Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

corpus-paul - Re: [Corpus-Paul] Who are the enemies in Philippians 3?

corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Corpus-Paul

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: tim.harris AT stmatts.asn.au
  • To: bobmacdonald AT shaw.ca, Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Who are the enemies in Philippians 3?
  • Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 17:46:12 +1030

Bob,

I think we need to be cautious about drawing too many conclusions about the
specific identity of the 'enemies' throughout Philippians 3. The references in
3:2 may have more the tone of 'consider' rather than the harsher 'beware' (so
G.D. Kilpatrick, ‘BLEPETE, Philippians 3:2’, in M. Black and G. Fohrer (eds.),
In Memoriam Paul Kahle. BZAW 103. (Berlin: Töpelmann, 1968), 146-148.). The
text does not require us to conclude that such persons were actually present
in
Philippi, or even that this is one group sharing all three characteristics.
The
primary thrust is rhetorical, with Paul alluding to three categories of false
lifestyle. The connection with 3:3 may also be quite loose, deriving from
Paul's own experience (vv. 4-8), rather than any assumption of a significant
Jewish presence in Philippi (for which the evidence is minimal, at best).

Karl Olav Sandnes (Belly and the Body in the Pauline Epistles, SNTSMS 120,
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), see esp. 136-164.)has put
together a fairly compelling case that a recognizable philosophical topos can
be detected throughout ch. 3, and especially in 3:19. In his view, this is
addressed at challenging Epicurean maxims. I think he has narrowed the focus
unduly (it need not be exclusively a reference to Epicureans as he implies),
but I think he is on the right track in identifying the general philosophical
tenor. If 'their god is their belly' has an Epicurean nuance, then 'their
glory
is in their shame' could conceivably be construed as an ironical allusion to
the Cynics and their boasts of 'shamelessness'. I doubt whether 'the dogs' is
an allusion to the Cynics in 3:2 (it was a well established general derogatory
term) - although the echo is tantalising.

In any event, I think Paul's rhetoric in Philippians 3 is directed more at
alternative lifestyles and/or philosophies than to actual groups of persons.

Tim Harris
Flinders University,
South Australia


Quoting Bob MacDonald <bobmacdonald AT shaw.ca>:

| Are the enemies at the beginning of Philippians chapter 3
| the same as the enemies at the end of the chapter?
|
| Bob
|
| mailto::BobMacDonald AT shaw.ca
| + + + Victoria, B.C., Canada + + +
| http://peleyah.ca
|
| _______________________________________________
| Corpus-Paul mailing list
| Corpus-Paul AT lists.ibiblio.org
| http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/corpus-paul
|







Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page