Passage

Philippians 1.3

Book: Philippians · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus that are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: 2. 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,

always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you all making my supplication with joy, 5. for your fellowship in furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now; (Philippians 1:1-5, ASV)

WEB

Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ; To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and servants: 2. Grace to you, and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. I thank my God whenever I remember you,

always in every request of mine on behalf of you all making my requests with joy, 5. for your partnership in furtherance of the Good News from the first day until now; (Philippians 1:1-5, WEB)

KJV

Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: 2. 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}

Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, 5. For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; (Philippians 1:1-5, KJV)

YLT

Paul and Timotheus, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with overseers and ministrants; 2. 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,

always, in every supplication of mine for you all, with joy making the supplication, 5. for your contribution to the good news from the first day till now, (Philippians 1:1-5, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul the Apostle, writing with Timothy named as co-sender (Philippians 1:1).
Audience: The Church at Philippi, in a Roman colony of Macedonia (Acts 16:12), founded on the mission narrated in Acts 16 and addressed with its bishops and deacons (Philippians 1:1). The church had sent Paul a gift by Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25-30, 4:18). The verse opens the thanksgiving and prayer of Philippians 1:3-11, the first movement of the letter after the greeting.
Location: Written from imprisonment (Philippians 1:7, 1:13). The place is debated: Rome is the traditional identification, and Ephesus and Caesarea are proposed as alternatives.
Time period: Depends on the imprisonment: c. AD 60-62 if Rome, c. AD 57-59 if Caesarea, the mid-50s if Ephesus.

Theological reading

The verse opens Paul's customary thanksgiving. "I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you" (Philippians 1:3, ASV). The verb is eucharistō (G2168). Most of Paul's letters move from the greeting into a thanksgiving in the same way (Romans 1:8, 1 Corinthians 1:4, Colossians 1:3, 1 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 4); Galatians, which opens in rebuke, has none. "My God" is personal, and Paul uses it again near the end of this letter: "And my God shall supply every need of yours" (Philippians 4:19, ASV).

The grammar of "remembrance of you" is debated. The noun is mneia (G3417), and the pronoun "of you" can be read two ways. The usual reading takes it as objective: Paul thanks God whenever he remembers them, as in his other thanksgivings where he speaks of "making mention of you in our prayers" (1 Thessalonians 1:2, ASV). A minority reading takes it as subjective, "for all your remembrance of me", referring to the church's repeated support of Paul (Philippians 4:15-18). That reading would tie the opening thanksgiving to the thank-you that closes the letter. The objective reading follows Paul's normal pattern and is the one most translations adopt.

Thanksgiving, joy and partnership are tied together. Paul prays "with joy" (Philippians 1:4, ASV), the first appearance of a theme that runs through the whole letter, and verse 5 gives the reason: "your fellowship in furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now" (Philippians 1:5, ASV). The fellowship (koinōnia) is active partnership in the work of the euangelion, and it included giving: "no church had fellowship with me in the matter of giving and receiving but ye only" (Philippians 4:15, ASV).

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.

None of the words in this verse has its own lexicon entry yet.

Notes

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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.