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Php_1:21. Justification not of the joy, Php_1:18 (Weiss), which has already been justified in Php_1:19 f., but of the εἴτε διὰ ζωῆς εἴτε διὰ θανάτου just expressed: For to me the living is Christ, that is, if I remain alive, my prolonged life will be nothing but a life of which the whole essential element and real tenor is Christ (“quicquid vivo, vita naturali, Christum vivo,” Bengel), as the One to whom the whole destination and activity of my life bear reference (comp. on Gal_2:20); and the dying[71] is gain, inasmuch as by death I attain to Christ; see Php_1:23. Whichever, therefore, of the two may come to pass, will tend to the free glorification of Christ; the former, inasmuch as I continue to labour freely for Christ’s glory; the latter, inasmuch as in the certainty of that gain I shall suffer death with joyful courage. Comp. Corn. Müller, who, however, assumes that in the second clause Paul had the thought: “et si mihi moriendum est, moriar Christo, ita etiam morte mea Christus celebratur,” but that in the emotion of the discourse he has not expressed this, allowing himself to be carried away by the conception of the gain involved in the matter. This assumption is altogether superfluous; for, to the consciousness of the Christian reader, the reference of the κέρδος to Christ must of itself have been clear and certain. But the idea of ΚΈΡΔΟς , which connects itself in the apostle’s mind with the thought of death, prevents us from assuming that he meant to say that it was a matter of no moment to him personally whether he lived or died (Wiesinger); for on account of the κέρδος in death, his own personal wish must have given the preference to the dying (see Php_1:23). Others (Calvin, Beza, Musculus, Er. Schmid, Raphel, Knatchbull, et al.) have, moreover, by the non-mention of Christ in the second clause, been led to the still more erroneous assumption, in opposition both to the words and linguistic usage, that in both clauses Christ is the subject and κέρδος the predicate, and that the infinitives with the article are to be explained by ΠΡΌς or ΚΑΤΆ , so that Christ “tam in vita quam in morte lucrum esse praedicatur.” Lastly, in opposition to the context, Rheinwald and Rilliet take τὸ ζῆν as meaning life in the higher, spiritual sense, and καί as: and consequently, which latter interpretation does not harmonize with the preceding alternative εἴτε … εἴτε . This explanation is refuted by the very ΤῸ ΖῆΝ ἘΝ ΣΑΡΚΊ which follows in Php_1:22, since ἘΝ ΣΑΡΚΊ contains not an antithesis to the absolute ΤῸ ΖῆΝ , but on the contrary a more precise definition of it. Although the ΔΙᾺ ΘΑΝΆΤΟΥ and ΤῸ ἈΠΟΘΑΝΕῖΝ contrasted with the ΖῆΝ , as also Php_1:20 generally, afford decisive evidence against the view that takes ΤῸ ΖῆΝ in the higher ethical sense, that view has still been adopted by Hofmann, who, notwithstanding the correlation and parallelism of τὸ ζῆν and ΤῸ ἈΠΟΘΑΝΕῖΝ , oddly supposes that, while ΤῸ ἈΠΟΘΑΝΕῖΝ , is the subject in the second clause, ΤῸ ΖῆΝ is yet predicate in the first. Like τὸ ἀποθανεῖν τὸ ζῆν must be subject also.
ἐμοί ] is emphatically placed first: to me, as regards my own person, though it may be different with others. Comp. the emphatic ἡμῶν , Php_3:20.
For profane parallels to the idea, though of course not to the Christian import, of ΤῸ ἈΠΟΘΑΝΕῖΝ ΚΈΡΔΟς ,[72] see Wetstein. Comp. Aelian. V. H. iv. 7; Soph. Ant. 464 f.; Eur. Med. 145.
[71] Not the being dead (Huther, Schenkel). On the combination of the Inf. pres. (continuing) and aor. (momentary), comp. Xen. Mem. iv. 4. 4 : προείλετο μᾶλλον τοῖς νόμοις ἐμμένων ἀποθανεῖν ἢ παρανομῶν ζῆν , Eur. Or. 308: σὺν σοὶ κατθανεῖν αἱρήσομαι καὶ ζῆν , Epictet. Enchir. 12; 2Co_7:3. See generally Mätzn. ad Antiph. p. 153 f.; Kühner, II. 1, p. 159. The being dead would have been expressed, as in Herod. 1:31, by τεθνάναι .
[72] Compare also Spiess, Logos Spermaticos, 1871, p. 330 f.