Jeannine K. Brown - Philippians: An Introduction and Commentary

To my students, both past and present

InterVarsity Press, USA

P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515, USA

ivpress.com

Inter-Varsity Press, England

36 Causton Street, London SW1P 4ST, England

ivpbooks.com

2022 by Jeannine K. Brown

Jeannine K. Brown has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to beidentified as Author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or the Copyright Licensing Agency.

InterVarsity Press , USA, is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. Website: intervarsity.org .

Inter-Varsity Press, England, originated within the Inter-Varsity Fellowship, now the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship, a student movement connecting Christian Unions in universities and colleges throughout Great Britain, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. That historic association is maintained, and all senior IVP staff and committee members subscribe to the UCCF Basis of Faith. Website: www.uccf.org.uk .

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version (Anglicized edition). Copyright 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. NIV is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.

First published 2022

USA ISBN 978-1-5140-0505-7 (digital)

USA ISBN 978-1-5140-0504-0 (print)

UK ISBN 978-1-78974-267-1 (digital)

UK ISBN 978-1-78974-266-4 (print)

The Tyndale Commentaries have been a flagship series for evangelical readers of the Bible for over sixty years. Both the original New Testament volumes (19561974) as well as the new commentaries (19832003) rightly established themselves as a point of first reference for those who wanted more than is usually offered in a one-volume Bible commentary, without requiring the technical skills in Greek and in Jewish and Graeco-Roman studies of the more detailed series, with the advantage of being shorter than the volumes of intermediate commentary series. The appearance of new popular commentary series demonstrates that there is a continuing demand for commentaries that appeal to Bible study leaders in churches and at universities. The publisher, editors and authors of the Tyndale Commentaries believe that the series continues to meet an important need in the Christian community, not the least in what we call today the Global South with its immense growth of churches and the corresponding need for a thorough understanding of the Bible by Christian believers.

In the light of new knowledge, new critical questions, new revisions of Bible translations and the need to provide specific guidance on the literary context and the genre of the individual passages as well as on theological emphases, it was time to publish new commentaries in the series. Three authors have revised their commentaries that appeared in the second series. The original aim remains. The new commentaries are neither too short nor unduly long. They are exegetical and thus root the interpretation of the text in its historical context. They do not aim to solve all critical questions, but they are written with an awareness of major scholarly debates which may be treated in the Introduction, in Additional Notes or in the commentary itself. While not specifically homiletic in aim, they want to help readers to understand the passage under consideration in such a way that they begin to see points of relevance and application, even though the commentary does not explicitly offer these. The authors base their exegesis on the Greek text, but they write for readers who do not know Greek; Hebrew and Greek terms that are discussed are transliterated. The English translation used for the first series was the Authorized (King James) Version, the volumes of the second series mostly used the Revised Standard Version; the volumes of the third series use either the New International Version (2011) or the New Revised Standard Version as primary versions, unless otherwise indicated by the author.

An immense debt of gratitude for the first and second series of the Tyndale Commentaries was owed to R. V. G. Tasker and L. Morris, who each wrote four of the commentaries themselves. The recruitment of new authors for the third series proved to be effortless, as colleagues responded enthusiastically to the opportunity to be involved in this project, a testimony to the larger number of New Testament scholars capable and willing to write commentaries, to the wider ethnic identity of contributors, and to the role that the Tyndale Commentaries have played in the church worldwide. It continues to be the hope of all those concerned with this series that God will graciously use the new commentaries to help readers understand as fully and clearly as possible the meaning of the New Testament.

Eckhard J. Schnabel, Series Editor

Nicholas Perrin, Consulting Editor

During my college experience with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, I was given the Tyndale commentary written by Ralph Martin as I prepared to lead a small-group Bible study on Philippians. This was the very first commentary I owned, and I fell in love with Pauls letter to the Philippians during that year of Bible study. I am grateful for the opportunity in Gods providence to write this second edition on Philippians in the Tyndale series.

I want to thank a group of students who read the drafts of the commentary in a course on Philippians in spring 2021. Their joy in studying the text and willingness to engage with my ideas as they were fresh off the page spurred me on and sharpened my work. I am also grateful to my teaching assistants, Jenelle Lemons and Narah Larson, for their careful editing and thoughtful input. My editor, Eckhard Schnabel, provided invaluable feedback; and the team at Inter-Varsity Press was wonderful to work with from beginning to end.

Pauls letter to the Philippians continues to speak to the global church today. It offers guidance to contemporary churches seeking, in their specific cultural and societal contexts, to live out their distinctive identity in the Messiah and to pattern their lives together on the example of Jesus. Additionally, I would suggest that Pauls way of addressing this beloved congregation is a model of Christian leadership for those called to shepherd Gods people today. It is with this pastoral vision in mind that I dedicate this book to my students at Bethel Seminary both past and present. May your relationship with those you lead be the kind that Paul celebrates in this letter: my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends! (Phil. 4:1).

Jeannine Brown