A narrow stone street in a first-century town at dusk, robed figures walking past market stalls toward a glowing wheel of light at the end of the street.

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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 1:12-26, Chains known to the whole palace guard

Paul tells how his imprisonment has carried the gospel through the palace guard and made other preachers bolder, some from rivalry, then weighs living against dying and expects to stay on for their sake.

Paul's lettersPhilippians

Philippians 1:12-26

Philippians 1:12-26, in every translation this tool compares.

What is going on here

Paul reassures his friends that his imprisonment has helped the gospel, since the guards now know why he is held and other believers have grown bolder. Some preach out of rivalry, but he is glad Christ is preached either way. He weighs living against dying: death would take him to Christ, but staying alive means more fruitful work for them, and he expects to stay.

The ancient world behind it

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{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/honor-and-shame\/","n":"Honor before a crowd","s":"Public standing was the currency of the ancient Mediterranean. People competed for honor and dreaded being shamed in front of others.","r":""}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/sages-and-philosophers\/","n":"Philosophers and their schools","s":"Stoics, Epicureans and other schools taught a whole way of life in lecture halls and marketplaces. A traveling teacher with a message about God would be heard, and judged, as one more philosopher.","r":""}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/resurrection-of-the-dead\/","n":"The resurrection of the dead","s":"Most Jews, with the Pharisees, expected God to raise the dead to bodily life at the end of the age. The Sadducees denied it. Nobody expected one man to rise ahead of everyone else.","r":""}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/roman-citizenship\/","n":"Roman citizenship","s":"In the eastern provinces few people outside the colonies were citizens of Rome. A citizen could not be beaten or chained without trial, could appeal to Caesar, and outranked almost everyone around him.","r":""}

Also in this passage

Stoics held that imprisonment and death did not matter, only one's attitude, and Paul partly agrees, for his own reasons (Keener and his notes). What the palace guard was depends on where Paul was: the Praetorian Guard, the emperor's elite troops counted as part of his household (Keener and his notes; the CSB Study Bible; the Zondervan dictionary, which notes their triple pay); a governor's residence, as at Caesarea (Acts 23:35); or, for Wright, the guard found at "every major centre of Roman influence", Ephesus included. Wright adds that the soldiers knew the gospel of Caesar, news of a new emperor bringing peace. Who the rival preachers were is read differently: believers at odds with Paul (the ESV and CSB Study Bibles; Carson, Moo and Morris, since they preach Christ), or, Wright suggests, "ordinary pagans" gossiping about the prisoner. Deliverance follows the Greek of Job 13:16 and here means release (Keener and his notes), though the ESV Study Bible leaves room for final salvation. Keener thinks Paul was released in AD 62, when Nero freed the Jewish hostages Felix had sent to Rome.

Related passages

Philippians 4:10-23, A thank-you without a thank you, and Caesar's household Ephesians 3:1-13, The prisoner, the steward and the mystery shown to the powers Acts 28:17-31, Two years in rented quarters Acts 28:11-16, The Twin Brothers and the road to Rome

Sources

Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to Philippians 1:12-26, and on Philippians 1:12, 1:13, 1:19, 1:20-23 and 1:24-26
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Philippians 1:13
ESV Study Bible, study notes on Philippians 1:13, 1:15-18 and 1:19
CSB Study Bible, notes on Philippians 1:13 and 1:14-17
N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters, comment on Philippians 1:12-18a and 1:18b-26
J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entries praetorian and praetorium
D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 12, Philippians, Paul's Opponents

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