The Letter to the Philippians

The city. Philippi lay in the Roman province of Macedonia, in what is now northeastern Greece. It stood on the Via Egnatia, the great road from the Adriatic to Byzantium, amid rich farmland and near the gold of Mount Pangaeus. Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, took the older town of Krenides soon after 360 BC and gave it his own name. On the plains nearby, in October 42 BC, Antony and Octavian defeated Brutus and Cassius, the killers of Julius Caesar. Octavian, later the Emperor Augustus, made Philippi a Roman colony and settled army veterans there.

Proud to be Roman. So this was a little Rome in Greece. The crowd in Acts speak as "Romans" (Acts 16:21). This helps us hear Paul when he says, "our citizenship is in heaven" (3:20), and when he tells them, in a phrase that in Greek carries the idea of living as citizens, to live "in a manner worthy of the gospel" (1:27).

How the church began. Acts 16:9 to 40 tells the story. About the year 49 or 50, on his second journey, Paul sees a man of Macedonia in a vision, asking for help. He lands at the harbour of Neapolis, today's Kavala, with Silas and Timothy. There seems to have been only a small group of Jews, and on the sabbath Paul finds women at a place of prayer by the river. Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, opens her heart and her home. Paul drives out of a slave girl a spirit that told fortunes; her owners drag him and Silas to the magistrates; they are beaten and jailed. At midnight they sing, an earthquake shakes the prison, and the jailer and his household are baptised. Asked by the magistrates to go, Paul moves on to Thessalonica. None of these people is named in the letter.

Old friends. The Philippians alone shared with him in giving and receiving at the start of his work (4:15), and they sent help more than once to Thessalonica (4:16). Now they have sent Epaphroditus with a gift. He fell gravely ill while with Paul and nearly died (2:25 to 30; 4:18). Paul sends him home with this letter, so it seems, and promises to send Timothy (2:19 to 24).

Problems in the community. Two women who had worked at Paul's side, Euodia and Syntyche, are at odds, and he begs them to agree (4:2 to 3). Others are moved by rivalry and conceit (2:3). They face opponents from outside (1:28). And Paul warns sharply against teachers who would require circumcision of Gentile believers (3:2 to 3).

A word about chapter 3. Paul uses rough language there, even "dogs" (3:2). He is writing about particular Christian teachers in his own day who would bind Gentile believers to circumcision, and not about the Jewish people. He names his own descent with pride in the same breath: "a Hebrew born of Hebrews" (3:5). On Israel, Paul's fuller word is Romans 9 to 11, and the Church teaches that God's gifts and call to the Jewish people are irrevocable (Nostra Aetate 4; Catechism 839).

The Church's tradition. The letter names Paul and Timothy (1:1), though the "I" throughout is Paul's own. St Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna in the first half of the second century, writing to this same church, says of Paul: "when absent from you, he wrote you a letter" (To the Philippians 3, Roberts and Donaldson translation). Paul's authorship is not seriously disputed.

Where and when. This is the open question. The tradition says Rome, where Paul was under guard (Acts 28:14 to 31), and the "imperial guard" (1:13) and "the emperor's household" (4:22) fit it. Others suggest Caesarea, about 57 or 58 (Acts 23 to 26), or Corinth. Much recent scholarship prefers Ephesus, about 55, because the letter implies several journeys between Paul and Philippi and Ephesus is much closer, and because Paul speaks of a deadly affliction in Asia (2 Cor 1:8). Those imperial words could also be used of a provincial capital. The New American Bible's introduction lays out all these views; none has been proved.

One letter or several? The tone changes abruptly at 3:2, after what sounds like an ending at 3:1. So some scholars think an editor joined two or three notes by Paul: a thank-you (4:10 to 20), a report from prison (1:3 to 3:1), and a warning (3:2 to 21). Others hold that it was always one letter and that Paul may have received bad news while writing. Either way the Church receives the letter as it stands. Such questions do not touch its inspiration: God chose human authors who "made use of their powers and abilities" and wrote as true authors (Dei Verbum 11).

• Joy that does not depend on circumstances. It has been called "the letter of joy", and rejoicing runs through it (1:4, 18, 25; 2:2, 17 to 18; 3:1; 4:1, 4, 10). The writer is a prisoner. His joy rests on Christ, who is near (4:4 to 5), and not on how things are going.
• The mind of Christ. The hymn is given as a pattern of life for quarrelling Christians (2:1 to 5). To be a Christian is to conform one's thoughts, words and actions to the mind of Christ (Catechism 1694).
• Humility and unity. Do nothing from selfish ambition; regard others as better than yourselves; look to the interests of others (2:3 to 4). The Catechism uses the same words of the prayer of intercession (2635).
• Knowing Christ above everything. All Paul's former gains he now counts as loss (3:7 to 8). The Catechism applies these lines to everyone called to teach Christ (428), and takes up "the surpassing value of knowing Christ" in urging us to read Scripture (133).
• Faith, grace and our own effort. Paul wants "the righteousness from God based on faith" and not one of his own from the law (3:9). The same Paul says "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you" (2:12 to 13). The two belong together, as the Church teaches: no one can earn the first grace of forgiveness and justification (Catechism 2010), and God's grace moves us while we really do cooperate (Catechism 1993, 2008). See also Catechism 308 on Phil 2:13: God works in and through us, and this raises our dignity. Benedict XVI, on 19 November 2008, reads Philippians 3 as Paul's discovery that what seemed a gain before God was a loss, because all his life now rested on Christ.
• Suffering as a gift. "He has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well" (1:29). Paul longs "to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings" (3:10).
• Death and what lies beyond. Paul wants to depart and be with Christ, yet he is willing to stay for their sake (1:21 to 26). The Catechism quotes this on the Christian meaning of death (1010, 1011). The Lord will change our humble bodies to be like his glorious body (3:20 to 21).
• Prayer and peace. Do not worry; bring everything to God with thanksgiving, and his peace will stand guard over you (4:6 to 7; compare Catechism 2633). Paul's own life shows the fruit: he has learned to be content with little or with plenty (4:11 to 13).
• Whatever is good. Whatever is true, honourable, just and pure: "think about these things" (4:8). The Catechism opens its teaching on the virtues with this verse (1803).
• Ministers in the community. The greeting mentions "bishops and deacons" (1:1). The Greek episkopos means an overseer. In New Testament times this office had not yet reached the form it later took; Philippi had more than one, and their exact work is uncertain. The office of bishop as the Church knows it grew from these beginnings under the Holy Spirit, and the bishops are by divine institution the successors of the Apostles (Lumen Gentium 20; Catechism 862). The verse is an early sign that communities had recognised leaders.

The heart of the letter is 2:6 to 11. Benedict XVI calls it one of the most elevated texts in the whole New Testament, and notes that most exegetes think the hymn is older than the letter (General Audience, 22 October 2008). If so, Christians were already singing this about Jesus within a few decades of the cross. Benedict XVI reads it in three movements:

• In the form of God. He existed with God before he took our flesh, and he did not cling to equality with God as a thing to be used for himself (2:6). The Catechism cites the verse when it says that honour due to God the Father is due also to Jesus (449).
• Emptied, to the cross. He took the form of a slave, was born in human likeness, and became obedient to death on a cross, the death of a slave (2:7 to 8). He did not stop being God. Catechism 461 quotes this hymn as the Church's song of the Incarnation. His true human knowledge belongs to this voluntary emptying (472), and his obedience unto death is taught at 612 and 908.
• Exalted and named. God gave him "the name that is above every name" (2:9), so that every knee should bend and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (2:10 to 11; Catechism 2812). Paul takes this language from Isaiah 45:23, where it is said of the Lord God himself.

Elsewhere Jesus is the one who holds Paul fast: "Christ Jesus has made me his own" (3:12). He is the Saviour awaited from heaven (3:20). He is near (4:5). And he is so much Paul's life that Paul can say "living is Christ" (1:21).

The Catechism. The hymn and the Incarnation, 461; the title Lord, 449; his emptying and obedience, 472, 602, 612, 908; God at work in us, 308; the mind of Christ, 1694; knowing Christ, 133, 428; Christian death, 1010 to 1011; virtue, 1803; intercession, 2635 and petition, 2633; the name above all names, 2812. On justification and grace, see 1987 to 2029.

The Fathers, in substance. St Polycarp urges the Philippians to study Paul's letter, for it will build them up in the faith given them. St John Chrysostom, in his seventh homily on Philippians, argues that Christ could set aside his glory without fear precisely because his equality with God was his by nature and not something seized. "Form of a slave" means a true human nature, he says, against those who thought his manhood only an appearance, and "form of God" means true divinity, against those who called him a mere man or a creature.

Benedict XVI. In his catecheses on St Paul he treats the hymn on 22 October 2008, Philippians 3:10 to 11 on 5 November 2008, Paul's choice between death and service (1:21 to 26) on 12 November 2008, and Philippians 3 on 19 November 2008.

In the liturgy.

• Latin. The hymn (2:6 to 11) is the second reading of Palm Sunday every year, and of the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and is sung as a canticle at Sunday Evening Prayer. In Year C: Second Sunday of Advent, Third Sunday of Advent (4:4 to 7, the rejoicing that gives Gaudete Sunday its name), and two Sundays of Lent. In Year A: the Twenty-fifth to Twenty-eighth Sundays in Ordinary Time. In Year II: weekdays of the Thirtieth and Thirty-first Weeks.
• Syro-Malabar. In the calendars of readings we examined, at the Holy Qurbana on the Holy Name of Jesus, 1 January, with Phil 2:5 to 11, and on some weekdays, for example Phil 1:27 to 30 in Denha.
• Syro-Malankara. In the calendars we examined, Phil 2:1 to 11 on the first day of the Fast of the Ninevites and on the Fourth Sunday after the Transfiguration; Phil 4:4 to 9 on 21 November, the Entry of Mary, Mother of God, into the Temple; Phil 4:8 to 20 on the First Sunday after the Transfiguration; Phil 3:8 to 11 and 3:12 to 14 in the Great Fast.

It takes about a quarter of an hour. Read it once at a sitting, as they first heard it, then go slowly over a week:

• Day 1: 1:1 to 11. Who has been your partner in the gospel? Thank God for them by name.
• Day 2: 1:12 to 30. Notice how a prisoner talks about his chains.
• Day 3: 2:1 to 11. Learn the hymn by heart, or at least 2:5.
• Day 4: 2:12 to 3:1. Note the people: Timothy and Epaphroditus.
• Day 5: 3:2 to 16. What do you still count as your gain?
• Day 6: 3:17 to 4:9. Bring one worry to God, with thanksgiving.
• Day 7: 4:10 to 23. Thank someone who has helped you.