III - Philippians ii. 5–11: Its Authorship

Summary

THE PLACE OF THE VERSES IN ST PAUL'S LETTER

In the previous section of our study an attempt was made to demonstrate that Philippians ii. 5–11 represents a Christological hymn set in rhythmical form and composed as a confession of faith in the Church's Lord in the three ‘states’ of His pre-existence, incarnation, and exaltation. The main lines of evidence for this conclusion, which is largely accepted now as proven, were given as (i) stylistic, which shows that we are dealing with the language of liturgy rather than epistolary prose; and (ii) linguistic, which reveals many exceptional terms, phrases and words in the section; and confirms the impression that we have before us a piece of literature which is quite distinct from that of pastoral letter-writing. There is a third clinching argument which may be adduced in support of the view that Philippians ii. 5–11 is detachable from the epistolary context of the Pauline letter of which it forms a part. This is the contextual evidence.

Philippians i. 27–ii. 18 forms one closely-knit section of the Epistle. Its continuity should not be broken at the chapter division in the English Bible. The dominant theme is exhortation. G. Heinzelmann sums up the contents of the verses as ‘What Paul expects from the Church’.