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Php_4:3. Indeed, I entreat thee also, etc. This bringing in of a third party is a confirmation of the previous admonition as regards its necessity and urgency; hence the ναί ; comp. Phm_1:20. See also on Mat_15:27.
σύζυγε is erroneously understood by Clemens Alexandrinus, Isidorus, Erasmus, Musculus, Cajetanus, Flacius, and others, as referring to the wife of the apostle; an idea which, according to 1Co_7:8, compared with 1Co_9:5, is at variance with history (see, already, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, Theophylact), and at the same time at variance with grammar, as the adjective must in that case have stood in the feminine (Test. XII. Patr. p. 526; Eur. Alc. 314, 342, 385). Others understand the husband of one of the two women (so, although with hesitation, Chrysostom, also Theophylact, according to whom, however, he might have been a brother, and Camerarius; not disapproved by Beza); but what a strangely artificial designation would “genuine conjux” be! Weiss prefers to leave undecided the nature of the bond which connected the individual in question with the two women. But if, in general, a relation to the women were intended, and that apart from the bond of matrimony, by the term σύζυγε Paul would have expressed himself very awkwardly; for the current use of the word σύζυγος , and also of συζυγής (3Ma_4:8) and σύζυξ (Eur. Alc. 924), in the sense of conjux (comp. συζευγνύναι , Xen. Oec. 7. 30; Herodian, iii. 10. 14), must have been well known to the reader. The usual mode of interpreting this passage (so Flatt, Rheinwald, Hoelemann, Matthies, de Wette, following Pelagius and Theodoret) has been to refer it to some distinguished fellow-labourer of the apostle, well known, as a matter of course, to the readers of the epistle, who had his abode in Philippi and deserved well of the church there by special services. Some have arbitrarily fixed on Silas (Bengel), and others quite unsuitably on Timothy (Estius), and even on Epaphroditus (Vatablus, Grotius, Calovius, Michaelis, van Hengel, and Baumgarten-Crusius), whom Hofmann also would have us understand as referred to, inasmuch as he regards him as the amanuensis of the epistle, who had therefore heard it dictated by the apostle, and then heard it again when it came to be read in the church, so that he knew himself to be the person addressed. What accumulated invention, in order to fasten upon Epaphroditus the, after all, unsuitable confession before the church that he was himself the person thus distinguished by the apostle! According to Luther’s gloss, Paul means “the most distinguished bishop in Philippi.” Comp. also Ewald, who compares συμπρεσβύτερος , 1Pe_5:1. But how strange would such a nameless designation be in itself! How easily might the preferential designation by γνήσιος have seemed even to slight other fellow-labourers in Philippi! Besides, Paul, in describing his official colleagues, never makes use of this term, σύζυγος , which does not occur elsewhere in the N.T., and which would involve the assumption that the unknown individual stood in quite a special relation to the apostle corresponding to this purposely-chosen predicate. Laying aside arbitrariness, and seeing that this address is surrounded by proper names (Php_4:2-3), we can only find in σύζυγε a proper name, in which case the attribute γνήσιε corresponds in a delicate and winning way to the appellative sense of the name (comp. Phm_1:11); genuine Syzygus, that is, thou who art in reality and substantially that which thy name expresses: “fellow-in-yoke,” i.e. yoke-fellow, fellow-labourer. We may assume that Syzygus had rendered considerable services to Christianity in Philippi in joint labour with the apostle, and that Paul, in his appellative interpretation of the name, followed the figurative conception of animals in the yoke ploughing or thrashing (1Co_9:9; 1Ti_5:18), a conception which was suggested to him by the very name itself. The opposite of γνήσιος would be: οὐκ ὄντως ὤν (comp. Plat. Polit. p. 293 E), so that the man with his name Syzygus would not be ἐπώνυμος (Eur. Phoen. 1500; Soph. Aj. 430), Jacobs, ad Del. Epigr. p. 272 f. He bore this his name, however, as ὄνομα ἐτήτυμον (Del. Epigr. v. 42). This view of the word being a proper name—to which Wiesinger inclines, which Laurent decidedly defends[178] in his Neut. Stud. p. 134 ff. and Grimm approves of in his Lexicon, and which Hofmann, without reason, rejects [179] simply on account of the usus loquendi of γνήσιος not being proved—was already held by ΤΙΝΈς in Chrysostom; comp. Niceph. Call. ii. p. 212 D; Oecumenius permits a choice between it and the explanation in the sense of the husband of one of the two women. It is true that the name is not preserved elsewhere; but with how many names is that the case? Hence it was unwarranted to assume (Storr) a translation of the name Κολληγᾶς (Joseph. Bell. vii. 3. 4), in connection with which, moreover, it would be hard to see why Paul should have chosen the word σύζυγος elsewhere not used by him, and not ΣΥΝΕΡΓΌς , or the like.[180] To refer the word to Christ, who helps every one to bear his yoke (Wieseler), was a mistake.
συλλαμβ . αὐταῖς ] lay hold along with them, that is, assist them (Luk_5:7; Herod, vi. 125; Xen. Ages. 2. 31; Wunder, ad Soph. Phil. 280; Lex. Plat. III. p. 294), namely, for their reconciliation and for restoring their harmonious action.
αἵτινες ] utpote quae, giving the motive, comp. Php_1:28; see on Rom_1:25; Rom_2:15; Rom_6:2, et al.
ἐν τῷ εὐαγγ .] the domain, in which they, etc. Comp. Rom_1:9; 1Th_3:2. It was among women that the gospel had first struck root in Philippi (Act_16:13), and it is to be assumed that the two women named had rendered special service in the spread and confirmation of Christianity among their sex, and therein had shared the conflict of affliction and persecution with Paul (1Th_2:2). On συνήθλησαν , comp. Php_1:27.
ΜΕΤᾺ ΚΑῚ ΚΛΉΜΕΝΤΟς Κ . Τ . Λ .] and in what fellowship, so honourable to them, have they shared my conflict for Christ’s sake? in association also with Clement and, etc. The reference of the καί is to ΜΟΙ ; their joint-striving with Paul had been a fellowship in striving also with Clement, etc.; they had therein stood side by side with these men also. On καὶ … καί , the first ΚΑῚ meaning also, comp. Ellendt, Lex. Soph. I. p. 891; on its rarer position, however, between preposition and noun, see Schaefer, Ind. ad Gregor. Cor. p. 1064; Hartung, Partikell. I. p. 143; Kühner, II. 1, p. 480 f. The connection of μετὰ κ . Κλ . κ . τ . λ . with ΣΥΛΛΑΜΒ . ΑὐΤΑῖς (Coccejus, Michaelis, Storr, Flatt, J. B. Lightfoot, Hofmann) is opposed by the facts, that Paul has committed the service of mediation to an individual, with which the general impress now given to this commission is not in keeping, and that the subsequent ὧν τὰ ὀνόματα κ . τ . λ ., in the absence of any specification of the churches, would neither be based on any motive nor intelligible to the readers, and would be strangest of all in the event of Paul’s having intended, as Hofmann thinks, to indicate here the presbyters and deacons mentioned in Php_1:1. The λοιποὶ συνεργοί , as well as generally the more special circumstances of which Paul here reminds his readers, were—if ΜΕΤᾺ ΚΑῚ Κ . Τ . Λ . be joined with ΣΥΝΉΘΛΗΣΆΝ ΜΟΙ , beside which it stands—historically known to these readers, although unknown to us.
That Clement was a teacher in Philippi (so most modern expositors; according to Grotius, a presbyter in Philippi, but “Romanus aliquis in Macedonia negotians”), must be maintained in accordance with the context, seeing that with him those two Philippian women laboured as sharing the conflict of the apostle; and of a travelling companion of this name, who had laboured with the apostle in Macedonia, there is no trace to be found; and seeing that the λοιποὶ συνεργοί also are to be regarded as Philippians, because thus only does the laudatory expression ὧν τὰ ὀνόματα κ . τ . λ . appear in its vivid and direct set purpose of bespeaking for the two women the esteem of the church. The more frequent, however, in general the name of Clement was, the more arbitrary is the old view, although not yet known to Irenaeus (3:3. 3), that Clement of Rome is the person meant.[181] So most Catholic expositors (not Döllinger), following Origen, ad Joh. i. 29; Eusebius, H. E. iii. 15; Epiphanius, Haer. xxvii. 6; Jerome, Pelagius, and others; so also Francke, in the Zeitschr. f. Luth. Theol. 1841, iii. p. 73 ff., and van Hengel, who conjectures Euodia and Syntyche to have been Roman women who had assisted the apostle in Rome, and had travelled with Epaphroditus to Philippi. See generally, besides Lünemann and Brückner, Lipsius, de Clem. Rom. ep. p. 167 ff.; J. B. Lightfoot, p. 166 ff.; and Hilgenfeld, Apost. Väter, p. 92 ff.
ὧν τὰ ὀνόμ . κ . τ . λ .] refers merely to τῶν λοιπῶν κ . τ . λ ., whom Paul does not adduce by name, but instead of this affirms of their names something so great and honourable. God has recorded their names in His book, in which are written down the future partakers of the everlasting Messianic life; so surely and irrevocably is this life assigned to them. What Paul thus expresses by this solemn figure, he knew from their whole Christian character and action, in which he recognised by experience “quasi electionis[182] absconditae sigilla” (Calvin). See, moreover, on Luk_10:20, and Wetstein on our passage; it is different in Heb_12:23 (see Lünemann in loc). ἐστί must be supplied, not the optative, as Bengel thinks; and it must remain an open question, whether the persons referred to (among whom Ewald reckons Clement) are to be regarded as already dead (Bengel, Ewald), which is not to be inferred from ὧν τὰ ὀνόματα κ . τ . λ .; see Luk_10:20; Hermas, Pastor i. 1. 3. It is at all events certain that this predicate, which Paul nowhere else uses, is an especially honourable one, and does not simply convey what holds true of all Christians (so Hofmann in connection with his erroneous reference of μετὰ καὶ κ . τ . λ .). At Luk_10:20, and Rev_13:8 also, it is a mark of distinction.
[178] In doing so, Laurent takes the reference of σύν contained in the name as general: “helper of all labour in the vineyard of the Lord.” More thoughtful, however, is the reference to the apostle himself, whose true yoke-fellow is to supply his place with his former female fellow-strivers ( συνήθλ . μοι ); comp. also subsequently συνεργῶν μου .
[179] According to our view, γνήσιος is, in fact, taken in no other sense than that which is current in all Greek authors, viz. ἀληθινός , verus, as Hofmann himself takes it. Whether we refer it thus to σίζυγε as an appellative word, or as the appellative contents of a name—is a matter which leaves the linguistic use of γνήσιος altogether untouched. As is well known, νόθος has the same general linguistic usage in the opposite sense (see e.g. Plat. Rep. p. 536 A; Jacobs, ad Del. Epigr. i. 103. 3).
[180] This holds at the same time against the view of Pelagius: “Germanus dictus est nomine, qui erat compar officii.” He is followed by Lyra.
[181] Nevertheless, upon this hypothesis Baur builds up a whole fabric of combinations, which are intended to transfer the date of our epistle to the post-apostolic age, when the Flavius Clemens known in Roman history, who was a patruelis of Domitian (Suet. Dom. 15), and a Christian (Lami, de erud. apost. p. 104; Baur, II. p. 68), had already become the well-known Clement of Roman tradition. Comp. Volkmar in the Theolog. Jahrb. 1856, p. 309, according to whom the Roman Clement is to be here already assumed as a martyr. Indeed, according to Schwegler and Hitzig, z. Krit. paulin. Br. p. 13, a first attempt is made here to connect this Clement also with Peter (for no other in their view is the σύζυγος ). Thus, no doubt, the way is readily prepared for bringing down our epistle to the days of Trajan. Round the welcome name of Clement all possible fictions crystallize.
[182] The detailed discussion of the question as to the ground of the divine electio here portrayed (the Reformed theologians, “the decretum absolutum;” the Lutherans, “the praevisa fides;” the Catholics, “the praevisa opera”) is out of place here. Flacius, Clav. s. v. “liber,” justly observes that it is not fatalis quaedam electio which is pointed to, but ob veram justitiam, qualis Christi est, credentes eo referri et inscribi.