In popular culture, the Pauline texts referring to ‘peace’ are illustrated by serene and tranquil scenes. I shall argue that to Paul's first readers, ‘peace’ evoked rather different images – military victories, arrests of criminals and the unloading of corn. I argue this because of how εἰρήνη is normally used in documentary papyri, that is personal letters, administrative documents and other non-literary written material. I explain my method and then present the papyrological evidence, including references to the various ‘peace-officials’. I argue that εἰρήνη meant something like ‘good order’. I use this insight to interpret Rom 5.1 and Phil 4.7.

Paul and Timothy are almost inseparable. The letters to Philemon and the Philippians are addressed from both Paul and Timothy and appear to be sent from prison. This makes most sense if both are in prison, especially given the risk inherent in naming an accomplice who remains free. And when Paul is in prison, Timothy is not sent anywhere. Could it be that Timothy was in prison alongside Paul? The personal tone and content of both letters nonetheless reflect concern only for Paul, what he has done and what will happen to him. No one cares about Timothy, so Timothy is probably not in prison.

In his letter to the Philippians, Polycarp of Smyrna offers a reading of 1 Timothy 6 in which he uses the term ‘the commandment’ as an apparent reference to the practice of almsgiving. Polycarp's Philippians, therefore, offers important and heretofore neglected evidence that supports recent contentions that ‘the commandment’ in 1 Tim 6.14 is almsgiving.

Paul's boasting is often considered to be problematic. This paper explores Pauline boasting from the perspective of Plutarch's views on self-praise. Outlining what kinds of self-praise were and were not acceptable to someone like Plutarch, the paper analyses and positions Paul's boasting in Phil 3 in this context, concluding that, however offensive it may be to modern ears, this boasting was probably less so to the ears of his contemporaries.

This article endeavours to illuminate the socio-economic dimension of Paul's κοινωνία with the Philippians. It initially adduces a representative sample of philological evidence which demonstrates that κοινωνία and its cognates (κοινωνός, κοινωνέω) frequently convey the sense of partnership in some economic enterprise, and establishes a semantic equivalence between κοινωνία and societas (partnership). It is then argued that, from a Roman socio-economic and legal perspective, Paul's κοινωνία consisted of a societas unius rei (i.e. societas evangelii), whereby Paul supplied the ars and opera (skill and labour), while the Philippians contributed the pecunia (funds) to ensure the progress of his mission.

Although interpreters of Philippians have observed both the number and the progression of items in Phil 3.5–6, previous scholarship on the letter has failed to recognise that this ‘catalogue of boasting’ consists of precisely seven items. As a result, commentators have not attempted to explicate these two verses in light of the ostensible presence and influence of numerical symbolism. This paper offers a fresh reading of Phil 3.5–6 (and surrounding verses) – one that keeps Paul's sevenfold list of his pedigree and performance in Judaism clearly in view. The insights gleaned from the interpretation proffered in this article enable a fuller understanding of this programmatic autobiographical text.

Interpreters of Paul's letter to the Philippians continue to struggle to understand the place of Paul's promise to send Timothy (Phil 2.19–24) in the overall rhetoric of the letter. However, if one reads Philippians as a letter of consolation the problems associated with this text can be solved. In particular, it becomes evident that the imprisoned and possibly soon-to-be-executed Paul offers Timothy to his anxious readers as his replacement, as another Paul or alius Paulus, according to the topos ‘consolation by means of a replacement’ for which there are many pertinent ancient parallels. This reading also explains why Paul describes Timothy as his ‘child’ (τεκνον) in the gospel ministry – children were often seen as replacements for dead parents – and why he insists that Timothy is ‘of like soul/mind’ (ισοψυχον) to himself.