Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Philippians 1:20 - 1:20
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Php_1:20. It will prove salutary for me in conformity with my earnest expectation (see, regarding ἀποκαραδοκία , on Rom_8:19) and my hope, that I, etc. (object of the earnest expectation and hope). Others take ὅτι as argumentative (Vatablus, Estius, Matthies); but by this interpretation the κατὰ τ . ἀποκ . κ . ἐλπ . μ . seems, after the οἶδα already expressed, to be an addition for which there is no motive, and the flow of the discourse is interrupted. No, when Paul says with ὅτι κ . τ . λ . what it is that he earnestly expects and hopes (comp. Rom_8:20 f.), he thereby supplies the precise definition of the former merely general expression εἰς σωτηρίαν .
This is neither clumsy nor unsuited to the meaning of ἀποκαραδ ., as Hofmann thinks, who goes back with ὅτι to the far distant οἶδα , and finds it convenient to co-ordinate it with the first ὅτι . Paul would have made this alleged conjunction convenient and at the same time intelligible, only in the event of his having written καὶ ὅτι .
ἐν οὐδενὶ αἰσχυνθήσομαι ] that I shall in no point (2Co_6:3; 2Co_7:9; Jam_1:4), in no respect, be put to shame; that is, in no respect will a result ensue tending to my shame,—a result which would expose me to the reproach of having failed to accomplish my destiny (comp. the sequel). Comp. on σἰσχύνεσθαι , 2Co_10:8, 1Jn_2:28, and the passages of the LXX. in Schleusner, I. p. 98 f.; also Xen. Cyr. vi. 4. 6; Plut. Mor. p. 1118 E. Matthies understands it differently: “in nothing shall I show myself shamefaced and fearful;” comp. van Hengel: “pudore confusus ab officio deflectam.” But the context, in which Paul desires to explain more in detail (comp. Php_1:21) the words μοι ἀποβήσεται εἰς σωτηρίαν , Php_1:19, will not harmonize with any other than the above-named purely passive interpretation; not even with the sense that Paul would not “stand disgraced” (Weiss, comp. Huther), that is, be found unfaithful to his office, or deficient in the discharge of its duties to the glorifying of Christ. The connection requires a description, not of Paul’s behaviour, but of the fate in which the τοῦτο of Php_1:19 would issue for him. Hoelemann takes ἐν οὐδενί as masculine, of the preachers described in Php_1:15 ff., who in their ministry, though actuated by such various motives, “ita esse versaturos, ut inde non oriatur, de quo erubescat et doleat quum ipse, tum etiam in re sua quasi Christus.” This interpretation is opposed both by the context, which from Php_1:18 onwards brings forward no persons at all; and also by the sense itself, because Paul, thus understood, would be made to express a confidence in the labours of those teachers which, as regards the malicious portion of them (Php_1:17, comp. Php_1:15), would not be befitting. The σἰσχύνεσθαι of the apostle was indeed the very object which they had in view; but, he means to say, οὐκ αἰσχύνομαι , τουτέστιν οὐ περιέσονται , Chrysostom.
ἀλλʼ ἐν πάσῃ παῤῥησίᾳ κ . τ . λ .] the contrast to ἐν οὐδενὶ αἰσχυνθήσομαι ; for the apostle can receive no greater honour and triumph (the opposite to the αἰσχύνεσθαι ) than to be made the instrument of glorifying Christ (Php_3:7 f.): but with all freeness, as always, so also now, Christ will be magnified in my body.
ἐν πάσῃ παῤῥησ .] ἐν πάσῃ corresponds to the previous ἐν οὐδενί , so that every kind of freeness, which is no way restrained or limited (comp Act_4:29; Act_28:31; 2Co_3:12), is meant, which amounts substantially to the idea, “une pleine liberté” (Rilliet and older expositors); comp. Wunder, ad Soph. Phil. 141 f. The subject of the freeness is Paul himself, inasmuch as it was in his body that the fearless glorifying of Christ was to be manifested (see below); but he expresses himself in the passive ( μεγαλυνθήσεται ) and not in the active, because, in the feeling of his being the organ of divine working, the μοι ἀποβήσεται εἰς σωτηρίαν (Php_1:19) governs his conceptions and determines his expression. Hofmann’s view, that ἐν π . παῤῥησ . means “in full publicity,” as an unmistakeable fact before the eyes of all, is linguistically erroneous. See, in opposition to it, on Col_2:15.
ὡς πάντοτε καὶ νῦν ] so that the present circumstances, however inimical they are in part towards me (Php_1:15-18), will therefore bring about no other result than this most happy one for me, which has always taken place.
ἐν τῷ σώματί μου ] instead of saying: ἐν ἐμοί , he says: in my body, because the decision was now close at hand, whether his body should remain alive or be put to death. But whichever of these possible alternatives should come to pass, he earnestly expected and hoped that the glory of Christ would be thereby secured ( εἴτε διὰ ζωῆς εἴτε διὰ θανάτου ), in so far, namely, as through his remaining in the body his apostolic labours would be continued to the glory of Christ, and by the slaying of his body there would take place, not the mere closing of his witness for Christ, as Hofmann, in opposition to the text (Php_1:21-23), refines away this point, but his union with Christ. Thus, therefore, he will not be put to shame even by his death; but, on the contrary, Christ will be freely glorified by it, namely, practically glorified, inasmuch as Paul, conscious of the great gain which he shall acquire through death (Php_1:21), will with unwavering joyfulness—with the frank joyful courage of the martyr who is being perfected—die to the glorifying of Christ. Comp. Joh_21:19. In any case, accordingly, the result must ensue, that in his body, just as it has always hitherto been the living personal instrument of Christ’s glory, now also the free glorification of Christ shall be made manifest, whether this result be secured through its being preserved alive or being slain; “nam et corpus loquitur et corpus moritur,” Grotius. Hoelemann erroneously refers ἐν πάσῃ παῤῥ . to the bold preaching of the various teachers described in Php_1:15-18, from which now, as always, the glory of Christ shall result; and that indeed, through the influence which such a fearless working would have on the fate of the apostle, in his body, whether Christ grant to him a longer course of life or death, in either of which cases the Lord will manifest Himself to him as augustissimum auxiliatorem. But against this view it may be urged, that ἐν οὐδενί does not refer to the teachers (see above); that παῤῥησίᾳ is the contrast to αἰσχυνθήσομαι , so that the subject of the latter must be also the subject of the former; and lastly, that Paul would thus be made to say that the fearless working of others had always shown forth Christ’s honour in his body,—an expression which, as regards the last point, might be suited to the present position of the apostle, but not to the ὡς πάντοτε . Rilliet takes μεγαλυνθήσεται not in the sense of praising (Luk_1:46; Act_5:13; Act_10:46; Act_19:17; Thuc. viii. 81; Xen. Hell. vii. 1. 13), but in the material signification of grandir (Mat_23:5; Luk_1:58; 2Co_10:15), making it apply to the mental indwelling of Christ (Gal_2:20; Rom_8:10; Gal_4:19); so that Paul is made to hope that Christ may grow ever more and more in him, that is, may more and more reveal Himself as the principle of his life, and that this growth will be perfected whether he himself live or die. But ἐν πάσῃ παῤῥησίᾳ would be an inappropriate definition of this idea; and ἐν τῷ σώματί μου would also be inappropriate, as if Christ would have, even by the apostle’s death, to grow in his body; lastly, neither the foregoing nor the subsequent context points to the peculiar mystical idea of a growth of Christ in the human body; while the similar idea in Gal_4:19 is there very peculiarly and clearly suggested by the context.