11:10Rom 9:32Rom 14:211Pe 2:8
Compound of
prosπρόςto/with735G4314
koptōκόπτωto cut/mourn8G2875
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-gradepros-KOP-tohverb

What proskoptō means

1

to strike against something physically: to dash the foot against an obstacle and stumble, or for a force to beat violently upon a thing.

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

The oldest picture behind this word is a very ordinary one: a foot catching on a stone in the road. Greek writers used it for a man stubbing his toe in the dark, a horse's hoof striking a rock, or one hard object knocking against another. In the New Testament this plain physical sense stays in view. When the tempter quotes an old promise that angels will guard the traveler "so that you do not strike your foot against a stone," the word means exactly that: a foot hitting rock.

One use pushes the image further. In the story of the two builders, the winds "beat against" the house that was built on sand. Here nothing is stumbling; a force is crashing into a structure. It is the same striking picture, now applied to a storm, and it carries the weight of a coming collapse.

Even at its most literal the word can hint at more. In one saying about walking safely by day but tripping by night, the setting is a real road, yet the words are chosen so that the physical stumble also pictures a person walking without spiritual light.

Nuances

1ato stumble: a foot striking against an obstacle so that the traveler trips.
Mat 4:6Luk 4:11Jhn 11:9Jhn 11:10
1bto beat against: for wind or a like force to crash violently upon something.
Mat 7:27
2

to be tripped up spiritually: to take offense at something, be repelled by it, and so reject it and fall.

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

By the first century the striking picture had grown a settled second use: to be tripped up on the inside, to take offense at something and turn away from it. The New Testament sharpens this into something with lasting stakes. To "stumble" in this sense is not a small misstep; it is to be so repelled by something that a person rejects it and falls.

Paul and Peter use the word for the sharpest case of all: people stumbling over Christ himself. Confronted with a crucified Messiah, they are tripped up rather than built up, and their stumbling is bound together with unbelief. The same writers then turn the picture toward life inside the church. A believer whose freedom leads a weaker Christian to act against conscience has put a stone in that person's path, and the danger is real spiritual harm, not hurt feelings.

This figurative use runs very close to a related verb, σκανδαλίζω, which comes from the image of a baited trap rather than a stone in the road. The two words overlap so much that the New Testament often pairs them, but this one keeps the flavor of an obstacle a person strikes against and trips over.

Nuances

2ato stumble over Christ: to be so repelled by him that one rejects him in unbelief and falls.
Rom 9:321Pe 2:8
1Pe 2:8

Whether the phrase "the word" attaches to the stumbling (they stumble at the word) or to the disobedience (they stumble because they disobey the word).

  • majorityThe phrase goes with the disobedience: they stumble because they disobey the word.; Karen H. Jobes, 1 Peter, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005), 151-158; Paul J. Achtemeier, 1 Peter, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996), 156-163; John H. Elliott, 1 Peter, AB 37B (New York: Doubleday, 2000), 422-437
  • minorityThe phrase goes with the stumbling: they stumble at the word, being disobedient, since this verb regularly takes the thing struck against as its object.; J. Ramsey Michaels, 1 Peter, WBC 49 (Waco: Word, 1988), 105-108
2bto be made to stumble: to be led by another believer's example into acting against conscience and into sin.
Rom 14:21

What scholars say about proskoptō

The verb is a compound of pros ("against") and kopto ("strike, beat"), and the lexicons agree on a two-branch range. LSJ distinguishes the literal "strike one thing against another" and "stumble against" (with classical citations from Aristophanes, Xenophon, Aristotle, and Hippocrates) from a later metaphorical "to offend," first attested in the Hellenistic period (Polybius, Diodorus, Marcus Aurelius, and the papyri). BDAG likewise splits the NT usage into (1) striking against something in a bruising or violent manner (Matt 7:27; Matt 4:6 // Luke 4:11; the absolute "stumble" of John 11:9-10) and (2) experiencing an inward jolt, taking offense, being repelled (Rom 9:32; Rom 14:21; 1 Pet 2:8). Louw-Nida files the physical sense under linear movement and the figurative under attitudes and moral behavior. Stahlin's TDNT article traces the word from secular Greek through the LXX (where it renders Hebrew nagaph and kashal and gains ethical-religious color) into the christological "stone of stumbling" texts, arguing the NT stumbling carries genuine soteriological weight rather than accidental mishap. Spicq notes that the cognate noun proskomma is idiomatic Attic Greek while skandalon is a Hellenistic-Jewish coinage, so Paul's pairing of the two (Rom 9:33; 14:13) glosses the Semitic term with the more natural Greek one. On the disputed passages: a near-universal consensus among modern commentators (Moo, Cranfield, Dunn, Thiselton, Fee) reads the "stumbling" of Rom 14 and 1 Cor 8 as real spiritual harm, potentially apostasy, not offended sensibilities; Moo further stresses that the verb implies a trip rather than the irrecoverable fall of pipto, so Israel's stumble in Rom 9:32 need not be final. At 1 Pet 2:8 commentators divide over whether "the word" attaches to the stumbling or the disobedience. The composite Isaiah 8:14 / 28:16 citation shared by Rom 9:33 and 1 Pet 2:8 tracks the Hebrew more closely than the Old Greek, which many take as evidence of an early Christian collection of "stone" testimonies (Dodd, Wagner).

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • W. Bauer, F. W. Danker, et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (BDAG), 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), s.v. προσκόπτωlexicon
  • H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (LSJ), 9th ed. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1940), s.v. προσκόπτωlexicon
  • Gustav Stahlin, "προσκόπτω, πρόσκομμα, προσκοπή, ἀπρόσκοπος," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 6:745-758theological-dictionary
  • Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (TLNT), trans. J. D. Ernest (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), vol. 3, s.v. πρόσκομμαtheological-dictionary
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed. (New York: UBS, 1989), 15.228; 25.183; 88.307lexicon
  • Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 626-630, 851-861commentary
  • Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 646-655commentary
  • J. R. Wagner, Heralds of the Good News: Isaiah and Paul in Concert in the Letter to the Romans, NovTSup 101 (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 126-157monograph

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of προσκόπτω

present active indicative 3s

προσκόπτει

Jhn 11:9, Jhn 11:10, Rom 14:21

aorist active indicative 3p

προσέκοψαν

Mat 7:27, Rom 9:32

aorist active subjunctive 2s

προσκόψῃς

Mat 4:6, Luk 4:11

present active indicative 3p

προσκόπτουσιν

1Pe 2:8