Explanatory Notes: Approaching Philippians

I am increasingly pessimistic that I will be able to keep up with my goals to do explanatory notes for the two Bible classes I am teaching this semester, the second of which is Prison Epistles. The students are reading through major portions of three commentaries anyway.

But at least I won't give up today. Here is my part of their reading assignment for Friday.
_________
Approaching Philippians
Philippians begins by telling us that its authors are Paul and Timothy, although the bulk of the letter speaks in the first person singular. We should thus think of Paul as the primary voice behind the letter. Perhaps Timothy served as his secretary in writing.

The letter is addressed to all the saints who are in Philippi, including overseers and deacons. At one point he does refer to them as a singular assembly (4:15), although it is hard to know for sure whether this straightforwardly means they could all fit within one house church. If so, then we should think of a rather small community of 40-50.

Paul has some history with the church and a clear fondness for them. He apparently went to Thessalonica from Philippi, a trajectory that corresponds with Paul's course on his second missionary journey. While he was at Thessalonica, the Philippian church alone apparently sent him material support on more than one occasion.

And they apparently have sent support to Paul again as part of the background of this letter. They heard that Paul was in prison awaiting trial (e.g., 1:13) and sent Epaphroditus with support (2:25; 4:18). Prison was not a punishment in the Roman world, but a time of waiting for trial. We can infer from Philippians that at the time of writing he expected a verdict soon and then would perhaps come visit them (2:24). Meanwhile, enough time had elapsed since he was imprisoned for 1) word to travel to Philippi, 2) Epaphroditus to come to him from Philippi, 3) word to travel back to Philippi that Epaphroditus was sick, and 4) word to travel back to Paul of their reaction to Epaphroditus' sickness.

This letter seems, as much as anything, a note of thanks for their support, sent most likely to them with Epaphroditus himself (2:25). He hoped soon thereafter to send Timothy and then to come himself. He also takes the opportunity to address some tension between two of the prominent women of the church (4:2) and, indeed, the importance of unity in general (2:2).

A sidebar in 3:2-11 warns the Philippians of Jews, probably Christian Jews, who presumably might try to convince them, as Gentile converts, to become circumcised and follow the particulars of the Jewish Law that most distinguished Jew from Gentile. Paul does not indicate that such individuals are already in play at Philippi. He is simply warning them of the issues that he addressed head on in Galatians. Although some have suggested this section might have come from another of Paul's letters and have been placed here, we have no reason not to take the text as it is.

It is a matter of some debate as to where Paul was imprisoned when he wrote Philippians. The traditional view is that he is in Rome, the most obvious place where one would find a praetorian guard (1:13) and those of Caesar's household (4:22). Accordingly, if we followed Acts, we would then date Philippians to the early 60's while Paul was under house arrest in Rome.

On the other hand, Paul's plans to come to Philippi and the apparent proximity of Philippi to his place of imprisonment, allowing for so many cycles of news back and forth, speaks more toward a location like Ephesus and, thus, an earlier date such as the mid-50's. Acts does not tell of an Ephesian imprisonment, but Acts does not tell of other things too. Further, Acts has a tendency to downplay Christian entanglement with secular authorities, choosing rather to blame Christian troubles on "the Jews."

In this light it is significant that Paul apparently did get into a major conflict at Ephesus with a mob (Acts 19:23-41). In 2 Corinthians 1:8, written not long after this crisis, Paul indicates that his opposition in Asia was so fierce that he feared for his life and was afraid he would get "the sentence of death." 1 Clement further indicates that Paul was imprisoned seven times, only three of which we can straightforwardly account for in Acts.

In short, it is more than possible that Paul was imprisoned at Ephesus for a time in the aftermath of the riot. If so, it might contribute to an explanation for why he apparently stayed outside the city limits on his way back through the area a few months later (cf. Acts 20:16). And if Mark can speak of a praetorium in Jerusalem (Mark 16:15), there might certainly have been one in Ephesus.