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 4:10-23, A thank-you without a thank you, and Caesar's household
Paul acknowledges the Philippians' gift in the language of contentment and of business receipts and sacrifice, without a direct thank you, and closes with greetings from the saints of Caesar's household.
Philippians 4:10-23, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul thanks the Philippians for their gift without ever quite saying thank you. He explains that he has learned to be content whether he has plenty or little, because Christ gives him strength, yet he values their generosity, which has marked them out from the start. He describes the gift in the language of accounts and of sacrifice, promises that God will meet their needs, and sends greetings, including from believers in Caesar's household.
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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\/sacrifice-and-blood\/","n":"Sacrifice and the daily offering","s":"Animals were offered at the temple for sin, for thanks and for cleansing, and blood sealed covenants. Every day a lamb was offered at dawn and again in the afternoon, and Jews everywhere prayed at those hours.","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":""}
Gratitude to benefactors was an essential virtue, and Keener reports that in Macedonia "an ungrateful man was said to have been liable to prosecution there"; yet a plain thank you could have cast Paul as a dependent client (Keener and his notes). Wright and Bird call the relationship a reciprocal partnership, and Wright adds that Paul had to avoid looking like the wandering teachers seen as "crooks and cheats". Carson, Moo and Morris think he had probably thanked them before. I have received full payment was "common language in ancient receipts" (the cultural backgrounds notes; Keener). Philippi alone kept supporting Paul after he left, at Thessalonica and at Corinth (Wright). Caesar's household meant the emperor's slaves and freedmen, his civil service across the empire (the Zondervan dictionary), and carried great prestige (Keener). Keener and his notes think the guard is meant; the ESV Study Bible says soldiers, slaves or freedmen, and the CSB Study Bible civil servants. The Zondervan dictionary calls Rome the natural inference, while Wright and Bird and Carson, Moo and Morris point to the emperor's staff at Ephesus; Carson, Moo and Morris add that the Philippians' lack of opportunity (4:10) sits oddly with Rome.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introductions to Philippians 4:10-20 and 4:21-23, and on Philippians 4:10, 4:11-13, 4:18 and 4:22-23
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Philippians 4:10-20, 4:11-13, 4:18 and 4:22
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Philippians 4:21-22
- CSB Study Bible, note on Philippians 4:21-22
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 19, Philippians, Introduction and Contextual and Critical Matters
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters, comment on Philippians 4:10-13 and 4:14-23
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 12, Philippians, Provenance and Occasion
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Caesar's household
