ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Philippians 1.1

Book: Philippians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

1. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus that are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:

  1. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you, (Philippians 1:1-3, ASV)
WEB

1. Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ; To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and servants:

  1. Grace to you, and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. I thank my God whenever I remember you, (Philippians 1:1-3, WEB)
KJV

1. Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:

  1. Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, remembrance: or, mention (Philippians 1:1-3, KJV)
YLT

1. Paul and Timotheus, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with overseers and ministrants;

  1. Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. I give thanks to my God upon all the remembrance of you, (Philippians 1:1-3, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Paul the Apostle, writing with Timothy named as co-sender (Phil 1:1).
  • Audience: The church at Philippi, a Roman colony in Macedonia and the first congregation Paul planted in Europe (Acts 16:11-40). The letter names overseers and deacons at 1:1 and thanks the church for repeated financial support.
  • Location: Written from imprisonment. Paul refers to his bonds and to "Caesar's household" (Phil 1:13, 4:22); the traditional identification is Roman custody, with Ephesus and Caesarea proposed as alternatives.
  • Time period: c. AD 60-62 on the traditional Roman-imprisonment dating.

Theological reading

The opening address carries more information than a greeting usually does.

Douloi, not apostles. Paul calls himself and Timothy "servants of Christ Jesus" and, unusually, does not assert his apostleship here. Compare Galatians 1:1 or 1 Corinthians 1:1, where the title is pressed because the authority is under attack. Its absence at Philippi indicates a church where Paul's standing was secure and the letter's tone is affectionate rather than defensive. It also sets up 2:7, where Christ takes the morphē doulou: the writers describe themselves with the word the hymn will apply to their Lord.

Timothy as co-sender. Timothy was present at the founding of the church (Acts 16) and is commended at length at 2:19-24. Naming him is not a formality; the letter later sends him.

Hagioi, "saints." The term denotes those set apart, applied to the whole congregation rather than to a spiritual elite. Paul's normal usage makes holiness a status conferred before it is a character achieved.

"With the overseers and deacons." Syn episkopois kai diakonois. This is the only Pauline letter opening that greets church officers as a distinct group, and it is among the earliest evidence for these two offices. Two observations that matter and are often skipped. First, episkopoi is plural, so a single congregation has several overseers, which tells against a monarchical bishop at this date. Second, the officers are greeted with the saints rather than above them, and they appear after the congregation in the sentence.

Why it matters for the letter. The financial partnership acknowledged at 4:15-16 and the mission of Epaphroditus imply an organised community, and verse 1 is the corroborating detail.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.