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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Philippians 4:2 - 4:2
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
I beseech Euodias and beseech Syntyche (Εὐωδίαν παρακαλῶ καὶ Συντύχην παρακαλῶ)
Euodias is incorrect, the name being feminine, Euodia. According to the Tex. Rec., with the long o, the name means fragrance; but the correct reading is with the short o, the meaning being prosperous journey. Syntyche means happy chance. These were prominent women in the Church, possibly deaconesses. The position of women in Macedonia was exceptional. In Greece, generally, their standing was inferior. The Athenian law prescribed that everything that a man might do by the consent or request of a woman should be null in law. In Macedonia monuments were erected to women by public bodies, and in Macedonian inscriptions records of male proper names are found formed on the mother's name instead of the father's. Macedonian women were permitted to hold property. In the account of Paul's labors in Macedonia there are notices of the addition of women of rank to the church in Thessalonica and Beroea.
For beseech, render exhort, and notice the repetition of that word with each name, making the exhortation individual and specific.
To be of the same mind (τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖν)
The same expression as in Phi 2:2, see note. Compare Rom 12:16. The verb φρονέω to be minded, occurs eleven times in this epistle, and but seventeen times in the rest of the New Testament.