Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Philippians 2:5 - 2:5
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Php_2:5. Enforcement of the precept contained in Php_2:3 f. by the example of Jesus (comp. Rom_15:3; 1Pe_2:21; Clem. Cor. I. 16), who, full of humility, kept not His own interest in view, but in self-renunciation and self-humiliation sacrificed it, even to the endurance of the death of the cross, and was therefore exalted by God to the highest glory;[90] this extends to Php_2:12. See on this passage Kesler in Thes. nov. ex mus. Has. et Iken. II. p. 947 f.; Schultens, Dissertatt. philol. I. p. 443 ff.; Keil, two Commentat. 1803 (Opusc. p. 172 ff.); Martini, in Gabler’s Journ. f. auserl. theol. Lit. IV. p. 34 ff.; von Ammon, Magaz. f. Pred. II. 1, p. 7 ff.; Kraussold in the Annal. d. gesammt. Theol. 1835, II. p. 273 ff.; Stein in the Stud. u. Krit. 1837, p. 165 ff.; Philippi, d. thätige Gehors. Chr. Berl. 1841, p. 1 ff.; Tholuck, Disp. Christol. de l. Php_2:6-9, Halle 1848; Ernesti in the Stud. u. Krit. 1848, p. 858 ff., and 1851, p. 595 ff.; Baur in the theol. Jahrb. 1849, p. 502 ff., and 1852, p. 133 ff., and in his Paulus, II. p. 51 ff. ed. 2; Liebner, Christol. p. 325 ff.; Raebiger, Christol. Paulin. p. 76 ff.; Lechler, Apost. u. nachapost. Zeitalt. p. 58 ff.; Schneckenburger in the Deutsch. Zeitschr. 1855, p. 333 ff; Wetzel in the Monatschr. f. d. Luth. Kirche Preuss. 1857; Kähler in the Stud. u. Krit. 1857, p. 99 ff.; Beyschlag in the Stud. u. Krit. 1860, p. 431 ff., and his Christol. d. N. T. 1866, p. 233 ff.; Rich. Schmidt, Paul. Christol. 1870, p. 163 ff.; J. B. Lightfoot’s Excursus, p. 125 ff.; Pfleiderer in Hilgenfeld’s Zeitschr. 1871, p. 519 ff.; Grimm in the same Zeitschr. 1873, p. 33 ff. Among the more recent dogmatic writers, Thomasius, II. p. 148 ff.; Philippi, IV. 1, p. 469 ff.; Kahnis, I. p. 458 ff.
φρονείσθω ἐν ὑμ .] sentiatur in animis vestris. The parallelism with the ἐν which follows prohibits our interpreting it intra vestrum caetum (Hoelemann, comp. Matthies). The passive mode of expression is unusual elsewhere, though logically unassailable. Hofmann, rejecting the passive reading, as also the passive supplement afterwards, has sadly misunderstood the entire passage.[91]
ὃ καὶ ἐν Χ . Ἰ .] sc. ἐφρονήθη . On ἘΝ , comp. the Homeric ἘΝῚ ΦΡΕΣΊ , ἘΝῚ ΘΥΜῶ , which often occurs with ΦΡΟΝΕῖΝ , Od. xiv. 82, vi. 313; Il. xxiv. 173. καί is not cum maxime, but the simple also of the comparison (in opposition to van Hengel), namely, of the pattern of Christ.
[90] Christ’s example, therefore, in this passage is one of self-denial, and not of obedience to God (Ernesti), in which, in truth, the self-denial only manifested itself along with other things. It is, however, shown by the very addition of καί , that Paul really intended to adduce the example of Christ (in opposition to Hofmann’s view); comp. Rom_15:3. Christ’s example is the moral, ideal, historically realized. Comp. Wuttke, Sittenl. II. § 224; Schmid, Sittenl. p. 355 ff.; and as early as Chrysostom.
[91] Reading φρονεῖτε , and subsequently explaining the ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ as a frequent expression with Paul for the ethical Christian quality (like ἐν κυρίῳ in Php_4:2), Hofmann makes the apostle say that the readers are to have their mind so directed within them, that it shall not be lacking in this definite quality which makes it Christian. Thus there would be evolved, when expressed in simple words, merely the thought: “Have in you the mind which is also the Christian one.” As if the grand outburst, which immediately follows, would be in harmony with such a general idea! This outburst has its very ground in the lofty example of the Lord. And what, according to Hofmann’s view, is the purpose of the significant καί ? It would be entirely without correlation in the text; for in ἐν ὑμίν the ἐν would have to be taken as local, and in the ἐν Χριστῷ , according to that misinterpretation, it would have to be taken in the sense of ethical fellowship, and thus relations not at all analogous would be marked.