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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Philippians 4:3 - 4:3
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
True yoke-fellow (γνήσιε σύνζυγε)
For true, see on naturally, Phi 2:20. It is supposed by some that the word rendered yoke-fellow is a proper name, Synzygus, and that true is to be explained as rightly so called. This explanation would be favored by the play upon the name Onesimus in the Epistle to Philemon, and is not improbably correct. The name has not been found in inscriptions, as is the case with many of the names in these epistles, as, for instance, Euodia and Syntyche. Some suppose that the chief of the bishops or superintendents at Philippi is thus addressed; but, in that case, the word would probably appear elsewhere in the New Testament. Clement of Alexandria, assuming that Paul was married, thinks that he addresses his wife. Others suppose that Lydia is addressed.
Help (συλλαμβάνου)
Lit., take hold with. Compare Luk 5:7. The verb is used of conception, Luk 1:24; arrest, Mat 26:55; Act 12:3; catching, as fish, Luk 5:9. Compare the compound συναντιλάμβανομαι help, Luk 10:40 (note); Rom 8:26.
Which labored with me (αἵτινες συνήθλησάν μοι)
The double relative explains and classifies: for they belonged to the number of those who labored. Rev., for they labored. Labored, lit., strove as athletes, as Phi 1:27. Compare Sophocles: “These girls preserve me, these my nurses, these who are men, not women, in laboring with me” (“Oedipus at Colonus,” 1367-8).
Clement
Supposed by some to be Clement the Bishop of Rome. Origen identifies them, saying: “Clement to whom Paul bears Testimony in Phi 4:3.” So also Eusebius, Epiphanius, and Jerome. Chrysostom speaks of Clement as the constant companion of Paul in all his travels. Irenaeus, on the contrary, who mentions him as the pupil of an apostle, says nothing of his connection with Paul, by name, and would not have been likely to pass over this identity in silence had he been aware of it. Clement was a member of the Roman church, and the name was a very common one. A Roman consul, Flavius Clemens, was sentenced to death by Domitian on account of atheism, which was the common pagan designation of Christianity. The Roman catacombs furnish evidence that Christianity had penetrated into the Flavian family, so that there may have been two prominent Christians in Rome of the same name. The identity of Clement of Rome with the Clement of this epistle has been very generally abandoned. The latter was probably a Philippian.
Other (τῶν λοιπῶν)
Rev., correctly, the rest.
Book of life
The phrase occurs seven times in Revelation. Compare Luk 10:20; Heb 12:23, and see on Rev 3:5. The figure is founded on the register of the covenant people. Isa 4:3; Eze 13:9; Exo 32:32; Psa 69:28; Dan 12:1. The phrase was also used by the Rabbins. Thus in the Targum on Eze 13:9 : “In the book of eternal life which has been written for the just of the house of Israel, they shall not be written.” God is described as “the king, sitting upon the judgment-seat, with the books of the living and the books of the dead open before Him.”