What the book is
Philippi was a Roman colony in Macedonia, in northern Greece, and its church was the first Paul founded in Europe. The book of Acts tells how it began: with Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth who heard Paul by the river, and with a jailer whose household was baptised in the night (Acts 16). Years later, when Paul was in prison, the Philippians sent him a gift by one of their own, Epaphroditus. This letter is Paul’s thanks, and much more.
It is the warmest of his letters. Though he writes in chains, not knowing whether he will live or die, the words for joy and rejoicing come again and again:
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice!
Who wrote it, and when
Scholars agree that Paul wrote Philippians, with Timothy named beside him in the greeting (1:1). Where he was imprisoned is less certain. He mentions the imperial guard (1:13) and believers in “the emperor’s household” (4:22), which most readers take to mean Rome, around AD 60–62. Others suggest an earlier imprisonment in Ephesus or Caesarea, which would date the letter to the mid-50s. Some have asked whether the sudden change of tone at 3:2 means two letters were joined together; most read it as one.
How the book is laid out
- Greeting, thanks and prayer (1:1–11): Paul thanks God for the Philippians’ partnership in the gospel “from the very first day until now”.
- Paul in prison (1:12–26): his chains have moved the gospel forward; “for me, living is Christ, and dying is gain”.
- Live worthy of the gospel (1:27–2:18): stand together, think as Christ thought, and the song of Christ who emptied himself and was exalted (2:6–11).
- Timothy and Epaphroditus (2:19–30): two trusted co-workers, one soon to be sent, one sent home after nearly dying.
- Knowing Christ (3): a warning against those who insist on circumcision, and Paul’s own story: everything he once counted as gain he now counts as loss.
- Stand firm and rejoice (4): a plea for two women who had worked beside him, “do not worry about anything”, and thanks for the gift.
How Open Word Bible translates Philippians
The song of Christ (2:6–11). Christ, being in the form of God, “did not treat being equal with God as something to exploit”. The Greek word behind “something to exploit” is rare, and the decision explains why the draft reads it this way, rather than as something “to seize” or something “to cling to”, and gives those readings in a footnote.
A coarse word (3:8). Paul says he counts everything he has lost “as dung”. The word he uses is deliberately crude, filth fit only to be thrown out, and the draft keeps it coarse rather than softening it.
Faith in Christ (3:9). As in Romans 3:22, the words can mean faith in Christ or Christ’s faithfulness; the draft follows the first and footnotes the second. See Faith in Christ, or the faithfulness of Christ?.
The peace that guards (4:6–7). The peace of God “will stand guard over” the readers’ hearts, a soldier’s word that the people of a Roman colony, many of them retired soldiers, would have felt. See The peace that stands guard, and Showing our work, which follows these verses through every step of the translation.
The gospel and joy are the letter’s key words, and both keep one English rendering throughout.