Two features in the narrative deserve special notice, for they were not without influence on the subsequent history of the Philippian Church. The first is that the Jews were few in number; the second, that the earliest converts were women. To the first we may ascribe the failure of the Judaizers to gain a CREE within this Church; and perhaps the second explains the specially kindly interest taken by the Philippian
hurch in the personal eomfort of the apostle.
It may also account for
PHILIPPIANS, EPISTLE TO THE
the circumstance that thy disputes in the Philip. ian Church were about personal rather than octrinal questions. It has been said that tie narratives in Ac 168 174. 13 indicate—there is some corroborative evidence in the inscriptions—that in Macedonia women held a higher position thap elsewhere. Female influence certainly continued strong in the Church of Philippi, for Paul regarded a personal quarrel between two of his female con- verts as a serious cannes to the Church (Ph 4 8).
The Church founded by Paul and his companiins continued to prosper. It suffered persecution (2Co 82), but remained conspicuously faithful to the gospel of Paul and to Paul himself. If we are to Sai arabacd ‘bishops,’ ‘ deacons’ (Ph 1?) as names of ecclesiastical officers, it appears to have made more rapid progress in organization than other Churches (see on this point below, iv. n. 2). The Churches of Macedonia, and we may be sure Philippi was not an exception, manifested their attachment to Paul by the alacrity with which they collected money for the poor saints of Jerusalem, althoug they were themselves in deep poverty (2 Co 88). The Philippians also sent repeated personal gifts to Paul when he was in Thessalonica and in Corinth (2 Co 8°, Ph 415-15); and, lastly, when he was in Rome their care for him again revived, and they sent a gift through Epaphroditus, who was instructed to remain in Rome and minister to the apostle (Ph 418).
It is probable that the friendship between Paul and the Philippians was cemented by more fre- quent intercourse than we know of. Polycarp (Philip. iii. 2) speaks of the ‘letters’ written by Paul to the Philippians ; and, although this may be a mere inaccuracy on the part of Polycarp, or even if the plur. ἐπιστολαί ma te used to denote a single letter (see Lightfoot, ad Joc.), it is most imprebable that Paul made no written acknowledgment of the repeated gifts. As Philippi lay on the Via Egnatia, he must have frequently received tidings of its Church from friends and messengers (Ac 19”). In the year 57 [Turner, 55] Philippi had two visits from the apostle in person; and it was in Mace- donia, and almost certainly in Philippi, that he spent the anxious days of waving for Titus (2 Co 21275.6), There also he wrote, in al probability, the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (2 Co 913 75 81 974). If that was the case, Paul passed one of the most critical seasons in his life, when his entire life-work seemed in danger, among the Philippians; and at such seasons friendships are deepened. A second visit was paid to Philippi when Paul kept the Paschal feast with his converts before leaving for Jerusalem; and the language in Acts suggests that it was with difficulty that he tore himself away from them (Ac 205-8),
In his Epistle, Paul expresses a hope that he would again visit the Philippians after his release from his Roman captivity (Ph 24), Whether this hope was fulfilled we cannot say. If he was re- leased,—as seems more probable,—and the Pastoral Epistles are to be accepted as a genuine record of his subsequent labours, he certainly paid one visit to Philippi after his release (1 Ti 1°), and probably more than one.
li. THE TIME, PLACE, AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF WRITING.—When St. Paul wrote the Epistle to the Philippians, he was a prisoner (Ph 17 18. 14-17), and the place or his captivity was almost certainly Rome. He sends greetings from those of Cesar’s household (4°). A large and active Christian Church is in his neighbourhood, of whose doings he is fully cognizant (1'*”), A number of friends,
old and new, are beside him, and appear to have free access to him (4”-22); he sends letters and messengers to distant Churches, and messengers
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come from other lands to visit him (48),
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this is in harmony with his Roman life as de- scribed in Acts (2859) : it is improbable that he enjoyed the same liberty in Cesarea, where, more- over, as far as we know, there was no Christian Church. One expression only in the Epistle ἘΠΕΘΘ Ια Cesarea. In 1 the apostle writes that his bonds had become manifest in Christ ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ mparwply. When in Cesarea, Paul was con- fined in the pretorium of Herod (Ac 23"). Usage forbids us to understand pretorium as the imperial on the Palatine; nor does it seem to have m used (as is held by Ellicott, Meyer, etc.) as a name for the barracks of the imperial guard (see Lightfoot, Philip. p. 99). It is a designation, how- ever, frequently given by Latin writers (e.g. Tac. Hist, ii. 11) and by Josephus (Ant. XIX. iil. 1) to the pretorian or imperial guard; and in this sense most modern commentators understand it here. Mommsen (Berlin. Akadem. Sitzungsberichte, 1895, p. 495 ff.), who is followed by Ramsay (Sé. Paul the Traveller, p. 357), maintains that it is here a name for the supreme imperial court, before which Paul appeared. This explanation relieves Paul’s words of that note of exaggeration which they con- tain according to the former interpretation ; for it is not possible that the knowledge of Paul as a bonds- man of Christ should have aded the ranks of the immense imperial Se See, further, art. PRZTORIUM.