- Chapters
- 4
- Verses
- 0
- Where it sits
- The Letters of Paul
What it is
A letter to the church at Philippi — Paul’s first congregation in Europe and evidently the one he was closest to. They had sent him a gift by the hand of Epaphroditus, who then nearly died of illness and is being sent home. Paul writes to thank them, to settle a quarrel between two women he names, and to warn against the same Judaising teachers he fought in Galatia.
He is in chains and he keeps telling them to rejoice.
Known for
2:5–11, the hymn of Christ emptying Himself, taking the form of a servant, obedient unto death. 4:4–7. 4:13.
A note for Orthodox readers
That hymn in chapter 2 — kenosis, self-emptying — is one of the load-bearing texts of Orthodox Christology, and it runs underneath the whole of Holy Week.
Where it sits
Undisputed as Paul’s. Some scholars think it is two or three short notes later joined; that remains an open literary question rather than a consensus.
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