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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Philippians 2:20 - 2:20
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
20. γὰρ. He gives his reason for sending Timothy. There was no one like him in natural fitness for this task.
ἰσόψυχον. A slight echo perhaps of εὐψυχῶ. “Of equal soul,” i.e. to Timotheus (Lightfoot); no other delegate would have such qualifications of unselfish sympathy with Philippi. “The word ἰσόψυχος is extremely rare. It occurs in æsch. Agam. 1470 (1446)” (Lightfoot); κράτος ἰσόψ. ἐκ γυναικῶν, i.e. “a strength of soul, shewn by women, equal” to that of men. The word occurs elsewhere in the Greek Scriptures only LXX Psal. 54:13 (Heb., Psa 55:13, “It was thou, mine equal”), as a rendering of the Hebrew “after my scale, or standard,” כערכי.
γνησίως. “Genuinely”; with quite unaffected devotion.
μεριμνήσει. “Shall take anxious thought.” Μέριμνα and its verb are commonly connected with μερίζω, and explained of the divisions in the anxious mind. More recently a connexion has been advocated with “a root meaning to be thoughtful, and akin to μάρτυς, memor, &c.” (Grimm, ed. Thayer, s.v.). Usage anywise leaves the meaning of anxiety unmistakable.—See the verb again below, Php 4:6, and the note there. The two passages are not discordant. Timothy’s μέριμνα here would be intense thought for others (so 1Co 7:32; 1Co 7:34; 1Co 12:2; 1Co 12:5; 2Co 11:28). The μέριμνα forbidden there would be, in effect, the failure to pass on our burthens to the Lord for His care and aid. This is the ordinary reference of the word in N.T.