Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Philippians 4:11 - 4:11
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Php_4:11. Obviating of a misunderstanding.
οὐχ ὅτι ] as in Php_3:12 : my meaning is not, that I say this in consequence of want, that is, this my utterance of joy in Php_4:10 f. is not meant as if it were the expression of felt want, from which your aid has delivered me. On κατά , sccundum, in the sense of propter, see Kühner, II. 1, p. 413, and ad Xen. Mem. i. 3. 12. According to van Hengel’s interpretation: “ut more receptum est penuriae, s. hominibus penuria oppressis,” κατά could not have been united with an abstract noun (Rom_3:5, et al.).
ἐγὼ γὰρ ἔμαθον κ . τ . λ .] for I, as regards my part (although it may be different with others), have learned in the circumstances, in which I find myself, to be self-contented, that is, to have enough independently without desiring aid from others. It is evident from the reason thus assigned that in οὐχ . ὅτι καθʼ ὑστ . λ . he has meant not the objective, but the subjective state of need.
ἐγώ ] with noble self-consciousness, there being no need to supply, with Bengel, “in tot adversis.”
ἔμαθον ] signifies the having learned by experience (comp. Plat. Symp. p. 182 C: ἔργῳ δὲ τοῦτο ἔμαθον καὶ οἱ ἐνθάδε τύραννοι ), and all that accordingly he can, he owes to the strengthening influence of Christ, Php_4:13.
ἐν οἷς εἰμι ] in the situation, in which I find myself. See examples in Wetstein and Kypke; comp. also Mätzner, ad Antiph. p. 131. Not merely his position then, but, generally, every position in which he finds himself, is meant, although it is not exactly to be taken as: “in quocunque statu sim” (Raphel, Wetstein, and others), which would be ungrammatically expressed. In opposition to the context (see Php_4:12), Luther: among whom ( οἷς , masculine) I am. As to αὐτάρκεια as applied to persons, the subjective self-sufficing, by means of which a man does not make the satisfaction of his needs dependent upon others, but finds it in himself, comp. Sir_40:18; Xen. Mem. iv. 7. 1; Dem. 450. 14; Stob. v. 43; and see on 2Co_9:8.