Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Philippians 1:1 - 1:1
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
1. Παῦλος. The name first appears Act 13:9. It was probably from the first the alternative name (for use in intercourse with Gentiles) of Saul; given him as bearing a sound resembling his Hebrew home-name. It seems to have been a favourite name at Tarsus (Lewin, Life &c. of St Paul, i. 6).
He adds no allusion to his apostleship here (nor in the Ep. to Philemon). Affectionate and untroubled intimacy with his correspondents made it needless.
Τιμόθεος. Named 24 times in N.T. See esp. Act 16:1; 1Co 4:17; 1Co 16:10-11; 1Ti 1:2; 2Ti 1:4-5; below, Php 2:19-22. Timotheus’ connexion with Philippi was close. See Acts 16, 17, where it is implied that he was St Paul’s habitual companion till (Act 17:14) they parted for a time at Berœa. He must thus have been present during the stormy days of the first visit to Philippi, though for unknown reasons he did not share the maltreatment of Paul and Silas. Later, Acts 20, he accompanied St Paul from Macedonia to Asia Minor, and Philippi (Act 20:6) was visited then again.
His name is similarly linked with St Paul’s in 2 Cor., Col., 1 Thess., 2 Thess. Here, but not in those other places, the Apostle at once goes on to speak in his own person alone to his correspondents.
δοῦλοι. “Bondmen, slaves.” So St Paul designates himself (alone or in company) Rom 1:1; Gal 1:10; Tit 1:1. Such he was, not only as Apostle, but as Christian; see e.g. Luk 17:7-10; Rom 6:19; but he loves to emphasize the fact in connexion with his special mode of service.—The bondservice of the heavenly Master is not forced labour, against the will, but it is the labour of those who do not contract, but belong. Meanwhile, Illi servire est regnare.
Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ. The order Χ. Ἰ. (see critical note) is almost peculiar to St Paul, and he uses it more often than the other order. The slight emphasis thus given to Χριστός suggests a special reference to the Lord in glory.
ἁγίοις. “Holy Ones,” separated from sin to God. Ἄγιος appears to be connected linguistically not with ἄγνυμι, as if it implied a breach, a severance, but with ἄγος, or ἅγος a matter of sacred awe. The ἅγιος should thus mean the devotee of his God. Usage affirms this, and thus sanctions in effect the suggestion of separation given by the older (ἄγνυμι) derivation.
The Apostle constantly denotes the Christian community and its members by this term, as equally true of all converts. He takes them on their profession; not to lower the true meaning of the word, but using it on a well-understood hypothesis. The ἄγιος is not the professed Christian merely, but the professed Christian assumed to be what he professes to be. Otherwise he is not in deed but only in designation “a saint,” “faithful,” &c.
ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ. United to Him, as the branch is “in” the tree. The ἅγιοι are what they are as they are veritably in contact with the Holy One, by covenant and in eternal life. Cp. 1Co 6:17; 1Jn 5:12.
ἐν Φιλίπποις. See Introduction, ch. i.
σὺν ἐπισκόποις καὶ διακόνοις. “With the bishops and deacons,” though the article is absent. Context in a case like this sufficiently defines; the persons of the classes named are self-evidently those at Philippi. So we in English could say, “bishops, deacons, and all,” as readily as “the bishops, &c.”
For further remarks on the offices here mentioned, see Appendix C.