New Testament · Paul's Letters
Joy in chains, the mind of Christ who emptied himself, and peace past understanding.
A thank-you letter for a gift of money, written from prison, and the warmest thing Paul wrote. Joy runs through it as a refrain from a man in chains who cheerfully observes that his imprisonment has advanced the gospel, since the whole palace guard now knows why he is there. At its centre sits a passage most scholars believe is an early hymn quoted rather than composed, describing one who did not grasp equality with God but emptied himself, took the form of a servant, and became obedient to death. Paul deploys it not as doctrine for its own sake but as an argument for settling a dispute between two women in the congregation, whom he names, and asks the church to help.
If you remember one thing
Written in chains, and joy is its most repeated note. The hymn in chapter 2 may be the earliest Christian song we have.
“Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, who emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.”
Philippians 2:5-7
Philippians 2:6-7
Emptied himself. What exactly was set aside is one of the central questions of Christology, and answers range widely inside orthodoxy.
Named here rather than skipped. Where Christians read a passage differently, we say so instead of choosing for you.
Everyone here has a write-up, drawn from the same records that explain the names while you read the text.
A Pharisee trained under Gamaliel who persecuted the church until he was stopped on the road to Damascus. He then spent thirty years planting churches across the Roman world and writing the letters that make up roughly a third of the New Testament. He was a Roman citizen by birth, which is why he could appeal to Caesar.
The names at the beginnings and ends of the letters, which most readers skip. They are the actual shape of the early church: a courier, a runaway slave, a treasurer of a city, a woman who hosted a congregation in her house, two women whose disagreement was serious enough to be named in a public letter.
A family name that became a title. Augustus orders the census in Luke 2. Tiberius reigns during the ministry. Claudius expels the Jews from Rome, which is how Paul meets Priscilla and Aquila. Nero is almost certainly the Caesar to whom Paul appealed and under whom he died.
A dealer in purple cloth at Philippi, which was an expensive trade, who was worshiping by the river when Paul arrived. She was baptized with her household and opened her home as the base for the church there.
A quiz for Philippians is on the workbench. In the meantime, the games for the judges, the kings, and the prophets are open.
