Commentary on the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Philippians

Time and place of writing the message ABOUT THE EPISTLE OF THE HOLY APOSTLE PAUL TO THE PHILIPPIANS When Ap. Paul carried the preaching of the Gospel to Europe, then the first city in Europe to hear the news of Christ was the Macedonian city of Philippi, named after its founder, the Macedonian king Philip, and later received the name: “the colony of Augustus Julius” and was considered a very important city (cf. Acts 16:12) 1. Paul arrived here accompanied by Silas, Timothy and Luke. Paul's listeners here were mainly pagans - there were very few Jews in Philippi - and the church here was mainly composed of pagans. After the removal of Paul and Silas, Timothy and Luke spent some time in Philippi. The second time Paul appeared in Philippi was when, after Pentecost 57, he set out from Ephesus to Corinth (1 Cor. 16:5 et seq.) and then came here for the third time in the spring of 58, when he was on his way to Jerusalem with alms (Acts 20:3 et seq.). And while the Apostle was away from the Philippians, he received information about them through his employees or through other persons. From these messages and from his personal observations, the Apostle concluded in his letter about the prosperous state of the Philippian church, both internally and externally (see Phil. 1:3, 4, 5, 7). Time and place of writing the message. As can be seen from the letter, the Apostle was in bonds (Phil 1:7, 13, 14, 17) and, most likely, in Roman bonds. The latter is evidenced by the greeting placed at the end of the message from persons belonging to the house of Caesar (Phil. 4:22), and in addition the mention of the praetorian regiment, whose soldiers guard Ap. Paul (Phil.1:13). The same is evidenced by the mood expressed in the epistle and the intentions nourished by the Apostle at that time. The Apostle speaks with confidence (Phil. 1:25) that he will soon be freed from his bonds, and he could only receive such confidence while he was in Rome: during his stay in Caesarea imprisonment, his fate could not yet be decided. Then he intends to visit Philippi after the liberation; his thoughts are directed precisely towards this journey, and while he was in Caesarea, his thoughts were occupied with his upcoming journey to Rome. – The epistle was written, therefore, obviously during the first Roman bonds of Paul, from which he was released, and precisely at the end of Paul’s two-year stay in Rome, as can be seen from the fact that his case at the time of writing the epistle was already moving toward a decision favorable to the Apostle (cf. Phil 1:12). If Paul's arrival in Rome falls in the spring of 61, then the writing of the letter falls in the summer of 63. By this time the letters to the Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon had already been sent, so that the letter to the Philippians is the last of the letters Paul wrote during his first Roman bonds. A member of the Philippian Church, Epaphroditus, who suffered a serious illness while in Rome under Paul, recovered and went to his hometown. This was the reason for the Apostle Paul to address the Philippians with a message. At the same time, he wanted to calm the anxious hearts of the Philippians regarding their own fate, which had changed significantly for the better. Finally, he considered it his sacred duty to give them instructions regarding Christian life and, by the way, to thank them for the help that they sent him and Epaphroditus to Rome. Paul's ten-year friendship with the Philippians left a special stamp on his letter to them. Here the Apostle primarily expresses his loving feelings towards his readers. One feels that the Apostle looks at them like a loving father at his children, in whom he is quite confident as those who will not disgrace their father’s good name. It is remarkable that the Apostle repeatedly expresses joy, a joyful feeling that embraces him, despite the fact that his case has not yet been finally resolved... Noteworthy is the severity with which he treats the false teachers from among the Judaizers who threatened the well-being of the Philippian Church. He calls them dogs and predicts their destruction 2. The message is not arranged according to a strictly worked out plan, but has the appearance of a real, completely relaxed letter. First - in the first chapter - there is the usual introduction (Phil 1:1-11), then the Apostle reports on his own position (Phil 1:12-26) and then exhorts readers to fight for the faith, to unanimity and humility (Phil 2:1-4), and draws before them the image of the humble Christ (Phil 2:5-11), and to obedience to God (Phil 2:12-18). Then the news comes again about the persons surrounding Paul (Philippians 2:19–30). This is the first part of the message. In the second part, covering chapters III and IV, the Apostle warns readers against Judaizers, calls for Christian self-improvement and addresses admonitions to individuals, and then again to the entire church. The message ends with thanksgiving and greetings. An epistle that is so closely intertwined with individual events from the life of the Apostle Paul and the Philippian Church he founded would be absurd to recognize as inauthentic. It cannot be supposed that any pseudonym would find it necessary to imitate the tone of the Apostle Paul. And indeed, doubts about the authenticity of the message were rarely expressed. Only Baur expressed the idea of ​​​​the later origin of this message, and then in the 70s G. Holsten 3 repeated Baur’s thought, adding that after all the message was written “in the spirit of Paul,” “in the language of Paul.” But all the reasons that he draws for his position about the inauthenticity of the message, all the indications of the contradictions of this message with other completely genuine messages (Rom, Cor and Gal), are not at all convincing. From the outside, the authenticity of the message is quite sufficiently attested. So, for example, Polycarp of Smyrna already refers to him. Of the patristic interpretations of the Epistle to the Philippians, the most important are the works of St. John Chrysostom and Blessed. Theodorit. Among the Russians, the outstanding interpretations are the works of Rev. Feofan (Govorova) and Mr. Iv. Nazarevsky (Epistle of St. Apostle Paul to the Philippians. Serg. Pos. 1898, 103–165 pp.). The best German interpretations include the works of Meyer, processed by Haupt (1897), and Paul Ewald in the ed. Tsana (1908). Nowadays this city is just ruins, called “Filibe-jih”. Farrar says: “This message was dictated by a weary and shackled Jew, the victim of gross prejudice and the prey of self-righteous enmity, dictated at a time when he was irritated by hundreds of opponents and consoled by only a few who loved him. And yet its essence can be expressed in two words (which are used by Paul in this letter): “I rejoice, and you also rejoice.” If we compare the spirit of the most famous classical writers in their misfortune with that which was common in the much deeper hardships and more terrible sufferings of Ap. Paul, if you compare the epistle to the Philippians with Ovid’s Tristia, with the epistles of Cicero from exile, or with the treatise that Seneca dedicated to Polybius from his exile in Corsica, then the difference that Christianity has made in man’s relation to happiness will become quite obvious” (Life and Works of Apostle Paul, trans. Lopukhin, pp. 720–721). So eg. Holsten points out that the Apostle renounces the name “apostle” and accepts instead the title “servant of Christ Jesus” (Rom. 15:16), that the writer is indifferent to the objective one truth (Phil. 1:15–18), that he has lost the idea that the pre-worldly Christ is a heavenly man (Phil. 2:6 et seq.). Anyone can already see for himself Golsten’s pickiness, which makes him doubt the authenticity of the message, but the groundlessness of Golsten’s cavils will be shown even more clearly when interpreting the message... A detailed refutation of negative views on the origin of the message. to Philip, you can read from Mr. Nazarevsky, p. 51–102. You might be interested in: