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Php_1:16-17. We have here a more detailed description of both parties in respect to the motives which actuated them in relation to the δεσμοί of the apostle.
οἱ μέν … οἱ δέ ] corresponds to the two parties of Php_1:15, but—and that indeed without any particular purpose—in an inverted order (see the critical remarks), as in 2Co_2:16, and frequently in classical authors (Thuc. i. 68. 4.; Xen. Anab. i. 10. 4). In Php_1:18 the order adopted in Php_1:15 is again reverted to.
οἱ ἐξ ἀγάπης ] sc. ὄντες , a genetic description of the ethical condition of these people: those who are of love, i.e. of loving nature and action; comp. Rom_2:8; Gal_3:7; Joh_18:37, et al. We must supply what immediately precedes: τὸν Χριστὸν κηρύσσουσιν , of which εἰδότες κ . τ . λ . then contains the particular moving cause (Rom_5:3; Rom_5:6; Rom_5:9; Gal_2:16; Eph_6:8 f., et al.). We might also take οἱ μέν (and then οἱ δέ ) absolutely: the one, and then bring up immediately, for ἐξ ἀγάπης , the subsequent τ . Χριστὸν καταγγέλλουσιν (so Hofmann and others). But this would be less appropriate, because the progress of the discourse does not turn on the saying that the one preach out of love, and the other out of contention (for this has been said in substance previously), but on the internal determining motives which are expressed by εἰδότες κ . τ . λ . and οἰόμενοι κ . τ . λ .; besides, οὐχ ἁγνῶς would then follow as merely a weak and disturbing auxiliary clause to ἐξ ἐριθείας .
ὅτι εἰς ἀπολ . τοῦ εὐαγγ . κεῖμαι ] that I am destined, am ordained of God for (nothing else than) the defence of the gospel—a destination which they on their parts, in consequence of their love to me, feel themselves impelled to subserve. They labour sympathetically hand in hand with me.
κεῖμαι ] as in Luk_2:34; 1Th_3:3; comp. Plat. Legg. x. p. 909; Thuc. iii. 45, 2, 47, 2; Sir_38:29, and other passages in which “ κεῖσθαι tanquam passivum verbi ποιεῖσθαι vel τιθέναι videtur,” Ellendt, Lex. Soph. I. p. 943. Others render: I lie in prison (Luther, Piscator, Estius, Wolf, am Ende, Huther, and others); but the idea of lying under fetters, which κεῖμαι would thus convey (comp. Eur. Phoen. 1633; Aesch. Ag. 1492), does not harmonize with the position of the apostle any more than the reference of its meaning thereby introduced: they know that I am hindered in my preaching, and therefore they “supplent hoc meum impedimentum sua praedicatione,” Estius. See, on the contrary, Act_28:30-31; Php_1:7. Van Hengel also imports (comp. Weiss): “me ad causam rei Christianae, ubi urgeat necessitas, coram judice defendendam hic in miseria jacere.” Comp. Hom. Od. i. 46; Soph. Aj. 316 (323); Pflugk, ad Eur. Hec. 496.
οἱ δὲ ἐξ ἐριθ .] sc. ὄντες , the factious, the cabal-makers. See on Rom_2:8; 2Co_12:20; Gal_5:20. So also Ignatius, ad Philadelph. 8. It corresponds with the φθόνον κ . ἔριν , Php_1:15.
τὸν Χ . καταγγ . οὐχ ἁγνῶς ] belong together. καταγγ . is, in substance, the same as κηρύσσειν , but more precisely defining it as the announcement of the Messiah (Act_17:3; Act_17:23; Col_1:28, et al.). The words τ . Χριστὸν καταγγέλλουσιν might have been left out, following the analogy of Php_1:16, but are inserted to bring out the tragic contrast which is implied in preaching Christ, and yet doing so οὐχ ἁγνῶς , non caste, not in purity of feeling and purpose. καθαρῶς is synonymous (Hom. H. in Apoll. 121), also with a mental reference (Hesiod. ἔργα , 339). Comp. Plat. Legg. viii. p. 840 D; 2Co_7:11; 2Co_11:2; Php_4:8, et al.; 2Co_6:6.
οἰόμενοι κ . τ . λ .] thinking to stir up affliction for my bonds, to make my captivity full of sorrow. This they intend to do, and that is the immoral moving spring of their unworthy conduct; but (observe the distinction between οἰόμενοι and εἰδότες in Php_1:16) Paul hints by this purposely-chosen word (which is nowhere else used by him), that what they imagine fails to happen. On οἶμαι with the present infinitive, see Pflugk, ad Eur. Hec. 283. The future infinitive would not convey that what is meant is even now occurring. See generally Stallbaum, ad Plat. Crit. p. 52 C; comp. Phaed. p. 116 E. How far they thought that they could effect that injurious result by their preaching, follows from Php_1:15 and from ἐξ ἐριθείας ; in so far, namely, that they doubtless, rendered the more unscrupulous through the captivity of the apostle, sought by their preaching to prejudice his authority, and to stir up controversial and partisan interests of a Judaistic character against him, and thus thought thoroughly to embitter the prisoner’s lot by exciting opponents to vex and wrong him. This was the cabal in the background of their dishonest preaching. That by the spread of the gospel they desired to provoke the hostility of the heathen, especially of Nero, against Paul, and thus to render his captivity more severe, is a groundless conjecture imported (Erasmus, Cornelius a Lapide, Grotius, and others; comp. already Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Pelagius).
On ἐγείρειν (see the critical remarks) comp. ἐγ . ὠδῖνας , Plat. Theaet. p. 149 C, and similar passages.