Peace, Practical Help, and a Gift That Becomes Worship

“Crown” is stephanos, the wreath given to a victor at the games or worn at a feast, not a king’s diadem. “Longed for” is epipothetos, found only here. “Dearly beloved” opens and closes the verse, and “so stand fast” means in the way just described at the end of chapter 3.

The King James “Euodias” looks like a man’s name, but the Greek is Euodia, a woman, as “those women” in verse 3 confirms. Her name means good journey, and Syntyche’s good fortune. “Beseech” is repeated for each, and “be of the same mind” is the very phrase of 2:2.

“Yokefellow” is syzygos, and some have suggested it is a proper name, Syzygus, making the phrase “you who are truly what your name says”. “Laboured with me” is synathleo, the teammates’ word of 1:27. Later writers guessed that this Clement was Clement of Rome, a link few now accept. The book of life goes back to Exodus 32:32.

“Again I say” is future in Greek, “again I will say”: Paul hears himself repeating the command and does it deliberately. It is the same instruction as 3:1, now made unconditional with “alway”.

“Moderation” is epieikes, the gentleness that does not insist on its full rights. Aristotle used the word for equity, the fairness that corrects the law where strict justice would be too hard. “The Lord is at hand” can mean near in time, the coming, or near in place, as in Psalm 145:18.

“Be careful” is merimnao, to be anxious, the verb of Matthew 6:25, “take no thought for your life”. The same verb was praise in 2:20, where Timothy would “naturally care for your state”. Anxiety turned toward others is commended; turned inward, it is to become requests. “Requests” are aitemata, specific petitions, not a general mood.

“Keep” is phroureo, to guard as a garrison guards a town, the verb 2 Corinthians 11:32 uses for the governor who “kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison”. The picture is of peace posted as a sentry at the door of the heart and mind.

“Whatsoever” is repeated six times. “Honest” is semnos, dignified, worthy of respect, the 1611 sense of honest. “Lovely” and “of good report” are both found only here in the New Testament. “Virtue” is arete, the central word of Greek moral philosophy, which Paul uses nowhere else.

Four verbs pair off: learned and received, heard and seen. “Received” is paralambano, the technical word for receiving a handed-down tradition, the verb Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 15:3, “that which I also received”. The last word of the list is the command “do”.

“Flourished again” is anathallo, to put out new shoots, as a tree does in spring; the Greek Old Testament uses it in Ezekiel 17:24, where God makes “the dry tree to flourish”. “Care” and “careful” here are both phroneo, thinking of him: they had been mindful all along.

“Content” is autarkes, self-sufficient, the ideal of the Stoic and Cynic sage who needs nothing from outside himself. Paul borrows the philosophers’ word but, two verses later, places the source of his sufficiency outside himself. “I have learned” is aorist: a lesson learned at a particular cost.

“I am instructed” is myeomai, the verb for being initiated into a mystery cult, found only here in the New Testament: I have been let into the secret. “Abased” is tapeinoo, the verb of 2:8, where Christ “humbled himself”. Hunger and fullness are both named as things to be learned.

The name “Christ” is a later scribe’s clarification; the early text has only “through him that strengtheneth me”. “Strengtheneth” is endunamoo, the verb of Ephesians 6:10. “I can do” is ischuo, to have strength for, and in context the strength is for going hungry as much as for anything else.

“Communicate with” is synkoinoneo, a double compound, to be a joint partner in. “Affliction” is thlipsis, pressure, the crushing weight of a press. Paul treats their money as taking a share of his prison.

“Giving and receiving” is ledger language, credits and debits in an account between partners. The Macedonian gifts followed him to Corinth, where 2 Corinthians 11:9 says “the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied” his lack. “Ye Philippians” uses a Latin-shaped form of the name, suited to a Roman colony.

“Once and again” is a Greek idiom for more than once. Acts 17:2 mentions only three sabbaths in Thessalonica, a city about a hundred miles from Philippi; two gifts arriving there suggest Paul stayed longer than those three weeks. In 1 Thessalonians 2:9 he says he worked night and day there as well.

“Account” is logos, used in banking for a customer’s account, and “fruit” can mean the interest that accrues on capital. The profit Paul wants is theirs, credited to them, not his. “Desire” is epizeteo, to seek after, used twice to deny one motive and name another.

“I have all” is apecho, the word written on receipts in the Greek papyri: paid in full. Paul signs off the account. Then he changes registers, calling the gift by the sacrificial phrase he uses of Christ himself in Ephesians 5:2, “a sweetsmelling savour”.

“Supply” is pleroo, to fill, the same verb as “I am full” in verse 18: they filled Paul’s need, and God will fill theirs. “My God” brings back the personal note of 1:3. The measure is not their gift but “his riches in glory”.

The praise comes before the greetings, as though the talk of accounts could only end in doxology. “For ever and ever” is literally unto the ages of the ages. “Amen” is Hebrew for firm or sure, and the congregation hearing the letter read would have said it aloud.

“Salute” is aspazomai, to greet, a word that included the embrace. “Every saint” is singular: greet them one by one. “The brethren which are with me” are distinct from “all the saints” of the next verse, likely Paul’s own coworkers.

“Caesar’s household” meant the familia Caesaris, thousands of slaves and freedmen who staffed the imperial administration in Rome and in provincial offices. “Chiefly” is malista, especially, which suggests the Philippians would find these greetings the most striking, a colony hearing from the emperor’s own staff.

The King James “with you all” follows later copies; earlier ones close “with your spirit”, as Galatians and Philemon do. The letter began with “grace be unto you” (1:2) and ends where it began.