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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Philippians 3:19 - 3:19
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
19. τέλος. A word awful and hopeless. Τὸ γὰρ τέλος ἐκείνων, θάνατος, Rom 6:21. Cp. 2Co 11:15, ὦν τὸ τέλος ἔσται κατὰ τὰ ἔργα: Heb 6:8, ἧς τὸ τὲλος εἰς καῦσιν: 1Pe 4:17, τί τὸ τέλος τῶν ἀπειθούντων τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ;
ἀπώλεια. “Perdition”; ruin. See above, on Php 1:28.
ὁ θεὸς. The antinomian boasted probably of a special intimacy with God.
ἡ κοιλία. “The” (not necessarily “their”) “belly.” Cp. Rom 16:18, where probably the same “school” is in view; Χριστῷ οὐ δουλεύουσιν, ἀλλὰ τῇ ἑαυτῶν κοιλίᾳ. In 1Co 6:13 the words βρώματα τῇ κοιλίᾳ καὶ ἡ κ. τοῖς βρώμασιν are probably quoted from a supposed advocate of this same evil “Gospel.”—Κοιλία is not used in classical Greek in other than its physical meaning (γαστήρ appears for “gluttony”; e.g. γαστρὶ δουλεύειν, Xen. Mem. i. 6. 8); but we have κοιλιοδαίμων in the fragments of Eupolis (Κολακ. 4), for “a votary of the belly.” So venter in Latin; Lightfoot refers to Seneca, de Vita Beata, IX. 4: hominis bonum quæro, non ventris.
ἡ δόξα ἐν τῇ αἰσχύνῃ αὐτῶν. No doubt they claimed a “glory”; a larger liberty, a deeper insight, a sublimated Christianity. But their vaunted wisdom was exactly their foulest shame.
οἱ τὰ ἐπίγεια φρονοῦντες. “They whose mind is for the things of earth.” The construction is free but clear.—Contrast Col 3:2, τὰ ἄνω φρονεῖτε, μὴ τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς: and see the practical precepts in the context there, Php 3:5, &c.: νεκρώσατε οὖν τὰ μέλη ὑμῶν τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, κτλ.—For φρονεῖν see notes above, on Php 1:7, Php 2:2.
The dogmatic libertine would claim to live in an upper region, to be so conversant with celestial principles as to be free of terrestrial restraints. As a fact, his fine-spun theory was a transparent veil over the bodily lusts which were his real interests.