Philippians New Testament

Wouldn’t it be great to wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and just be happy with yourself? Wouldn’t it be incredible to have access to infinite joy at any time, in any place, and in any circumstance? As we read Paul’s letter to the Christians in Philippi, we see that he had this sort of happiness. In fact, he mentions “joy” or “rejoicing” 16 times in this short letter.

What was Paul’s secret? According to Paul, it wasn’t from acquiring inordinate wealth. It wasn’t from having perfect circumstances in his life or relationships. It wasn’t even from the absence of suffering or pain. In fact, when Paul wrote this letter, he was sitting in jail, falsely accused, and chained to a prison guard. Moreover, all of his great ambitions had ground to a halt! Yet we see him filled with joy and happiness… What was his secret? We’ll discover this as we study through this letter.

Authorship

The apostle Paul claims authorship of the letter to the Philippians (Phil. 1:1), and the letter as a whole “is almost universally recognized to come from Paul.” Even among critical scholars, Paul’s authorship is “virtually unquestioned.” Paul came to Philippi on his second missionary tour (Acts 16:12-40), and later, he wrote this letter to the Philippians under house arrest in Rome. While imprisoned, Paul seriously considered the fact that he could die (Phil. 1:21-25; 2:17). However, he was confident that God would bring him through alive (Phil. 1:25).

Historical Background of Philippi

Philippi was a Roman colony in Macedonia. Philippi rested on a major east-west highway (called the Via Egnatia), which crossed northern Greece. Luke records that Philippi was “a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony” (Acts 16:12). In 42 BC, Octavian and Mark Antony defeated Brutus and Cassius (Julius Caesar’s assassins) in Philippi. Fee notes, “Octavian honored Philippi by ‘refounding’ it as a Roman military colony, thus endowing its populace with Roman citizenship… Octavian populated the town and its surrounding agricultural area with discharged veterans from the war.”

Historically, Philippi was a major city of Macedonia, and it was an accessible place where people would rest to hear about news in the Roman Empire. This became a fertile place for the spread of Jesus’ message of love and forgiveness.

Paul started this church on his second missionary tour. Paul was able to lead Lydia to Christ—a business woman who sold expensive, purple fabrics (Acts 16:14). She offered her home to Paul, Luke, and Silas (Acts 16:15). This was also the city where Paul cast out the demon from the young slave-girl, who was blowing his missionary cover (Acts 16:16-18). As a consequence, the people launched false accusations against Paul and Silas (Acts 16:20-21). The two men were beaten (Acts 16:22) and thrown in prison (Acts 16:23). God caused a miracle to have them released (Acts 16:26), and used this as an opportunity to lead their prison guard’s entire family to Christ (Acts 16:30-31). Later Paul used his Roman citizenry as leverage for their release (Acts 16:37).

Paul later revisited this church on his third missionary tour. He came back to visit them for a week in ~AD 56 (Acts 20:6).

Philippi was a very generous church. The Philippian church regularly supported Paul’s ministry (Phil. 4:15-20; 2 Cor. 8:1-5; 11:7-9), and he wrote them to thank them for their most recent gift (Phil. 4:10, 14) delivered by Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25).

The Philippian Christians were enduring opposition from false teachers. Paul tells them to be “in no way alarmed by your opponents” (Phil. 1:28). Primarily, these must have been Jewish false teachers (Phil. 3:2-3), and (or) licentious opponents of Christianity (Phil. 3:18-19). While Paul sits in prison, he says that they are suffering with him (Phil. 1:7). Fee writes,

By the time of our letter, the primary titles for the emperor were Kyrios and Sōtēr (“Lord and Savior”). Not only so, but the cult of the emperor, honoring the emperor in a way approaching deification, had found its most fertile soil in the eastern provinces. In a city like Philippi this would have meant that every public event (the assembly, public performances in the theater, etc.) and much else within its boundaries took place in the context of giving honor to the emperor, with the acknowledgment that (in this case) Nero was “lord and savior.”

This may be precisely why Paul emphasizes the lordship of Jesus, and why he writes that their “citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). It also sheds light on Paul’s comment that he is reaching the Praetorian Guard for Christ (Phil. 1:13; 4:22). It must have been encouraging to read these words while they were enduring persecution—at least their suffering wasn’t as bad as Paul’s suffering. If Paul could rejoice in prison, couldn’t they rejoice in the face of their contemporary opposition? Paul is hoping that they will continue to stand for Christ even in his absence (Phil. 2:12).

The Philippian church was suffering from selfishness. Surely, every church struggles with selfishness! Yet Paul goes out of his way to describe certain people who were using ministry for a selfish agenda (Phil. 1:17). He urges them to seek humility (Phil. 2:1-5), as they had seen in Christ (Phil. 2:6-9) and Timothy (Phil. 2:20-32). This could also be at the root of the conflict between Euodia and Syntche.

Where was Paul imprisoned?

Scholars divide over this subject:

(1) Ephesus?

Ephesus was a very short distance from Philippi. Thus Timothy and Epaphroditus would not have needed to travel very far to bring money (Phil. 4:18). Moreover, Paul had been in Ephesus for three years—plenty of time to write letters like his prison epistles.

However, Ephesus was a “senatorial province” with “no (imperial) praetorium” or Roman guard. Moreover, the book of Acts doesn’t mention Paul being in prison in Ephesus, so scholars need to make a tenuous case from the epistles (e.g. 1 Cor. 15:32; 2 Cor. 1:8-10; 11:23). Based on the lack of evidence, this view isn’t likely.

(2) Caesarea?

Paul lived in Caesarea from 57 to 59 AD, and his enemies tried to kill him during this time (Acts 23:33; 24:27). Advocates of this view believe that Paul’s “defense” of the gospel (Phil. 1:7, 16-17) might refer to standing before Felix, Festus, and Herod Agrippa II. Moreover, the “Roman garrison headquartered in Caesarea was at times called a praetorian guard.”

However, Paul claimed that the gospel would spread “throughout the whole praetorian guard” (Phil. 1:13). Caesarea was only a small subsection of the guard. Furthermore, when Paul was in Caesarea, his goal was to go to Rome—not Philippi (Phil. 2:24). Additionally, Paul doesn’t mention Philip the evangelist or Agabus the prophet, who were with him in Caesarea (Acts 21:8-10). While these are arguments from silence, they may carry some weight. For these reasons, we do not hold this view either.

(3) Rome?

We saved the best for last. All ancient sources believed that Paul wrote his letter from Roman imprisonment sometime in AD 59-61. The ancient Marcionite Prologue comments that the letter came from Rome, rather than Ephesus or Caesarea, and scholars like Craig Blomberg, Gordon Fee, and Homer Kent hold this view.

Paul’s two years in house arrest gave plenty of time for visitors to travel to see him (Acts 28:16), and his comments about the “praetorian guard” and “Caesar’s household” (Phil. 1:13; 4:22) fit best with Roman imprisonment, as well. We hold to this view throughout the rest of our commentary.

Date

If we are correct on Paul’s Roman imprisonment, this would date the letter sometime around AD 61.

Canonicity

The letter to the Philippians has not come under scrutiny with regard to its canonicity. Kent writes, “Evidence for the early acceptance of this Epistle by the leaders of the church is plentiful and raises no questions… No suspicion regarding the canonicity of Philippians is to be found in early external testimony.” Some of the earliest church fathers implicitly reference this letter (e.g. Clement of Rome, AD 95; Ignatius, AD 110). Others make explicit references to this letter: Polycarp quotes Philippians (To the Philippians, chapters 3, 9, 12), the Muratorian Fragment (AD 170) contains Philippians in its canonical list, and even the heretic Marcion contains the letter in his canon. Furthermore, church fathers like Tertullian (AD 200), Irenaeus (AD 200), Eusebius (AD 350), and Athanasius (AD 367) considered the letter to be inspired Scripture. According to Hawthorne, there was “never was a question in the minds of the early Christian leaders about the canonical authority of Philippians or its authorship.”