Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Philippians 1:1-11, A letter between friends, and a partnership in the gospel
Paul and Timothy greet the believers at Philippi with their overseers and deacons, thank God for their partnership in the gospel from the first day, and pray that their love will grow until the day of Christ.
Philippians 1:1-11, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul and Timothy write to the believers at Philippi and their leaders. Paul thanks God for the way this church has worked with him in spreading the gospel since the day they first believed, and he is sure God will finish what he started in them. He prays that their love will keep growing in wisdom, so that they can tell what matters most and be ready for the day Christ returns.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/letters-and-letter-carriers\/","n":"Letters, scribes and carriers","s":"Letters were usually dictated to scribes, carried by trusted travelers because there was no public post, and read aloud to the people they were sent to.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/patrons-and-benefactors\/","n":"Patrons, clients and benefactors","s":"Favors in the Roman world came with strings. A patron gave help and protection, the client paid it back in loyalty and public honor, and rulers who gave gifts to the public were hailed as benefactors.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/day-of-the-lord\/","n":"The day of the Lord","s":"The prophets spoke of a coming day when God would judge the world and rescue his people. Paul calls it the day of Christ, giving Jesus the place the prophets gave to God.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/roman-custody\/","n":"Prison, chains and Roman custody","s":"Roman prisons held people until trial or execution; they were not a punishment in themselves. How a prisoner was kept, in the stocks of an inner cell or lightly chained to one soldier, depended on his rank.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/friendship\/","n":"Friendship, and the friend of Caesar","s":"The ancient world prized friendship: loyalty to the death, goods held in common, secrets shared. The same word covered a patron and his dependents, and friend of Caesar was a title a governor could not afford to lose.","r":""}
No serious doubt is raised that Paul wrote the letter, but where he was held is disputed, and the answer moves the date between the mid fifties and the early sixties (Carson, Moo and Morris). Rome is the traditional view (the cultural backgrounds notes; the ESV and CSB Study Bibles). Wright, and Wright and Bird, prefer Ephesus, nearer for the journeys the letter implies, and Carson, Moo and Morris cite "inscriptions showing that a section of the praetorian guard was stationed at Ephesus". They set Caesarea aside, lean slightly to Ephesus, and call the place "an insoluble problem". Partnership, koinonia, was the normal word for a business partnership and here takes in the gift of 4:10-20 (Wright; Keener and his notes). Prisoners were not normally fed by their captors and had to rely on friends (Wright). Most people were "ashamed to be associated with anyone chained or in custody" of Rome, all the more in proud Roman Philippi (the cultural backgrounds notes). Overseers and deacons appear together again in 1 Timothy 3; the ESV Study Bible calls the level of church order uncertain (Keener and his notes).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to 1:3-11, and on Philippians 1:1, 1:5 and 1:7
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, Introduction to Philippians, Place of Writing, and notes on Philippians 1:1, 1:3, 1:5 and 1:7
- ESV Study Bible, Introduction to Philippians, Date, and study note on Philippians 1:1-2
- CSB Study Bible, Introduction to Philippians, Background, and note on Philippians 1:5
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 19, Philippians, Contextual and Critical Matters
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters, comment on Philippians 1:1-11
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 12, Philippians, Author, Provenance, Date, and Philippians in Recent Study, The Location of Paul's Imprisonment
