Passage

Philippians 3.8-9

Book: Philippians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

6. as touching zeal, persecuting the church; as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. 7. Howbeit what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.

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:

that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death; 11. if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:6-11, ASV)

WEB

6. concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. 7. However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ.

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;

that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death; 11. if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:6-11, WEB)

KJV

6. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 7. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

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:

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. (Philippians 3:6-11, KJV)

YLT

6. according to zeal persecuting the assembly! according to righteousness that is in law becoming blameless! 7. But what things were to me gains, these I have counted, because of the Christ, loss;

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,

to know him, and the power of his rising again, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, 11. if anyhow I may attain to the rising again of the dead. (Philippians 3:6-11, 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 two verses together state the exchange at the centre of the chapter: everything counted as refuse, in order to gain Christ and be found in Him.

The purpose clauses stack. Hina Christon kerdēsō, that I may gain Christ, and kai heurethō en autō, and be found in Him. The first uses the same commercial root as the kerdos he has just written off, so the sentence performs its own reversal: what he called gain he now counts loss, in order to gain the only thing that is.

Heurethō is passive. "Be found," not "find myself." Paul does not describe attaining a position but being discovered in one, and the location is a person rather than a status or an achievement.

Verse 9 defines what he is found possessing, by negation first. Mē echōn emēn dikaiosynēn tēn ek nomou, not having a righteousness of my own out of law. The possessive emēn, "my own," is emphatic and is the thing being refused. What replaces it is tēn dia pisteōs Christou, tēn ek theou dikaiosynēn epi tē pistei.

Two disputed points, stated honestly. First, pistis Christou may be objective (faith in Christ) or subjective (the faithfulness of Christ); the traditional and Reformation reading is objective, while Richard Hays and others have pressed the subjective. Note the verse then adds epi tē pistei, "upon faith," which most naturally denotes the believer's believing, so both may be present. Second, whether the righteousness is imputed or transformative is exactly the Reformation-versus-Catholic dispute, and the preposition ek theou, from God, settles the source without by itself settling the mode.

What both sides agree on. The righteousness is not generated by the person who has it. That is the claim the passage makes unambiguously, and it is the one that answers the letter's opponents.

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.

G1343 - dikaiosyne, dikaiosyne, Strong's G1343
G3551 - nomos, nomos, Strong's G3551
G4102 - pistis, pistis, Strong's G4102
G5547 - christos, christos, Strong's G5547
G2962 - kyrios, kyrios, Strong's G2962
G2424 - Iesous, Iesous, Strong's G2424

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

100 Common Questions
Imputation Doctrine, via Philippians 3.9
Justification by Faith
Sola Fide, via Philippians 3.9

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.