There is a letter extant of the younger Pliny (Epist. ix, 21) which he wrote to a friend whose servant had deserted him. in which he intercedes for the fugitive, who was anxious to return to his master, but dreaded the effects of his anger. Thus the occasion of the cor- respondence was similar to that between the apostle and Philemon. It has occurred to scholars to compare this celebrated letter with that of Paul in behalf of Ones- imus; and as the result they hesitate not to say that, not only in the spirit of Christian love, of which Pliny was ignorant, but in dignity of thought, argument, pa- thos, beauty of style, eloquence, the communication of the apostle is vastly superior to that of the polished Ro- man writer.
VII. Commentaries. — The following are the special exegetical helps on this epistle: Jerome, Commentarii (in Opp. vii, 741); also rseudo-Hieron. id. (ibid, xi); Chrysostom, llomilim (in Opp. xi, 838; also ed. Raphe- lius, in the latter's Annotationes, ii); Alcuin, Explanalio (in Opp. I, ii); Calvin, Commentarius (in Opp. ; also in English, by Pringle. in the latter's Comment, on Tim.; and by Edwards, in the llib. Urn,,*. 1836) : P.rentz, Corn-
ells (Ka-
bani Mauri, Opp. v); Major, Enarratio (Vitemb. 1565, 8vo); Danaeus, Commentarius (Genev. 1579, 8vo); Hy- perius, Commentarius [includ. Tim. and Tit.] (Tigiir. 1582, fol.) ; Feuardent (P. C), Commentarius (Paris,
5 PHILIP
1588, 8vo); Eollock, Commentarius (Genev. 1602, 8vo) ; Attersoll, Commentary (Lond. 1612, 1633, fol.); Genti-
j lis, Commentarius (Norib. 1618, 4to); Dyke, Exposition (Lond. 1618, 4to; also in Dutch, in his Wercke, Amst.
J 1670, p. 793); Rapine (R. C), Exjwsition [French] (Par. 1632, 8vo); Jones, Commentarii [includ. Heb.]
; (Lond. 1635, fol.); Himmel, Commentarius (Jen. 1611, 4to) ; Vincent (R. C), Explicatio (Par. 1647, 8vo) ; Cru-
, cius, Verklaaring (Harlem, 1649, 8vo) ; Habert (P. C), Expositio [includ. Tim. and Tit.] (Par. 1656, 8vo); Franckenstein, Observationes (Hal. 1657, 4to; Lips. 1665, 12mo) ; Taylor. ( 'ouniu atari us ( Lond. 1659, fol.) ; Hum- mel, Explanaiio (Tigur. 1670, fol.); Fecht, Expositio (Rost. 1696, 4to); Schmid, Paraphrasis (Hamb. 1704,
I 4to, and later); Smalridge, Sermon (in Sermons, Oxf. 1721. fol.); Lavater, Predigt. (St. Gall, 1785 sq., 2 vols.
1 8vo) ; Klotzsch, De occasione, etc. (Viteb. 1792, 4to) ; Nie-
I meyer, Program. (Hal. 1802, 4to) ; Wildschut, De dic- tione, etc. (Tr. ad Ph. 1809, 8vo); Buckminster, Si rmon (in Sermons, Bost. 1815) ; Hagenbach, Interpretatio
| (Basil. 1829, 4to) ; Parry. Exposition (Lond. 1834, 12mo); Pot he, Interpretatio (Brem. 1844, 8vo) ; Koch, Commen- tar (Ziir. 1846, 8vo) ; Ktihne. Auslegung (Leips. 1856, 8vo) ; Ellicott, Commentary (Lond. 1857, 8vo) ; Hackett, Revised Translation (Amer. Bible Union, 1860, 12mo) ; Bleek, Vorlesungen [includ. Ephes. and Coloss.] (Berl. 1865, 8vo); Lightfoot, Notes [includ. Coloss.] (Lond. 1875, 8vo). See Epistle.
Phile'tus ($i\nrog, beloved), an apostate Chris- tian, possibly a disciple of Hymena?us, with whom he is associated in 2 Tim. ii. 17, and who is named without him in an earlier epistle (1 Tim. i, 20). A.D. 58-64. Waterland (Importance of the Doctrine of the Holy Trin- ity, ch. iv, in his Works, iii, 459) condenses in a few lines the substance of many dissertations which have been written concerning their opinions, and the sen- tence which was inflicted upon at least one of them. "They appear to have been persons who believed the Scriptures of the O. T., but misinterpreted them, alle- gorizing away the doctrine of the resurrection, and re- solving it all into figure and metaphor. The delivering over unto Satan seems to have been a form of excom- munication declaring the person reduced to the state of a heat hen; and in the apostolical age it was accompa- nied with supernatural or miraculous effects upon the bodies of the persons so delivered." Walch is of opin- ion that they were of Jewish origin ; Hammond con- nects them with the Gnostics; Vitringa (with less prob- ability) with the Sadducees. They understood the res- urrection to signify the knowledge and profession of the Christian religion, or regeneration and conversion, according to Walch, whose dissertation, De ITymenoso et Phileto, in his Miscellanea Sacra, 1744, p. 81-121, seems to exhaust the subject. Among writers who preceded him may be named Vitringa, Observ. Sacr. iv, 9, p. 922-930; Buddoeus, Ecclesia Apostolica, v. 297- 305. See also, on the heresy, Burton, Bampton /.< cturt s, and dean Ellicott's notes on the pastoral epistles; and Potter on Church Government, ch. v, with reference to the sentence. The names of Philetus and Hymenaeus occur separately among those of Caesar's household whose relics have been found in the Columbaria at Pome.— Smith. See Hymenveus.
Phil'ip (QiXiTnrog, lover of horses), the name of several men mentioned in the Apocrypha and Josephus. Those named in the N. T. will be noticed separately below.
1. The father of Alexander the Great (1 Mace, i, 1 ; vi, 2), king of Macedonia, B.C. 359-336. See Alexan- der {the Great).
2. A Phrygian, left by Antiochus Epiphanes as gov- ernor at Jerusalem (B.C. cir. 170), where he behaved with great cruelty (2 Mace. v. 22), burning the fugitive Jews in caves (vi. 11), and taking the earliest measures to check the growing power of Judas Maccabseus (viii, 8). He is commonly (but it would seem incorrectly) identified with,
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PHILIP TIIK APOSTLE