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 3:12-4:1, The race, citizens of heaven, and a Savior from there
Paul pictures himself as a runner straining toward the prize, warns against those whose god is their stomach, and reminds a Roman colony that its citizenship is in heaven, from where it awaits a Savior who will transform its lowly bodies.
Philippians 3:12-4:1, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul pictures himself as a runner who has not finished the race but keeps pushing toward the prize God calls him to. He asks the church to follow his example and warns against people whose lives deny the cross, ruled by appetite and focused on earthly things. To believers in a Roman colony he says their true citizenship is in heaven, and from there they await a Savior who will change their weak bodies to be like his glorious one.
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- {"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\/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":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/imperial-cult\/","n":"Caesar worshiped as savior and lord","s":"Augustus and the emperors after him were hailed as savior, lord and son of a god, and in the eastern provinces they were worshiped. The titles the Gospels give Jesus were already being used for Caesar.","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":""}
Greek runners ran a straight course, and heralds called the winner up for his prize (Keener and his notes). Sages admitted they were not yet perfect; Keener sets this above the mystery cults' use of perfection, while Carson, Moo and Morris and the Zondervan dictionary think Paul may be answering people who claimed perfection. Who the enemies of the cross were is read differently: the teachers of 3:2, with belly meaning food laws (the CSB Study Bible; some in Carson, Moo and Morris); people ruled by their passions (Keener and his notes; the Zondervan dictionary); or mainly pagans driven by appetite (Wright). Philippi's citizens were citizens of Rome, "citizens of a place they had never yet visited" (the cultural backgrounds notes), though not every resident was one (Keener and his notes). Wright notes that colonists were not meant to return to Rome, and in trouble hoped the emperor, called savior, would come to rescue them; Caesar's cult was the colony's latest Roman custom. Gods, rulers and the emperor were all called savior (Keener; the Zondervan dictionary), but the title for Jesus comes from Isaiah's language for God (Isaiah 43:11). A crown usually meant a victor's wreath (Keener and his notes).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Philippians 3:12-13, 3:14, 3:15, 3:17, 3:19, 3:20, 3:21 and 4:1
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Philippians 3:14, 3:20 and 4:1
- CSB Study Bible, note on Philippians 3:17-21
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters, comment on Philippians 3:17-4:1
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 12, Philippians, Paul's Opponents
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entries Philippians, Letter to the, and savior
