Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/33

 PHILIPPIANS

PHILIPPIANS

supreme independence nevertheless, for our good, anni- hilated himself and assumed the condition of a slave, even undergoing death ; (ii ) by the desire for a heavenly reward, such as Clirist received (ii, 5-1 1 ). He concludes by repeating his general exhortation to Christian per- fection and by affirming that to procure them this per- fection he would gladly sacrifice his life.

(3) The Apostle tells the Philippians that as soon as he knows the outcome of his affairs he will send to them Timothy, his devoted companion, who is so well- disposed towards the Phihppians (ii, 19-24); in the meantime he sends them Epaphroditus, his fellow- labourer and their delegate to him (see above); he asks them to receive him with joy and to honour him greatly, because of the love which he bears them and the danger of death to which he was exposed while ful- filling his mission (25-30).

(4) Desiring to end or abbreviate his Epistle Paul begins the conclusion (iii, la, the TA Xoiirif), but sud- denly interrupts it in order again to put the Philip- pians on their guard against the Judaizing teachers, which he does by once more presenting to them his own example: Has he not all the benefits and titles in which the Judaizers are accustomed to glory and much more? But all this he has despised and rejected and counted as dung that he might gain true justice and perfection, which are secured, not by the works of the law, but by faith (iii, 1-1 1 ). This perfection, it is true, he had not yet attained, but he never ceased to press towards the mark and the prize to which God had called him, thus refuting by his own example those who in their pride call themselves perfect (12-16); he incites his readers to imitate him (17) and not to fol- low those who, loving the things of this world, have depraved habits (18-iv, 1).

(5) To this general exhortation Paul adds a special admonition. He binds two women, Evodia and Syn- tyche, to concord (iv, 2-3), and exhorts all to spiritual joy, urging the observance of goodness and gentleness among them (5), bidding them be disturbed by noth- ing, but have recourse to God in all their anxieties (6-7), and endeavour to attain to Christian perfection in all things (8-9).

C. Epilogue. — Paul concludes his Epistle by a more explicit renewal of thanks to the Philippians for their alms, using the most delicate expressions and making his manner of acceptance a final exhortation to detach- ment and abnegation (11-19). This is followed by the Doxology and salutations. Especially noteworthy are his salutations to those of the household of the em- peror (20-23).

III. Authenticity, Unity, and Integrity. — The authenticity of the Epistle as a whole, which was gen- erally accepted until the middle of the nineteenth cen- tury, was first denied by the Tubingen School (Baur, 1845; Zeller; Volckmar). Their arguments, namely lack of originality, the evidence of a semi-Gnostic idea, a doctrine of justification which could not be that of St. Paul etc., were triumphantly refuted by Lilne- mann, Briickner, Schenkel etc. But other contra- dictors subsequently arose, such as van Manen and especially Holsten (for their chief arguments see below). ,\t present the authenticity may be said to be universally admitted not only by Catholic exegetes but al.so by most Protestants and Rationalists (Hilgen- feld, Harnack, Zahn, Jiiliclier, Pfleiderer, Lightfoot, Gibb, Holtzmann).

(1) Arguments from external criticism permit no doubt on the subject. We will not deal with the quo- tations from or reminiscences of the Epistle which some authors profess to find in early ecclesiastical writers, suchas Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Epistle to Diognetus etc. (.see Comely, "Introductio", IV, 491; Jacquier, p. 347; Tou.ssaint in "Diet, de la Bible", s. v. Philip- piens). About 120 St. Poly carp speaks explicitly to the Philippians of the letters (or the letter, itntrroKal)

which Paul had written to them, and some passages of his letter prove that he had read this Epistle to the Philippians. Subsequently the Muratorian Canon, St. Irena?us, Clement of Alexandria, TertuUian, and the Apostolicon of Marcion attribute it expressly to St. Paul. After TertulUan the testimonies become numerous and incontestable and the unanimity was maintained without the slightest exception until the middle of the nineteenth century.

(2) Internal Criticism. — The difficulties drawn from the Epistle itself, which some authors have urged against tradition, are misleading, as is now admitted by the most prominent Rationalists and Protestants.

(a) Language and style: the Utra^ Xfyd/uva (which occur about forty times) prove nothing against the Pauline origin of the Epistle, since they are met with in almost the same proportion in the certainly authen- tic Epistles. Moreover, certain words (about twenty) quite peculiar to the Epistles of St. Paul, certain forma of expression, figures, methods of style (i, 22, 27, 29; iii, 8, 14), and repetitions of words demonstrate the Pauline character of the Epistle.

(b) Doctrine: the two chief objections brought for- ward by Holsten (Jahrb. fur Prot. theol., I, 125; II, 58, 282) have found little credit among exegetes, while Holsten himself in a more recent work ("Das Evan- gelium des Paulus", Berlin, 1898, II, 4) concedes that the theology of the Epistle to the Philippians is thor- oughly Pauline. In fact (a) the Christology of the Epistle to the Philippians, which portrays Christ pre- existing in the form of God and made man through the Incarnation, does not contradict that of the First Epistle to the Corinthians (xv, 45), which depicts the Risen Christ as a heavenly Man, clothed with His glorified body, or that of the other Epistles which, in a simpler form, also show us Christ pre-existing as a Divine Being and made man through the Incarnation (Gal., iv, 4; Rom., viii, 3; II Cor., viii, 9). (b) The doctrine on justification by faith and not by works set forth in the Epistles to the Romans and the Galatians, is not contradicted here (iii, 6); if indeed St. Paul speaks here of legal justice it is obviously to show its powerlessness and nothingness (7-9).

The unity and integrity of the Epistle have also been denied or doubted by some authors. Volter and Spitta maintained that this Epistle is a compilation of another authentic Epistle to the Philippians and an apocryphal one written about a. d. 120. Clemen saw in it a compilation of two authentic Epistles. These theories met with little success, while the arguments which have been brought forward in their behalf, viz. the double conclusion (iii, 1, and iv, 4) mingled with personal details, moral counsels, doctrinal instructions etc., are sufficiently explained by the familiar and consequently free and unrestrained character of the EpLstle.

Place and Date. — There is not the shadow of a doubt that the Epistle to the Philippians was written during the Apostle's captivity (i, 7, 13, 14, 17; ii, 24). More- over, it is certain that it was written not atCaesarea, as some have maintained, but at Rome ( A . D . 62-64 ). Such is the nearly unanimous opinion even of those who claim that the three other Epistles of the Captivity were written at Caesarea [see i, 13 (the prietorium); iv, 22 (the house of Caesar) ; i, 17 sqq. (this supposes a more important Church than that of Caesarea)]. Critics do not agree as to whether the Epistle was written at the beginning of the sojourn at Rome or at the end, before or after the other three Epistles of the captivity. Most of them incline towards the second view (Meyer, \Vei.ss, Holtzmann, Zahn, Jiilicher etc.). For the arguments pro and con see the works of the various critics. The present author, however, is of the opinion that it was written towards the end of the captivity.

The following are genera! works and commentaries, in which the reader will 6nd a more extensive bibliography, and informa- tion concerning earlier works and commentaries.

Beelen, Commentarius in Epistotam S. Pauli ad Phitippensea