independentparticipialrelativepurposecausecomparativecontentconditionalphrase 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.)
The salutation 1:1–2
1
Παῦλος καὶ Σιλουανὸς καὶ Τιμόθεοςindependent — the senders — the same three as 1 Thessalonians, again without titles
τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ Θεσσαλονικέων ἐν θεῷ πατρὶ ἡμῶν καὶ κυρίῳ Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ·phrase modifier — dative of address — identical to 1 Thess 1:1 except the added ἡμῶν: 'our' Father
2
χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη ἀπὸ θεοῦ πατρὸς καὶ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.independent — the greeting — now expanded with the ἀπό clause 1 Thess lacked; Father and Lord as one source
The thanksgiving and the judgment — one sentence 1:3–10
vv. 3–4 — the debt of thanks: faith over-growing, love abounding, the founders boasting
3
Εὐχαριστεῖν ὀφείλομεν τῷ θεῷ πάντοτε περὶ ὑμῶν, ἀδελφοί,independent — the sentence's one finite main verb — ὀφείλομεν: thanks owed as a debt, where 1 Thess simply gave it
καθὼς ἄξιόν ἐστιν,comparative — the aside doubling the obligation — ὀφείλομεν the debt, ἄξιον the fittingness
ὅτι ὑπεραυξάνει ἡ πίστις ὑμῶνcause — the ground — ὑπεραυξάνει, an over-compound found only here: the prayer of 1 Thess 3:10 answered
καὶ πλεονάζει ἡ ἀγάπη ἑνὸς ἑκάστου πάντων ὑμῶν εἰς ἀλλήλους,cause — the pair — the ὅτι carries over; ἑνὸς ἑκάστου πάντων: the love counted head by head
4
ὥστε αὐτοὺς ἡμᾶς ἐν ὑμῖν ἐγκαυχᾶσθαι ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις τοῦ θεοῦpurpose — ὥστε result of both verbs (anchored on the nearer) — αὐτοὺς ἡμᾶς: this time the founders do the telling (contrast 1 Thess 1:8)
ὑπὲρ τῆς ὑπομονῆς ὑμῶν καὶ πίστεως ἐν πᾶσιν τοῖς διωγμοῖς ὑμῶν καὶ ταῖς θλίψεσινphrase modifier — the boast's content — ὑπομονή and πίστις paired under one article: enduring faith
αἷς ἀνέχεσθε,relative — αἷς by attraction (ἀνέχομαι governs the genitive ὧν); present tense — the pressure is still on
vv. 5–7a — the just judgment read off their endurance: repayment both ways
5
ἔνδειγμα τῆς δικαίας κρίσεως τοῦ θεοῦ,phrase modifier — verbless apposition to the whole endurance-in-persecution — the suffering itself is the ἔνδειγμα
εἰς τὸ καταξιωθῆναι ὑμᾶς τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ θεοῦ,purpose — εἰς τό + infinitive — the judgment's aim; καταξιωθῆναι echoes ἄξιον (v. 3) and is echoed by ἀξιώσῃ (v. 11)
ὑπὲρ ἧς καὶ πάσχετε,relative — the kingdom worth the pain; ascensive καί
6
εἴπερ δίκαιον παρὰ θεῷconditional — εἴπερ — backward conditional grounding the δικαίας κρίσεως claim (so anchored, per the εἴπερ rule); assumed true, copula elided
ἀνταποδοῦναι τοῖς θλίβουσιν ὑμᾶς θλῖψινcontent — epexegetic infinitive — what the justice consists in; θλίβουσιν / θλῖψιν, measure for measure
7
καὶ ὑμῖν τοῖς θλιβομένοις ἄνεσιν μεθ' ἡμῶν,phrase modifier — the infinitive carried over — ἄνεσις, slackening of the strain; μεθ' ἡμῶν: the writers wait for the same rest
vv. 7b–10 — the revelation: flaming fire, vengeance, eternal loss — and glory in the saints
ἐν τῇ ἀποκαλύψει τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ ἀπ' οὐρανοῦ μετ' ἀγγέλων δυνάμεως αὐτοῦphrase modifier — the temporal frame of the whole double repayment — ἀποκάλυψις, the unveiling; ἀγγέλων δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ, a Hebraic genitive: his mighty angels
8
ἐν πυρὶ φλογός,phrase modifier — theophany fire (Exod 3:2; Isa 66:15); πυρὶ φλογός with NA28/SBLGNT against the variant φλογὶ πυρός
διδόντος ἐκδίκησιν τοῖς μὴ εἰδόσιν θεὸν καὶ τοῖς μὴ ὑπακούουσιν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ,participial — genitive participle on τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ; the repeated τοῖς μή could mark two groups (pagans / gospel-refusers), but the single οἵτινες that follows favors one company doubly described
9
οἵτινες δίκην τίσουσινrelative — qualitative ὅστις on the whole not-knowing, not-obeying company — 'such as will pay'; δίκην τίσουσιν, a classical idiom, only here in the NT
ὄλεθρον αἰώνιονphrase modifier — apposition naming the penalty — ὄλεθρος αἰώνιος: ruin belonging to the age, defined by the next line as exclusion
ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ κυρίου καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς δόξης τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ,phrase modifier — Isa 2:10, 19, 21 LXX verbatim — ἀπό read as separation (the destruction consists in exclusion from the face), not as source
10
ὅταν ἔλθῃconditional — ὅταν — indefinite temporal, backward on τίσουσιν (so anchored): the penalty falls at the coming
ἐνδοξασθῆναι ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις αὐτοῦpurpose — purpose infinitive — ἐν: glorified in his holy ones, they themselves the mirror of the glory (Ps 88:8 LXX)
καὶ θαυμασθῆναι ἐν πᾶσιν τοῖς πιστεύσασιν,purpose — the pair — θαυμασθῆναι (Ps 67:36 LXX); aorist πιστεύσασιν: faith seen as complete from the vantage of that day
ὅτι ἐπιστεύθη τὸ μαρτύριον ἡμῶν ἐφ' ὑμᾶς,cause — parenthetic ground — ἐπιστεύθη picks up πιστεύσασιν: the Thessalonians certified among those believers
ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ.phrase modifier — resumption over the parenthesis — completes ὅταν ἔλθῃ with the fixed prophetic formula (Isa 2:11, 17)
The prayer for worthiness and mutual glory 1:11–12
11
εἰς ὃ καὶ προσευχόμεθα πάντοτε περὶ ὑμῶν,independent — εἰς ὅ — the prayer aims at the vv. 5–10 scenario; πάντοτε and περὶ ὑμῶν echo v. 3: thanksgiving and prayer share one rhythm
ἵνα ὑμᾶς ἀξιώσῃ τῆς κλήσεως ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶνpurpose — content-ἵνα after the verb of praying — ἀξιώσῃ answers καταξιωθῆναι (v. 5): what judgment will declare, prayer now asks
καὶ πληρώσῃ πᾶσαν εὐδοκίαν ἀγαθωσύνης καὶ ἔργον πίστεως ἐν δυνάμει,purpose — petition 2 — εὐδοκία ἀγαθωσύνης read of their resolve, not God's good pleasure; ἔργον πίστεως repeats 1 Thess 1:3 verbatim
12
ὅπως ἐνδοξασθῇ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ ἐν ὑμῖν,purpose — ὅπως — the purpose beyond both petitions; ἐνδοξασθῇ resumes v. 10, and 'the name' carries Isa 66:5
καὶ ὑμεῖς ἐν αὐτῷ,purpose — the reciprocity, verb carried over — you glorified in him as he in you: v. 10's exchange made mutual
κατὰ τὴν χάριν τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.phrase modifier — the norm of the whole exchange; the single article spans θεοῦ and κυρίου — grammatically patient of one referent ('our God and Lord, Jesus Christ'), but the fixed κύριος-formula and the pairing of v. 2 favor two
Analysis. After the two verbless lines of the greeting, the chapter is really two sentences. The first (vv. 3–10) hangs entirely from one purple main verb, Εὐχαριστεῖν ὀφείλομεν, and never returns to the margin: the ὅτι ground (faith over-growing, love abounding) opens into the ὥστε boast, the boast into the verbless ἔνδειγμα apposition, and from there the judgment unwinds — the εἴπερ backward conditional with its twin repayment infinitives, the ἐν τῇ ἀποκαλύψει temporal frame with its fire and its vengeance-giving participle, the οἵτινες penalty relative, and the ὅταν ἔλθῃ close — so that the sentence stair-steps to depth 12 before the second sentence, the prayer (vv. 11–12), steps back out to the margin and climbs only to depth 3. Cruxes the layout takes a side on: ἔνδειγμα (v. 5) is read as verbless apposition to the endurance-in-persecution itself, not to the boasting; εἴπερ (v. 6) is a backward conditional grounding the δικαίας κρίσεως claim, so it takes an anchor; ἐν τῇ ἀποκαλύψει (v. 7b) frames the whole double repayment, not only the ἄνεσις; the two τοῖς μή phrases of v. 8 are read as one company doubly described (the single οἵτινες of v. 9 tips it); ἀπὸ προσώπου (v. 9, Isa 2) is separation, not source; ὅτι ἐπιστεύθη (v. 10) is a parenthesis with ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ resuming ὅταν ἔλθῃ over it; εὐδοκία ἀγαθωσύνης (v. 11) is the Thessalonians' resolve, not God's good pleasure; and the one article of v. 12 is left with two referents — grace of our God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.