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Summary of Philippians 1:1-11

Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ, wish grace and peace to all the holy ones at Philippi, with the Bishops and Deacons.

Paul always gives thanks to God for them when he recalls them in every prayer, for they share in promoting the Gospel from the beginning even till now.

Paul is confident that the God who began a good work in them will bring it to completion, until the day of the return of Christ at the end.

Paul says he has reason to think this about them, for they are all fellow sharers in the grace, in his chains, and in defending and strengthening the Gospel. He longs for them in the love of Christ, and prays that their love may abound still more in knowledge and discernment, so they may choose the things that are better, and may not stumble, even until the end, since they are being filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Christ.

Comments on 1:1-11

Paul does not hesitate to call himself a slave, even though he glories in the dignity of a son of God. Each term brings out part of the rich reality. Slave helps us see that we owe everything to God, and He could require our service without any reward -- we just owe it to Him. Yet in His goodness He does reward beyond what any creature would dream of if it had not been revealed: the promise of the share in the divine nature in the vision of God.

We note Paul mentions bishops and deacons -- but not priests. The terms, especially bishops and priests, were very fluid at this time, they were not precise technical words.¹ Episkopos merely meant overseer -- deacon meant servant -- presbyteros meant elder. It take time for technical terms to develop precision.

Holy ones means those who are set aside for God by the covenant. Grace is any gift from God to man, as we explain more fully in the glossary. Peace means general well-being.

We have something theologically very important here: Paul assures them that God who has begun the good work in them, by bringing them to the faith, will bring it to completion. As we saw in 1 Thessalonians 5:24, this is a promise of the grace of final perseverance. The same assurance is given in 1 Corinthians 1:5-8. The Council of Trent (DS 1541, 1566) insists we cannot be sure we will have this grace. Paul does not differ -- he insists God will provide, or offer it. We could reject it, and then we would not have it. Trent in the same DS 1541 teaches that "God, unless we fail His grace, just as He began a good work in us, so He will complete it." We notice the Council is really quoting Philippians 1:6. Paul in his turn, in 1:10, urges them to avoid stumbling -- again, it is one thing for God to offer the grace of perseverance -- another for us to have it, for we can reject it, and so stumble. Trent, historically, was speaking against the foolish notion of infallible salvation of the Lutherans who held if we take Christ as our personal Savior, we are infallibly saved after that. The article in the standard reference work, Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament on save does not even mention such a sense as that "infallible salvation."

Summary of Philippians 1:12-30

Paul wants them to know that his situation -- being in prison -- has turned out well for the Gospel. For some Christians, encouraged by Paul's courage, speak more boldly. Still others, hating Paul, preach Christ just to stir up the Romans to kill Paul. Even this, says Paul, has a good effect: as long as Christ is still preached, one way or the other.

As far as he is concerned personally, if he is allowed to live, that is a chance to live for, to preach Christ. If he dies, he can be with Christ. But to stay in the flesh is more needed for souls, thinks Paul. He really cannot make up his mind which to prefer.

He says he has confidence (probably be is speaking in the spirit of a coach in the locker room before a difficult game) that he will live and come back to them. Meanwhile he urges them to live their lives worthy of the Gospel. They should not be frightened. The opposition is a sign that the opponents will be destroyed, by the just God, and that those faithful to Christ will be rewarded.

Comments on 1:12-30

We notice the broad attitude of Paul. He does not say he hopes those who preach Christ out of hatred will be stopped. No, the important thing is that Christ be preached.

As for himself personally, Paul shows a magnificent attitude. He does not pay any attention to his own feelings -- just to what is good for souls. So he cannot make up his mind whether to hope for death, to be with Christ, or life, to serve Christ by helping souls!

In saying he would like to be dissolved and be with Christ, Paul is showing he believes he could be with Christ between death and resurrection. He has similar thoughts in 2 Corinthians 5. These have occasioned many unfortunate debates. For clarity and convenience, we will comment on both passages here, for the thought is similar.

The majority opinion holds that: 1) the Jews up to perhaps the 2nd century B.C. had no idea of survival after death at all, 2) neither, then, of course, would they have any idea of retribution, reward and punishment, after death. The minority opinion is the opposite on both points.

At the bottom of the majority view is the notion that the ancient Hebrews had only a unitary concept of the human being -- instead of knowing we have body and soul, two parts, so that the soul can be with God even without the body. This view insists there is only one part, a body, which gets breath. The Old Testament word nefesh -- sometimes translated as soul -- has a broad span of meanings, including breath. So a man would be only a body with breath. Really, the unitary notion has to imagine annihilation after death, for the only part, the body, goes to pieces.

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary in §77:174 strains so far as to say that the thought of survival did not take deep root in Jewish thought even after the text of Wisdom 3:1: "The souls of the just are in the hand of God." It says the Essenes may have believed in immortality and, "certain New Testament passages may [italics in original] refer to immortality." The writer ignores the explicit testimony of Josephus on the Pharisees, in Antiquities 18.1.3.14, plus all the texts of Paul. The Commentary also forgets the words of Jesus to the Sadducees in Matthew 22:23-33 in which He proved survival, and also, in Luke 16:23-31 Jesus tells the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Both are surviving death, one in punishment, one in reward. Again, in Matthew 10:28 Jesus warns: "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." Clearly, Jesus speaks of two parts of man.

To avoid a two part picture of man, some of these writers think we already in this life, if we are with Christ, are taking on our resurrection body (they claim to see this in 2 Corinthians 5, where Paul says, in a very human way, that he would like to have the glorified body put on on top of the present body, so as never to be without a body). But Paul himself rejects any such notion. In Philippians 3:12 and in 2 Timothy 2:17-18 he rejects a notion then around that the resurrection had already taken place. (Of course it is now fashionable for many to say that Paul did not write 2 Timothy. The reasons given are poor, as we shall see later).

There are some extreme opinions that are somewhat similar -- which yet seem to hold for a survival of some sort: Pierre Benoit, in "Resurrection: At the End of Time or Immediately after Death?"² wrote on p. 112 that Paul is not thinking of an immortal soul. For him, as throughout the Bible, the soul is as mortal as the body. "Actually it dies through sin." But God can re-create the life it once had lost.

This leads to some confused and confusing statements. On p. 107 Benoit says that in 2 Corinthians Paul, after heavy trials, takes heart from the belief that even without this body and in a state of nakedness he will already be with Christ. He thinks the idea in Philippians is similar, but says that Paul does not say clearly how he understands this life with Christ outside the body. Benoit adds that Paul later will say that the Christian has already risen. He is thinking of Ephesians 2:4: "Even though we were dead because of our transgressions, He made us alive again together with Christ . . . and He raised us up again together [with Christ] and made [us] to sit together [with Christ] in heavenly places." Also Colossians 3:1-4: "If then you have been raised up with Christ, seek the things that are above. . . . For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."

Benoit seems to be at least close to the ideas of W. D. Davies³ who writes on p. 372 that Paul the Pharisee would think that after death he would be in the Age to Come only in its first phase. He would have no body until the resurrection, although participating in blessedness. But Paul the Christian would believe that the Age to Come eternally existent in the Heavens had already appeared in its first stages in the Resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection body, the body of the final Age to Come was already being formed, since Paul had died and risen with Christ and was already being transformed. So at his death Paul would already have another body. So Davies thinks that there is no room in Paul's theology for an intermediate state of the dead. So great was the unity of Christians with Christ that just as Christ Himself had already passed into the eternal order, so had Christians too. Davies then appeals to Colossians 3:1-4 which says the Christians had already risen with Christ and although still living in the flesh, yet they are 'dead' and their 'life hid with Christ in God.'

Benoit and others sadly misunderstood Paul. Already in Romans 6:3-8⁴ Paul gives his favorite theme of syn Christo, with Christ: that is, we are saved and made holy if and to the extent that we are members of Christ and like Him. In His life, two phases -- first, a hard life, suffering and death -- secondly, glory. The more we are like Him in phase one, the more in phase two. In the texts we quoted from Ephesians and Colossians Paul speaks of us as having died -- he does not mean that we physically died -- so neither does he mean we have physically risen. He means we have died to, given up, the old way of life dominated by the flesh, and now live the life of the spirit, and should live our lives with the outlook of one who has emerged from the grave on the last day -- how different everything will look to us then!

The Minority View: Holds that at least very early the Jews not only knew of survival, but also of retribution in the future life. The chief reasons are the following:

1) Flavius Josephus, noted Jewish writer (37 -- c.100 A.D.), in Jewish War 2.8.14 tells about the Pharisees in his day, that they held "every soul . . . is imperishable, but the soul of the good alone passes into another body, while the souls of the wicked suffer eternal punishment." He says of the Sadducees: "As to the persistence of the soul after death, penalties in the underworld, and rewards, they will have none of them." But, Paul was a zealous Pharisee.⁵ So he would hold this view which Josephus attributes to the Pharisees. Most of the people followed the Pharisees.

2) It is generally agreed that by the second century B.C. Jews came into contact with Greek ideas, which clearly held for the two parts of man. It is true, the Greek ideas, such as those of Plato and Aristotle do not entirely match our two part concept. Yet they were enough to help suggest the truth to the Jews, especially along with the case of the Maccabean martyrs, in the time of the persecution by Antiochus IV (for example, 2 Maccabees 6-7) which showed that if there were no reward and punishment in the future life, God would not be just. This experience would have forced a rethinking by the Jews -- if indeed they ever did hold the unitary concept. Hence Judas Maccabeus in 2 Maccabees 12:43-46 has a collection taken to have sacrifices offered for the souls of the dead in battle.

The belief in survival and retribution is definitely reflected in Wisdom 3:1 and following: "The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them . . . they are in peace."

3) Mitchell Dahood, in the introductions to each volume of his three volume translation of the Psalms in the Anchor Bible, gives evidence from new translations, worked out with the help of Ugaritic parallel words, to show a very early understanding of the afterlife.⁶ It is generally admitted that Psalm 73:24 can imply afterlife and even retribution: "You will guide me with your counsel, and afterwards, take me in glory." Interestingly, the Hebrew for take is laqah, the very same verb used in Genesis 5:24: "Enoch walked with God and he was no longer here, for God took him." A somewhat similar thought seems to be found in Psalm 16:10-11. Also, Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, in the article on immortality says: "The idea of a possible return to life gained wider and wider acceptance. The Israelites could not remain unaffected by the Canaanite belief in the death and resurrection of a divinity who symbolized the life of nature."⁷ For the Jews were living in the midst of the Canaanites after the Exodus. Also, the Jews spent some centuries in Egypt, where the idea of a future life was very vivid. E. P. Sanders, in his introduction to his translation of the Testament of Abraham⁸: "The idea that the soul separates from the body at the time of death, and that it is the soul that goes either to salvation or punishment is relatively widespread."⁹

There is also the debated text in Job 19:25-27 in which Job says he is certain that his goel, his vindicator, lives and that at last he will stand forth upon the dust and from his flesh will see God. This cannot mean in the present life, for in 7:6-7 he says he has no hope for this life. It could mean merely a resurrection, without implying survival before the resurrection but in 14:22 Job says that the flesh of the dead one is in pain -- implying survival.

In addition, Qoheleth 12:14 could easily imply future retribution.

4) As to the unitary concept, it is important to hold to precise theological method. In theology one may meet two facts, both well established. Yet they seem to clash with each other. We recheck our work,but if it is correct, then we hold onto both, without straining, until the time when the means of reconciliation appears. So in this matter there are two facts (1) man is, and appears to be a unity; (2) yet there is survival and retribution. Item #1 was evident at once; item #2 seems to have been at least implicit very early if not from the start -- see the evidence above, especially the argument given by Jesus Himself from "I am the God of Abraham. . . ." So the inspired writers, guided by inspiration, expressed both points, and sometime later -- at least by the 2nd century B.C., learned how to fit the two together. We may well suspect that the Hebrews were groping, that they did not have a clear idea of two parts, yet they did not mean annihilation. Jesus in refuting the Sadducees cited the words of God to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:6): "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." And Jesus added: "He is not the God of the dead but of the living." So from these Old Testament words the Hebrews at least could have learned -- if they did not know it before -- of survival.

For certain, very early, the Jews believed in necromancy, consulting the dead. That of course implied that the dead had not been annihilated. Even if we say mediums were frauds, yet the fact that the Jews consulted them shows their belief in survival. Necromancy was forbidden (cf. Lev 19:31; 20:6,27; Deut 18:11; 1 Sam 28:9-19) Saul consults a medium, who does bring up for him Samuel from the realm of the dead. It may be objected that some texts say the dead know nothing about what goes on on the earth: Qoheleth 9:5-6,10; Job 14:21. But the case of Samuel was special, he had been a great prophet, and surely God could on occasion as He wills give such knowledge to one who has left this life. (A soul in heaven knows all that pertains to it by the vision of God; those not yet in heaven have no natural means of knowing what goes on on earth). In Babylon and Greece there was also necromancy.