Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Philippians 2:15 - 2:15
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Php_2:15. If to their obedience of the admonitions given down to Php_2:13 there is added the manner of obedience prescribed in Php_2:14, they shall be blameless, etc. This, therefore, must be the high aim, which they are to have in view in connection with what is required in Php_2:14.
ἄμεμπτοι κ . ἀκέραιοι ] blameless and sincere; the former represents moral integrity as manifesting itself to the judgment of others; the latter represents the same as respects its inner nature (comp. on Mat_10:16 and Rom_16:19).
τέκνα Θεοῦ ἀμώμ .] comprehending epexegetically the two former predicates. Children of God (in virtue of the υἱοθεσία that took place in Christ, Rom_8:15; Rom_8:23; Gal_4:5; Eph_1:5) they are (Rom_8:16; Rom_9:8). They are to become such children of God, as have nothing with which fault can be found; which in children of God presupposes the inward moral ἀκεραιότης , since they are led by the Spirit of God (Rom_8:14). This ethical view of the υἱοθεσία , prominent throughout the N. T., and already implied in the mode of contemplating Israel as the people of adoption (Rom_9:4) in the O. T. and Apocrypha, necessarily involves, in virtue of the ideal character of the relation, the moral development towards the lofty aim—implies, therefore, in the being the constant task of the becoming; and hence the sense of showing themselves is as little to be given, with Hofmann, to the γένησθε here as in Mat_10:16, Joh_15:8, et al.; comp. also on Gal_4:12. Ἀμώμητος , qui vituperari non potest, occurring elsewhere in the N. T. only at 2Pe_3:14 (not equivalent to ἄμωμος or ἄμεμπτος ), but see Hom. Il. xii. 109; Herod. iii. 82; frequently in the Anthol. Its opposite is: τέκνα μώμητα , Deu_32:5; the recollection of this latter passage has suggested the subsequent words, which serve as a recommendation of the condition to be striven for by contrasting it with the state of things around.
μέσον (see the critical remarks) is adverbial, in the midst of (Hom. Il. xii. 167; Od. xiv. 300; Eur. Rhes. 531 ( μέσα ); LXX. Num_35:5).
σκολιᾶς κ . διεστραμμ .]crooked and perverted, a graphic figurative representation of the great moral abnormity of the generation. Comp. on σκολιός , Act_2:40; 1Pe_2:18; Pro_4:24; Wis_1:3; Plat Legg. xii. p. 945 B, Gorg. p. 525 A; and on διεστρ ., Mat_17:17; Deu_32:20; Polyb. viii. 24. 3, v. 41. 1, ii. 21. 8; also διάστροφος , Soph. Aj. 442.
ἐν οἷς i.e. among the people of this γενεά ; see Buttmann, Neut. Gr. p. 242 [E. T. p. 282]; Bremi, ad Isocr. I. p. 213 f.; Kühner, II. 1, p. 49 f.
φαίνεσθε ] not imperative (Cyprian, Pelagius, Ambrosiaster, Theophylact, Erasmus, Vatablus, Calvin, Grotius, and others, including Storr, Flatt, Rheinwald, Baumgarten-Crusius), but the existing relation, which constitutes the essential distinctive character of the Christian state as contrasted with the non-Christian, Eph_5:8, al. The aim of the ἐν οἷς φαίνεσθε κ . τ . λ . is, by means of an appeal to the true Christian sense of honour (the consciousness of their high Christian position towards them that are without), to assist the attainment of the end in view; this is misunderstood by Bengel, when he suggests the addition of “servata hac admonitione,” a view in which he is followed by Hofmann. The meaning is not lucetis (so usually), but (comp. also Weiss, Schenkel, and J. B. Lightfoot): ye appear,[128] come into view, apparetis (Mat_2:7; Mat_24:27; Jam_4:14; Rev_18:23; Hom. Il. 1:477, 24:785, 788, Od. ii. 1, Il. ix. 707; Hes. Oper. 600; Plat. Rep. p. 517 B; Xen. Hell. iv. 3. 10; Polyb. ix. 15. 7; Lucian, D. D. iv. 3; also Xen. Symp. i. 9, Anab. vii. 4. 16; hence τὰ φαινόμενα , the heavenly appearances). Lucetis (Vulgate) would be φαίνετε , Joh_1:5; Joh_5:35; 1Jn_2:8; 2Pe_1:19; Rev_1:16; Rev_21:23; 1Ma_4:40; Plat. Tim. p. 39 B; Arist. Nub. 586; Hes. Oper. 528; Theoc. ii. 11.
φωστῆρες ] light-givers (Rev_21:11), here a designation, not of torches (Beza, Cornelius a Lapide) or lamps (Hofmann), which would be too weak for ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ , and without support of linguistic usage; but, in accordance with the usage familiar to the apostle in the LXX, Gen_1:14; Gen_1:16, of the shining heavenly bodies; Wis_13:2; Sir_43:7; Heliod. 87; Anthol. xv. 17; Constant. Rhod. ep. in Paralip. 205.
ἐν κόσμῳ ] is to be taken in reference to the physical world, and closely connected with ΦΩΣΤ . As light-bearers in the world (which shine in the world, by day the sun, by night the moon and stars), the Christians appear in the midst of a perverted generation. Comp. Mat_5:14; also classical expressions like πάτρας φέγγεα (Anthol. vi. 614, 2), etc. If φαίνεσθε be rightly interpreted, ἘΝ ΚΌΣΜῼ cannot be joined with it (de Wette, Weiss, who takes ΚΌΣΜῼ in the ethical sense), or be supplemented by ΦΑΊΝΟΝΤΑΙ (Hoelemann, Rilliet, van Hengel). It is erroneous, further, to make ἘΝ ΚΌΣΜῼ mean in heaven (Clericus, Rheinwald[129]), and also erroneous to attach a pregnant force to ἐν , making it mean “within the world,” in contrast to the lights of heaven shining from above; thus Hofmann, connecting it with λόγον ζωῆς ἐπέχ . and bringing out with emphasis something quite self-evident. On κόσμος without the article, see Winer, p. 117 [E. T. p. 153]. On the whole passage, comp. Test. XII. Patr. p. 577: ὑμεῖς οἱ φωστῆρες τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ὡς ὁ ἥλιος καὶ ἡ σελήνη · τι ποιήσουσι πάντα τὰ ἔθνη , ἐὰν ὑμεῖς σκοτισθήσεσθε ἐν ἀσεβείᾳ κ . τ . λ . Paul, however, has put φωστῆρες without the article, because he has conceived it qualitatively.
[128] So also Homer, Il. i. 200, which Hofmann compares and brings out for our passage the sense: “stand in the light proper to them.” Comp., however, Il. xix. 16, xxii. 28, and l.c.; Duncan, Lex. ed. Rost. p. 1148 f. In the former passage, i. 200, the sense is: her eyes (Athene’s) appeared terrible. Comp. Nägelsbach, p. 87, ed. 3. The same sense, according to another explanation, is found in Faesi.
[129] The designation of the heavens by κόσμος , first used by Pythagoras (see Bremi, ad lsoc. Paneg. p. 90), did not enter into the Biblical usus loquendi.