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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Philippians 2:17 - 2:17
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17. Ἀλλὰ εἰ καὶ. He takes up the thought suggested by ἐκοπίασα, as if to say, “Toil it is indeed; but it is glad, ungrudging toil; if it involves my shedding my blood for you, it will be only joy to me.” “Meanwhile” may thus represent ἀλλὰ.
σπένδομαι. “I am being outpoured”; “libated,” in my life-blood. “The present tense places the hypothesis vividly before the eyes; but it does not … refer to present dangers … comp. e.g. Mat 12:26” [εἰ ὁ Σατανᾶς τὸν Σ. ἐκβάλλει] (Lightfoot). But it is at least possible that, in suspense as he was about the issue of his trial, he is here thinking of martyrdom as perhaps at the door.
For the phrase cp. 2Ti 4:6, ἐγὼ γὰρ ἤδη σπένδομαι. Lightfoot compares Ignat. ad Rom. c. 2, a close parallel here, μὴ παράσχησθέ (μοι) τοῦ σπονδισθῆναι θεῷ, ὡς ἔτι θυσιαστήριον ἕτοιμόν ἐστιν.
The Vulg. here has immolor, and the lexicographer Hesychius (cent. 4) explains σπένδομαι here by θυσιάζομαι. But the imagery is certainly more precise than this allows.
ἐπὶ τῇ θυσίᾳ. “On,” as a libation is shed on the altar. He views the Philippians, in their character of consecrated believers (cp. Rom 12:1), as a holocaust to God; and upon that sacrifice the drink-offering, the outpoured wine, is his own life-blood, his martyrdom for the Gospel which he has preached to them. Cp. Num 15:5 for the Mosaic libation, οἶνον εἰς σπονδὴν … ποιήσετε ἐπὶ τῆς ὁλοκαυτώσεως. Lightfoot thinks that a reference to pagan libations is more likely in a letter to a Gentile mission; but surely St Paul familiarized all his converts with O.T. symbolism; and his own mind was of course full of it.
τῇ θυσίᾳ καὶ λειτουργίᾳ τῆς πίστεως ὑμῶν. “The sacrifice and ritual” were “of” their faith because vitally connected with it. In faith they were self-surrendered to their Saviour; so they were themselves “a living sacrifice,” and their lives were a sacerdotal ordinance. Cp. Rom 15:16 (with note in the Cambridge Bible for Schools) for an instructive parallel. There the ἔθνη are the προσφορά, and the εὐαγγέλιον· is the matter on which the ἰερουργία is exercised. Here the Philippians are both sacrifice and priests, while Paul is their libation.
These are the only two passages where the Apostle connects the language of sacerdotalism with the distinctive work of the Christian ministry; and both passages have the tone of figure and, so to speak, poetry.
χαίρω. With the deep joy of love in self-sacrifice.
συνχαίρω πᾶσιν ὑμῖν. Again the warm and significant “you all.”
Συνχαίρειν can mean “to congratulate”; so Plutarch, Mor. 231 B (quoted by Lightfoot), συνχαίρω τῇ πόλει, in a context which leaves no doubt of the meaning. This meaning is in point here. Dying for them, his last thought would be congratulation on their faith and obedience.
The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians, at the beginning, has συνεχάρην ὑμῖν μεγάλως ἐν Κυρίῳ, words which may be an echo of these.