Resurrection in Philippians

1:21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. And if I live in the flesh, this [brings] the fruit of a good work, and which I will choose I do not know. For I am torn between the two, having the desire to go away and be with Christ (which is much better). But to remain in flesh is more necessary for you...
This passage more than any other argues that Paul believed a person would be conscious in between death and the parousia. This does not seem problematic except that 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians would not naturally lead us in this direction. The image of sleep and Paul's insistence that if there is no resurrection, those who have died are lost, places an immense focus on the parousia as the time of meaningful afterlife in Paul's thought.

The idea that Paul's thought had undergone change in between 1 Corinthians and Philippians, supported by the passage in 2 Corinthians 5 we looked at yesterday, is thus worthy of consideration. Most scholars generally think that Paul believed in an intermediate state in 1 Corinthians too, only that he didn't discuss it. But if one sees development in his thought on resurrection at this juncture, seeing development on this point also probably makes sense.

This passage is fairly clear at least that at this point of Paul's ministry, whether at Ephesus or Rome, he believed that one went to be with Christ immediately at death.

3:8, 10-11 ... I consider [whatever was to my gain] as dung in order that I might gain Christ ... to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death if somehow I might reach the resurrection, the one out of the dead.
The wording here is interesting. This particular word for resurrection appears only here (ἐξανάστασιν), but it is not clear it has any different meaning than the more usual word. The very word itself could support some changed view of resurrection, but we have no evidence to argue for such. Our first impression is that Paul is alluding to exactly the same teaching as 1 Corinthians 15 here, namely, that there will be a resurrection of the dead at the parousia.

Is there any other way to take the statement, such that it would fit with a shift? Certainly Paul could come to believe in an intermediate state and still believe the spiritual embodiment part only came at a future resurrection. But this line of thought would not fit with the kind of shift Bruce/Thrall see taking place in 2 Corinthians 5 (Interestingly, Woody, Harris seems to have backed off from his earlier position over time--Second Epistle, 380 n.65).

Could Paul have shifted to think that we receive our spiritual body at death but still reserved the word resurrection for the time of the parousia? But then wouldn't the word resurrection largely lose any real significance?

Of course I suppose that nothing stops us from seeing this comment in relation to the point of death. Paul wants to be resurrected at death. Interestingly, if Paul had changed his mind, then he would be changing from any teaching he had given to the Philippians on resurrection when he was with them before. Would this be a reason to keep his wording ambiguous, so that it could be taken either in the former or in his new way?

Gordon Fee suggests a reason for the wording "to the resurrection, the one from the dead" (Philippians, 335 n.68). It would seem many scholars see the first comment, "to know the power of his resurrection," in reference to this life, a power such as we hear about in Romans 6 and 8. The clarification of reference to "the one from the dead" would thus be in contrast to the resurrection to new life in this life and would have nothing to do with when resurrection took place after death.

It is thus possible to read 3:11 in the light of a belief that, for believers, a resurrection body stands available at death, a body that others will not receive. Those individuals will remain "naked," so to speak.

The verses that immediately follow at least potentially might shed light on what Paul has in mind here.

3:12 Not that I already received or have already been perfected... I pursue for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus...
Paul presumably has already received the power of Christ's resurrection. It seems to me the most natural way to take this comment is that he has not yet received the "upward call of God in Christ Jesus." This is the prize that he says he is pursuing and that which he has just mentioned in 3:11 as something he wishes to attain to. It is this that he has not yet received and thus he has not yet been perfected.

We remember that perfection can be used of death in Jewish literature (e.g., 4 Macc. 7:15). It would not be difficult to modify a sense of perfection at death to a sense of perfection for some at death.

It is thus possible to see Paul thinking about resurrection at death or at the parousia in the previous verse. Our decision will depend on exegetical decisions we make elsewhere.

3:20-21 For our citizenship exists in heaven, from which we also await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory according to the working of the One who is also able to subject all things to him.
This passage has to do with the transformation of the bodies of those who are "alive and remain at the coming of our Lord." It thus does not point one way or another in relation to the point of resurrection for the dead. It does show an interesting orientation around heaven that seems a little different from Paul's earlier writings.