4 - Philippians and the heavenly commonwealth

Summary

This consideration of Paul's treatment of the heavenly dimension in Philippians centres around Philippians 3: 20, 21 in which the believer's commonwealth or state (τὸ πōλίτ∈υμα) is said to be in heaven.

The literary setting and genre of 3: 20, 21

A traditional question has been whether chapter 3 can be considered part of the original letter, while more recent discussion has asked whether verses 20, 21 in particular can be considered Pauline, or whether they are not rather a pre-Pauline hymn which has been incorporated, just as 2: 6–11 is commonly held to have been brought into the earlier part of the letter.

A number of scholars have held that two, three or even four fragments of Paul's correspondence with the Philippians were brought together at a later date when his correspondence was collected and were amalgamated into the one letter we now know as Philippians. In most versions of this hypothesis Philippians 3: 2 – 4: 1 forms one fragment or at least a part of one fragment, for some add 4: 8, 9 as part of the same fragment. Yet the great variety in such reconstructions of the fragments and of the places where they are to be joined, the existence of quite satisfactory explanations of the structure of the letter as we now have it and the repetition of certain themes throughout it cast doubt on the necessity for a fragment hypothesis.