8 - The lifestyle of citizens of the heavenly politeuma – Phil. 3:17–21

Summary

Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to see how the belly-topos works in this passage, and, of course, within Philippians as well. Although our purpose is to elucidate what it means to ‘have the belly as god’, this dictum cannot be separated from ‘being enemies of Christ's cross’, ‘glorifying in their shame’, and ‘having the mind set on earthly things’. We will approach the topos from a pars pro toto perspective; i.e. as encapsulating the other complaints as well. Actually, the pattern which we have uncovered as related to the belly-topos in ancient sources strongly recommends us to keep these things together (see Chap. 3.10).

In other words, we will see how Phil. 3:17–21, with special emphasis on vv. 18–19, is embedded in the structure, argument and purpose of the entire letter. Any reading of this passage is linked to major controversial issues in recent scholarship, namely the hiatus in 3:1 and the questions of unity, opponents and genre. These questions have generated an enormous literature over the past few years. The exegesis of vv. 18–19 has, in my view, suffered from an exaggerated interest in identifying ‘opponents’ lurking behind Paul's words. The text has not, therefore, been sufficiently seen in its rhetorical function within Paul's argument. From this also follows that belly-worship in Phil. 3 has not been related to what Paul says about the body elsewhere in this letter.