1. Longed for (ézrurddntor). Only here in the New Testa- ment. Compare J long for you, ch. i. 8; and for kindred words see 2 Cor. vii. 7; Rom. xv. 28.
Joy and crown (yapa xal orépavos). Nearly the same phrase occurs 1 Thess. ii. 19. The Philippian converts are his chaplet of victory, showing that he has not run in vain, ch. ii. 16. For crown, see on Apoc. iv. 4; 1 Pet. v. 4.
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So stand fast. As I have exhorted, and have borne myself in the conflict which you saw and heard to be in me, ch. i. 30.
2. | beseech Euodias and beseech Syntyche (Evwdiav TapaKar® kal Svvtvynv Tapaxaro). Huodias is incorrect, the name being feminine, Hwodia. According to the Tex. Rec., with the long o, the name means fragrance, but the correct reading is with the short o, the meaning being prosperous journey. Syntyche means happy chance. These were promin- ent women in the Church, possibly deaconesses. The position of women in Macedonia was exceptional. In Greece, gener- ally, their standing was inferior. The Athenian law prescribed that everything that a man might do by the consent or request of a woman should be null in law. In Macedonia monuments were erected to women by public bodies, and in Macedonian inscriptions records of male proper names are found formed on the mother’s name instead of the father’s. Macedonian women were permitted to hold property. In the account of Paul’s labors in Macedonia there are notices of the ad- dition of women of rank to the church in Thessalonica and Beroea.*
For beseech, render exhort, and notice the repetition of that word with each name, making the exhortation individual and specific.
To be of the same mind (70 avro dpovetv). The same ex- pression as in ch. ii. 2, see note. Compare Rom. xii. 16. The verb gpovéw to be minded, occurs eleven times in this epistle, and but seventeen times in the rest of the New Testament.
3. True yoke-fellow (yujave civbuye). For true, see on nat- urally, ch. ii. 20. It is supposed by some that the word rend- ered yoke-fellow is a proper name, Synzygus, and that true is to be explained as rightly so called. This explanation would be favored by the play upon the name Onesimus in the Epistle to Philemon, and is not improbably correct. The name has not
* On the absurdities of interpretation which certain German critics have drawn from these two names, see Bishop Lightfoot’s ‘‘ Essays on Supernatural Religion,” p. 24.
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been found in inscriptions, as is the case with many of the names in these epistles, as, for instance, Kuodia and Syntyche. Some suppose that the chief of the bishops or superintendents at Philippi is thus addressed ; but, in that case, the word would probably appear elsewhere in the New Testament. Clement of Alexandria, assuming that Paul was married, thinks that he addresses his wife. Others suppose that Lydia is addressed.*
Help (cvAdapBdvov). Lit., cake hold with. Compare Luke v. 7. The verb is used of conception, Luke i. 24; arrest, Matt. xxvi. 55; Acts xii. 3; catching, as fish, Luke v. 9. Compare the compound ovvavTirdpBavowar help, Luke x. 40 (note); Rom. viii. 26.
Which labored with me (aitwes cuvyiIrnodv por). The double relative explains and classifies: for they belonged to the number of those who labored. Rev., for they labored. Labored, lit., strove as athletes, as ch.i. 27. Compare Sophocles: “These girls preserve me, these my nurses, these who are men, not women, in laboring with me” (‘Oedipus at Colonus,” 1367-8).
Clement. Supposed by some to be Clement the Bishop of Rome. Origen identifies them, saying: “Clement to whom Paul bears Testimony in Philippians iv. 3.” So also Eusebius, Epiphanius, and Jerome. Chrysostom speaks of Clement as the constant companion of Paul in all his travels. Irenaeus, on the contrary, who mentions him as the pupil of an apostle, says nothing of his connection with Paul, by name, and would not have been likely to pass over this identity in silence had he been aware of it. Clement was a member of the Roman church, and the name was a very common one. A Roman consul, Flavius Clemens, was sentenced to death by Domitian on account of athecsm, which was the common pagan designa- tion of Christianity. The Roman catacombs furnish evidence that Christianity had penetrated into the Flavian family, so that there may have been two prominent Christians in Rome of the same name. The identity of Clement of Rome with the