love for St Paul, their unhesitating submission to his apostolic authority, their steadfast adherenco to his teaching, may in part ho the resnlt of the labonrs of his trusted friend and follower, who continned faithful (2 Tim. iv. 11) when others forsook him. St. Paul "sailed away from Philippi" in the year 58. His imprisonment soon followed; he remained a prisoner for four or five years, the £.rat half of the time at Cresarea, the second half at Rome. The Epistle to the Philippians has been assigned to the Crosarean imprisonment by Paulus and others. St. Paul was kept at Cresarea in Herod's prretorium (Acts xx.iii. 35), and in the Epistle ( eh. i. 13) he says that his bonds in Christ have become manifest in the whole prmtorium. But it is most probable that in the last-quoted passage the word "prmtorium" signifies, not a. build- ing, but the Prretorian Guard (see note onch. i. 13). Rome is not mentioned in the Epistle to the Philippians (nor in any of the other three supposed to have been written there); but St. Paul's reference to Cresar's household, his account of the success of his preaching, his expectation of a speedy release, all point to Rome rather than to Cresarea. Accordingly, the very great majority of commentators are agreed in ascribing the Epistle to the Roman captivity. From the Epistle we learn that the Church at Philippi was already an organized society : two orders of the Christian ministry are mentioned by name. The Philippians were suffering persecution. There was a. tendency to discord among them; especially there was a quarrel between two of their female 1members. Otherwise there_ is no hint of moral corruption or erroneous doctrine. There is nothing to disturb the joy and thankfulness with which the apostle contemplates .their growth in grace. Their love for him was unchanged. They had sent Epaphroditus, possibly their chief pMtor, to convey their gifts and to minister to St. Paul in his afH.iction. St. Paul, in his letter to the ·Philippians, expresses a hope (eh. ii. 24) of shortly seeing tl\eID. again. We gather from his mention of a journey into Maccdoiia in 1 Tim. i. 3 that this expectation was fulfilled. From the notices in 2 'rim. iv. 13 and 20 it has been inferred that he may possibly have visited them a second time during the interval between the two Roman imprisonments. We hear nothing more of the Philippian Church till the beginning of the second century. About fifty years after the Epistle was written, Ignatius passed through Philippi guarded by ten soldiers ( ten leopards, he calls them), on his way to his martyrdom at Rome. He was kindly received, and con- ducted on his journey by the Philippian Christians. This led to a corre- spondence with Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna, and disciple of St. John. The Philippians, it seems, had written to him, asking for copies of the letters of Ignatius, and for advice and exhortation. He sends the letters according to their request. He cannot, he says, reach the wisdom of tho blessed Paul, who had taught them and written to them. Ho gives them m\1 cb exhortation, with rules -for deacons and prrsbyters. One presbyter l'i INTRODUCTION TO
of Philippi, Va.lens, a.nd his wife, had ea.used scandal by their ave.rice. Polycarp hopes they will repent; he begs the Philippians to receive them to forgiveness on their repentance. Polycarp's epistle, like St. Paul's, is rather practica.l than doctrinal. Like St. Paul. he praises the Philippians for their steadfastness and for their sympathy with suffering brethren; in both epistles we find a.llusions to strife and disunion ; in both we notice the a bsenoe of a.ppea.ls to Old Testament authority. From the time of Polycarp's epistle the Church of Philippi almost ~nishes out of ecclesiastical history. Now and then the na.me of a Philippia.n bishop occurs in the subscriptions of the decrees of Councils. It is ea.id tha.t the name is still retained in the title of an Eastern bishop, the Bishop of Drama. a.nd Philippi. But the Church of Philippi has dis- appeared, and the town is represented only by rnins. It ie a strange history. The first founded of the European Churches, the foremost, it seems, of all the Pauline Churches for faith and love, has wholly passed away; but the names of many Philippia.n Christians, unknown to men, remain, and ever will remain, written in golden light with Clement in the Lamb's book of life.
m PLACE AND Tnm OF WRITING THE EPISTLE. St. Pa.ul wrote four Epistles during hie first Roman imprisonment-to -the Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians, and to Philemon. The three last were evidently written about the same time. The Epistle to the Philippians has been commonly- regarded a.s the latest of the four. But some writers :(notably Bishop Lightfoot, to whom all students of St. Paul's Epistles owe more than they can well express) place it early in the first Roman imprisonment, while they assign the other three to as late a date as possible. The Epistle implies the existence of a large Christian community at Rome, much activity in preaching, party spirit too, and divisions. The gospel had penetrated even to Nero's establishment on the Palatine; there were Christians, apparently not a few, in Cmsar's household. The bonds of the apostle were known, not only throughout the prietorium, but "to all the rest." This great progreBB seems to require a considerable time. On the other hand, we mu.et remember that there was a flourishing Church at Rome before St. Paul's arrival. The Epistle to the Romane ie one of the longest and the most elaborate of all his letters. The salutations ( asmiming that the last chapter really belongs to tha.t Epistle, and not, as some think, to the Epistle to the Ephesians) are more numerous than in any other. The number of the Roman Christians must naturally have increased considerably during the three intervening years. We are told that two deputations from the &man Church met St. Paul at Appii Forum and the Turr,r, Taverns. The assertion that his bonds were known "to all the rest" may be compared with 1 These. i. 8, where he says of the Theesalonians, THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. vii