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Php_2:30. διὰ τὸ ἔργ .] emphatically prefixed: on account of nothing else than for this great sacred aim. The work (see the critical remarks) is, according to the context (comp. Act_15:38), obvious, namely, that of labour for the gospel; the addition in the Rec. τοῦ Χριστοῦ is a correct gloss, and it is this ἔργον κατʼ ἐξοχήν (comp. ὑπὲρ τοῦ ὀνόματος , Act_5:41) in the service of which Epaphroditus incurred so dangerous an illness, namely, when he, according to the testimony of the predicates in Php_2:25, as the συνεργός and συστρατιώτης of the apostle, with devotedness and self-sacrifice, united his exertions for the gospel and his striving against the movements of its adversaries (Php_1:15; Php_1:17; Php_1:30, Php_2:20) with a similar activity on the part of the apostle. The interpretation which refers ἔργον to the business of conveying the bounty (de Wette, following older expositors, comp. Weiss), does not suffice for the more special characteristic description; and the reference to the enmity of Nero against Paul, the dangers of which Epaphroditus had shared, in order to reach the apostle and to serve him, finds no warrant either in the context or in Acts 28 (in opposition to Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact, comp. Theodoret).
μέχρι θαν . ἤγγ .] as in Psa_107:18 : ἤγγισαν ἕως τῶν πυλῶν τοῦ θανάτου , Sir_51:6 : ἕως θανάτου , Rev_12:11. The expression with μέχρι is more definite than the dative would be (as in Psa_88:3 : ἡ ζωή μου τῷ ᾅδη ἤγγισε ), or εἰς θάνατ . (Job_33:22); he came near even unto death.
παραβουλ . τῇ ψυχ .] Such is the Text. Rec., which Bengel, Matthaei (vehement in opposition to Wetstein and Griesbach), Rinck, van Hengel, Reiche, and others defend, and Tischendorf still follows in the 7th ed. Justly, however, Scaliger, Casaubon, Salmasius, Grotius, Mill, Wetstein, and others, including Griesbach, Lachmann, Scholz, Tischendorf, ed. 8, Rheinwald, Matthies, Rilliet, Winer, Ewald, Weiss, J. B. Lightfoot, Hofmann, and others, have preferred παραβολ . τ . ψ . The latter has the authority of A B D E F G à , 177, 178, 179 in its favour, as well as the support of the Itala by “parabolatus est de anima sua,” and of Vulgate, Aeth., Pelagius, by “tradens (Ambrosiaster: in interitum tradens)animam suam.” Since βολεύεσθαι was unknown to the copyists, whilst βουλεύεσθαι was very current, instead of the one ἅπαξ λεγόμ . another crept in, the form of which, on account of the prevalence of the simple word, had nothing offensive. παραβολεύεσθαι , which is nowhere certainly preserved (in opposition to Wetstein’s quotations from the Fathers, see Matthiae, ed. min. p. 341 f., and Reiche, Comment, crit. p. 220 f.), is formed from the very current classical word παράβολος , putting at stake, venturesome, and is therefore equivalent to παράβολον εἶναι , to be venturous, to be an adventurer, as περπερεύεσθαι equivalent to πέρπερον εἶναι (1Co_13:4), ἀλογεύεσθαι equivalent to ἄλογον εἶναι (Cic. Att. vi. 4), ἀποσκοπεύειν and ἐπισκοπεύειν (see Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 591), κωμικεύεσθαι (Luc. Philop. 22). See more such verbs in Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 67, and comp. generally Kühner, I. p. 695, II. 1, p. 98. Hence the παραβολευσάμενος κ . τ . λ ., which is to be regarded as a modal definition to μ . θαν . ἤγγισε , means: so that he was venturesome with his soul (dative of the more definite reference), i.e. he hazarded his life,[143] in order to supply, etc. In this sense παραβάλλεσθαι is current among Greek authors, and that not merely with accusative of the object (Hom. Il. ix. 322; so usually, as in 2Ma_14:38), but also with dative of reference (Polyb. ii. 26. 6, iii. 94. 4; Diod. Sic. iii. 35: ἔκριναν παραβαλλέσθαι ταῖς ψυχαῖς ), in the sense of ῬΙΨΟΚΙΝΔΥΝΕῖΝ (Schol. Thuc. iv. 57) and ΠΑΡΑῤῬΊΠΤΕΙΝ (Soph. fr. 499. Diud.). Comp. παραβάλλομαι τῇ ἐμαυτοῦ κεφαλῇ in Phryn. ed. Lob. p. 238. Hence, also, the name parabolani for those who waited on the sick (Gieseler, Kirchengesch. I. 2, p. 173, ed. 4). Taking the reading of the Text. Rec., παραβουλεύεσθαι would have to be explained: male consulere vitae (Luther aptly renders: since he thought light of his life). See especially Reiche. This verb, also, does not occur in profane Greek authors; but for instances from the Fathers, especially Chrysostom, and that in the sense specified, see Matthiae, l.c.; Hase in Steph. Thes. VI. p. 220.
ἵνα ἀναπλ . κ . τ . λ .] The object, to attain which he hazarded his life. We have to notice (1) that ὑμῶν belongs to ὙΣΤΈΡΗΜΑ ; and (2) that Τῆς ΠΡΌς ΜΕ ΛΕΙΤΟΥΡΓ . can denote nothing else but the function,—well known and defined by the context (Php_2:25), and conceived of as a sacrificial service,—with which Epaphroditus had been commissioned by the Philippians in respect to Paul ( ΠΡΌς ΜΕ ). All explanations are therefore to be rejected, which either expressly or insensibly connect ὙΜῶΝ with ΛΕΙΤΟΥΡΓ ., and take the latter in the general sense of rendering service ( ΔΙΑΚΟΝΕῖΝ ). We must reject, consequently, Chrysostom’s explanation (comp. Theophylact, Theodoret, Pelagius, Castalio, Vatablus, and others): ΤῸ ΟὖΝ ὙΣΤΈΡΗΜΑ Τῆς ὙΜΕΤΈΡΑς ΛΕΙΤΟΥΡΓΊΑς ἈΝΕΠΛΉΡΩΣΕΝ · … ὍΠΕΡ ἘΧΡῆΝ ΠΆΝΤΑς ΠΟΙῆΣΑΙ , ΤΟῦΤΟ ἜΠΡΑΞΕΝ ΑὐΤΌς ;[144] also the similar view taken by Erasmus and many others (comp. Grotius, Estius, Heinrichs, Rheinwald, van Hengel, Rilliet): “quo videlicet pensaret id, quod ob absentiam vestro erga me officio videbatur deesse;” the arbitrary explanation of Matthies: “in order that he might perfect the readiness of service which you have shown on various occasions;” and several other interpretations. Hoelemann, also, in opposition to the simple literal sense, takes τὸ ὑμῶν ὑστέρ . as defectus cui subvenistis, and τῆς πρός με λειτουργ . as: rerum necessariarum ad me subministrando deferendarum. No; of the two genitives, referring to different things (comp. Php_2:25, and see Winer, p. 180 [E. T. p. 239]), by which τὸ ὑστέρημα is accompanied, the first conveys who were wanting ( ὑμῶν , ye were wanting, ye yourselves were not there, comp. 1Co_16:17), and the second to what this want applied. Consequently the passage is to be explained: in order to compensate for the circumstance, that ye have been wanting at the sacrificial service touching me; that is, for the circumstance, that this sacrificial service, which has been made through your love-gifts in my support, was completed, not jointly by you, but without you, so that only your messenger Epaphroditus was here, and not ye yourselves in person. How delicate and winning, and at the same time how enlisting their grateful sympathy in the fate of Epaphroditus, was it to represent the absence of the Philippians as something that had been lacking in that λειτουργία , and therefore, as something which Paul had missed, to supply which, as representative of the church, the man had (as his deadly sickness had actually shown) hazarded his life! He did not therefore contract the illness on his journey to Rome (de Wette, Weiss, and older expositors), as Hofmann thinks, who represents him as arriving there in the hot season of the year; but through his exertions διὰ τὸ ἔργον in Rome itself during his sojourn there, when his sickness showed that he had risked his life in order to bring the offering of the Philippians, and thus compensate the apostle for the absence of the church. On ἀναπλ . τὸ ὑμ . ὑστέρ ., comp. 1Co_16:17. The compound verb is appropriately explained by Erasmus: “accessione implere, quod plenitudini perfectae deerat.” See on Gal_6:2.
It was a foolish blunder of Baur to hold the entire passage respecting Timothy and Epaphroditus as merely an imitation of 2Co_8:23 f. Hinsch very erroneously, because misconceiving the delicate courtesy of the grateful expression, thinks that in Php_2:30 the aid is described as a duty incumbent on the readers,—which would be un-Pauline; Php_4:10 is far from favouring this idea.
[143] The matter is conceived as staking a price or forfeit. Comp. παραβόλιον in Poll. viii. 63, Phrynich. p. 238. On the subject-matter comp. also προΐεσθαι τὰς ψυχάς (Pausanias, iv. 10. 3); the animae magnae prodigus of Horace (Od. i. 12. 37); and the vitam profundere pro patria of Cicero (de Off. i. 24).
[144] Hofmann substantially reverts to this. He takes ὑμῶν as the subject, which had allowed something to remain lacking in the service, namely, in so far as the church had only collected the aid, but not conveyed it. How indelicate would such a thought have been! Besides, it was, in fact, an impossibility for the church to have come personally. Hence the church was wanting, indeed, at the transmission of the bounty, but it did not thereby allow anything to be wanting in the latter.