Passage

Philippians 3.10

Book: Philippians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

8. Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ, 9. and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith:

10. that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death;

if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead. 12. Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:8-12, ASV)

WEB

8. Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ 9. and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;

10. that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death;

if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12. Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if it is so that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:8-12, WEB)

KJV

8. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9. And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

10. That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 12. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:8-12, KJV)

YLT

8. yes, indeed, and I count all things to be loss, because of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, because of whom of the all things I suffered loss, and do count them to be refuse, that Christ I may gain, and be found in him, 9. not having my righteousness, which [is] of law, but that which [is] through faith of Christ, the righteousness that is of God by the faith,

10. to know him, and the power of his rising again, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death,

if anyhow I may attain to the rising again of the dead. 12. Not that I did already obtain, or have been already perfected; but I pursue, if also I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by the Christ Jesus; (Philippians 3:8-12, 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

Tou gnōnai auton kai tēn dynamin tēs anastaseōs autou kai koinōnian pathēmatōn autou, symmorphizomenos tō thanatō autou.

The infinitive of purpose. Tou gnōnai, "that I may know him," governs the verse and continues the purpose clause begun at verse 9. The knowing in view is ginōskō, relational and experiential acquaintance rather than accumulated information, which is the sense the Septuagint carries over from Hebrew yada'.

A single article governs three objects. The construction ties the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, and conformity to His death into one thing known rather than three separable experiences. That is the verse's hardest claim: the power and the suffering are not alternatives, and one cannot be requested without the other.

Order is the surprise. Resurrection power is named before the fellowship of sufferings, though the historical sequence runs the other way. The Christian's participation begins from the risen Christ and moves into conformity with His death, which inverts the chronology of the events themselves.

Symmorphizomenos. Present passive participle, "being conformed," built on morphē, the same root as morphē theou and morphē doulou at 2:6-7. Paul is using the hymn's vocabulary of himself: the one who took the form of a servant is now forming those who are His into that same shape. The present tense marks it as ongoing rather than achieved, which verses 12 to 14 immediately confirm.

Against triumphalism. The verse is a standing rebuke to any spirituality that offers resurrection power detached from cruciform suffering. Whatever "knowing Christ" means here, Paul defines it partly as sharing what happened to Him.

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.

G0386 - anastasis, anastasis, Strong's G0386
G2288 - thanatos, thanatos, Strong's G2288
G1097 - ginosko, ginosko, Strong's G1097

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Resurrection of Jesus - Theological Significance

Lexicon:

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.