independentparticipialrelativepurposecomparativecontentconditionalphrase modifierdashed = verbless / suspended
Flush-left = a main (independent) clause. Each dependent line begins directly beneath the word it attaches to in the line above — the anchor word is dotted-underlined, and lights up when you hover its dependent clause; each tag also names the attachment. A dashed border marks verbless, elliptical, or suspended lines. Where a long sentence's staircase runs wider than the page, the diagram scrolls sideways. (In print, or without JavaScript, lines fall back to stepped indent columns.)
Knowledge versus love 8:1–3
vv. 1–3 — knowledge puffs up, love builds up
1
Now concerning things sacrificed to idols:phrase modifier — Περὶ δέ — the next item from their letter (cf. 7:1, 25); topic frame leaning on οἴδαμεν below
we knowindependent — the shared premise
that we all have knowledge.content — likely the Corinthians' slogan, quoted with assent — 'we all have knowledge'
Knowledge puffs up,independent — the aphorism — φυσιόω, Paul's Corinthian rebuke-word (4:6, 18–19; 5:2; 13:4)
but love builds up.independent — the counter-principle — the verb v. 10 will turn to irony
2
If anyone supposes that he knows something,conditional — protasis — leans on the apodosis below; the presumption of possessed knowledge (perfect infinitive)
he does not yet knowindependent — the deflation — real knowing has not yet occurred
as he ought to know;comparative — the standard — love-shaped knowing (cf. 13:12)
3
but if anyone loves God,conditional — protasis — love for God, not gnosis, is the index
this one is known by him.independent — the reversal — being known by God is what counts (cf. Gal 4:9)
One God, one Lord 8:4–6
vv. 4–6 — the slogans granted, the Shema reshaped
4
Concerning, then, the eating of things sacrificed to idols:phrase modifier — the topic resumed (οὖν) after the corrective of vv. 2–3 — leaning on οἴδαμεν below
we knowindependent — again the shared premise
that an idol is nothing in the world,content — slogan 1, quoted with assent — the idol has no corresponding reality (verbless)
and that there is no God but one.content — slogan 2 — the Shema's monotheism (Deut 6:4); εἰ μή exceptive (verbless)
5
For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earthconditional — εἴπερ concession, granted for argument's sake — leans forward on the ἀλλ' of v. 6
— as indeed there are many gods and many lords —comparative — parenthesis on the protasis's εἰσὶν — such 'gods' and 'lords' do abound in the religious world
6
yet for us there is one God, the Father,independent — the creed's first limb — the Shema's one God, now named the Father (verbless)
from whom are all things and we for him,relative — source and goal — ἐξ οὗ / εἰς αὐτόν, bare prepositions carrying the cosmology (verbless)
and one Lord, Jesus Christ,independent — the second limb — the Shema's κύριος confessed of Jesus (verbless)
through whom are all things and we through him.relative — mediation — δι' οὗ / δι' αὐτοῦ, creation and our new existence through him (verbless)
But not all have this knowledge 8:7–8
vv. 7–8 — the weak conscience, and food's indifference
7
But this knowledge is not in everyone;independent — the pivot — the creed is true but not internalized by all (verbless)
rather some, by their habituation to the idol until now, eat the food as truly idol-sacrifice,independent — reading συνηθείᾳ ('habituation'), not the Byzantine συνειδήσει — the meat still feels cultic to them
and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.independent — the cost — ἀσθενὴς οὖσα causal: because it is weak, it is stained by the act
8
But food will not commend us to God;independent — adiaphora — taken as Paul's own concession, not a Corinthian slogan (arguable); gnomic future
neither, if we do not eat,conditional — protasis — the case of abstaining; leans on the apodosis below
are we worse off,independent — no loss
nor, if we do eat,conditional — protasis — the case of eating
are we better off.independent — no gain — the matter is genuinely indifferent, which is why it must yield to love
The stumbling block 8:9–13
vv. 9–12 — the scenario: a right becomes a ruin
9
But take careindependent — the section's imperative — vigilance over one's own liberty
lest somehow this right of yours become a stumbling block to the weak.content — the feared outcome (apprehensive μή πως) — ἐξουσία turned πρόσκομμα
10
For if someone sees you, the one who has knowledge, reclining at table in an idol's temple,conditional — protasis — the 'knower' seen at the temple banquet; leans on the question below
will not his conscience, since he is weak, be built upindependent — the ironic apodosis-question (οὐχί expects 'yes') — an 'edification' to ruin, inverting v. 1; ἀσθενοῦς ὄντος causal gen. abs.
so as to eat the things sacrificed to idols?purpose — εἰς τό + infinitive — the result: eating against his own conscience
11
For the weak one is destroyed by your knowledge —independent — the verdict, verb fronted — knowledge severed from love destroys; σῇ pointedly singular
the brotherphrase modifier — apposition — not a statistic but kin (verbless)
for whom Christ died.relative — the measure of his worth — Christ's death set against a meal
12
And so, sinning against the brothersparticipial — fronted participle of means — leans on ἁμαρτάνετε below; the deed named sin, not indiscretion
and wounding their weak conscience,participial — its twin — τύπτοντες, a violent word: battering the conscience precisely in its weakness
you sin against Christ.independent — the true object — to sin against his own is to sin against him (cf. Mt 25:40; Acts 9:4)
v. 13 — Paul's own resolve
13
Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble,conditional — διόπερ + protasis — the emphatic inference ('for this very reason'), leaning on the resolve below
I will never eat meat again, ever,independent — the resolve — οὐ μή + aorist subjunctive, the strongest denial; κρέα: meat altogether, not just idol-meat
so that I may not cause my brother to stumble.purpose — the aim — never to trip the brother; the chapter ends on his name
Analysis. The chapter's shape is an argument bent around the antithesis of its first breath: γνῶσις puffs up, ἀγάπη builds up. Three times the layout shows Paul granting the strong their theology in flush-left lines — the shared οἴδαμεν of vv. 1 and 4, and the great verbless creed of v. 6, whose two limbs (one God the Father, one Lord Jesus Christ) each carry a verbless relative line of bare prepositions, ἐξ οὗ/εἰς αὐτόν and δι' οὗ/δι' αὐτοῦ — and each time immediately bending the concession: the εἴ τις protasis pair of vv. 2–3 leaning forward on their apodoses, the εἴπερ concession of v. 5 hanging above the ἀλλ' of v. 6 with the ὥσπερ parenthesis tucked beneath it, and the Ἀλλ' of v. 7 that breaks the creed's spell. From v. 9 the imperative βλέπετε governs, and the protases multiply — ἐὰν γάρ τις ἴδῃ with its ironic apodosis-question, διόπερ εἰ βρῶμα σκανδαλίζει — until Paul's own οὐ μὴ φάγω κρέα εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα stands flush left with its ἵνα μή hanging beneath it, the chapter ending on the brother's name. Cruxes the layout takes a side on: πάντες γνῶσιν ἔχομεν (v. 1) and both ὅτι clauses of v. 4 (οὐδὲν εἴδωλον ἐν κόσμῳ, οὐδεὶς θεὸς εἰ μὴ εἷς) are read as Corinthian slogans quoted with assent — set as content lines under οἴδαμεν and flagged in their tags — while βρῶμα δὲ ἡμᾶς οὐ παραστήσει τῷ θεῷ (v. 8) is taken as Paul's own adiaphora concession rather than a slogan, a genuinely arguable call flagged in its tag; οἰκοδομηθήσεται (v. 10) is rendered as bitter irony, an 'edification' to ruin that inverts v. 1; ἀσθενοῦς ὄντος is treated as a causal genitive absolute inside the question; and the fronted participles of v. 12 are set anchor-less above ἁμαρτάνετε as the means of the sin against Christ.