Passage

Philippians 3.19

Book: Philippians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

17. Brethren, be ye imitators together of me, and mark them that so walk even as ye have us for an ensample. 18. For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

19. whose end is perdition, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: 21. who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself. (Philippians 3:17-21, ASV)

WEB

17. Brothers, be imitators together of me, and note those who walk this way, even as you have us for an example. 18. For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ,

19. whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.

For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21. who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself. (Philippians 3:17-21, WEB)

KJV

17. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. 18. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

19. Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: ^{conversation: or, we live or conduct ourselves as citizens of heaven, or, for obtaining heaven} 21. Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3:17-21, KJV)

YLT

17. become followers together of me, brethren, and observe those thus walking, according as ye have us, a pattern; 18. for many walk of whom many times I told you, and now also weeping tell, the enemies of the cross of the Christ!

19. whose end [is] destruction, whose god [is] the belly, and whose glory [is] in their shame, who the things on earth are minding.

For our citizenship is in the heavens, whence also a Saviour we await, the Lord Jesus Christ 21. who shall transform the body of our humiliation to its becoming conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working of his power, even to subject to himself the all things. (Philippians 3:17-21, 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

Part of the sharpest polemic in the letter, and its identification is contested.

Who are they? Verse 18 calls them "enemies of the cross of Christ," and Paul weeps as he writes it, which tells against reading the passage as mere invective. Two main proposals: Judaising teachers, continuous with the "dogs" and "concision" of 3:2; or libertines who treat freedom as licence. The vocabulary of this verse, appetite and shame and earthly-mindedness, fits the second better, while the chapter's frame fits the first. The honest position is that the identification is uncertain and the description is not.

Four clauses, each a reversal.

Hōn to telos apōleia, "whose end is perdition." Telos is the destination or outcome, so the sentence begins with where the road arrives.
Hōn ho theos hē koilia, "whose god is the belly." Koilia denotes the stomach or appetite generally. The charge is not gluttony as such but the elevation of appetite to the place of deity, which is idolatry described functionally: your god is what governs you.
Hē doxa en tē aischynē autōn, "whose glory is in their shame." An exact inversion. What ought to produce shame is the thing boasted in, which is the moral disorder the whole verse describes.
Hoi ta epigeia phronountes, "who mind earthly things." Phroneō is the letter's key verb, appearing throughout (2:2, 2:5, 3:15, 4:2), and it denotes settled orientation rather than passing thought.

The deliberate contrast with verse 20. "Our citizenship is in heaven" answers "who mind earthly things" directly. The two verses are a matched pair and should never be cited apart, since the polemic exists to set up the positive claim.

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.

G5056 - telos, telos, Strong's G5056
G1391 - doxa, doxa, Strong's G1391
G2316 - theos, theos, Strong's G2316

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Conditional Immortality from Text-First Method

Concepts:

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.