Philippians 1:16

The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) Not sincerely.—This version conveys an incorrect impression. The original is “not purely,” i.e., not with unmixed and single-minded enthusiasm for Christ. St. Paul does not impute to them hypocrisy, but an admixture of partisanship, and therefore of a narrow-minded hostility to him.

To add affliction.—The true reading, to stir up affliction, or oppressive severity (properly, pressure, or galling), perhaps suggests as most probable the meaning (adopted by Chrysostom here) of “stirring” the minds of St. Paul’s jailors to an increased severity, which might prevent his preaching to all “without hindrance.” The uneasiness of the Government in relation to the Jewish population at Rome is well known. The growth of a secret society (for such Christianity was held to be) among them might easily induce greater severity towards a leader of the sect. (Compare Philippians 1:19-20, in which St. Paul states his confidence that this malignant policy would be disappointed.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:12-20 The apostle was a prisoner at Rome; and to take off the offence of the cross, he shows the wisdom and goodness of God in his sufferings. These things made him known, where he would never have otherwise been known; and led some to inquire after the gospel. He suffered from false friends, as well as from enemies. How wretched the temper of those who preached Christ out of envy and contention, and to add affliction to the bonds that oppressed this best of men! The apostle was easy in the midst of all. Since our troubles may tend to the good of many, we ought to rejoice. Whatever turns to our salvation, is by the Spirit of Christ; and prayer is the appointed means of seeking for it. Our earnest expectation and hope should not be to be honoured of men, or to escape the cross, but to be upheld amidst temptation, contempt, and affliction. Let us leave it to Christ, which way he will make us serviceable to his glory, whether by labour or suffering, by diligence or patience, by living to his honour in working for him, or dying to his honour in suffering for him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The one preach Christ of contention - So as to form parties, and to produce strifes among his professed followers.

Not sincerely - Not "purely" - ἁγνῶς hagnōs - not with pure motives or intentions. Their real aim is not to preach Christ, but to produce difficulty, and to stir up strife. They are ambitious people, and they have no real regard for the welfare of the church and the honor of religion.

Supposing to add affliction to my bonds - To make my trial the greater. How they did this is unknown. Perhaps they were those who were strongly imbued with Jewish notions, and who felt that his course tended to diminish respect for the law of Moses, and who now took this opportunity to promote their views, knowing that this would be particularly painful to him when he was not at liberty to meet them openly, and to defend his own opinions. It is possible also that they may have urged that Paul himself had met with a signal reproof for the course which he had taken, and, as a consequence, was now thrown into chains. Bloomfield suggests that it was the opinion of many of the ancient expositors that they endeavored to do this by so preaching as to excite the fury of the multitude or the rulers against Paul, and to produce increased severity in his punishment. But the way in which they did this is unknown, and conjecture is altogether useless.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16, 17. The oldest manuscripts transpose these verses, and read, "These (last) indeed out of love (to Christ and me), knowing (the opposite of 'thinking' below) that I am set (that is, appointed by God, 1Th 3:3) for the defense of the Gospel (Php 1:7, not on my own account). But the others out of contention (or rather, 'a factious spirit'; 'cabal'; a spirit of intrigue, using unscrupulous means to compass their end; 'self-seeking' [Alford]) proclaim (the Greek is not the same as that for 'preach,' but, 'announce') Christ, not sincerely (answering to 'but of a spirit of intrigue,' or 'self-seeking'). Literally, 'not purely'; not with a pure intention; the Jewish leaven they tried to introduce was in order to glorify themselves (Ga 6:12, 13; however, see on [2380]Php 1:18), thinking (but in vain) to raise up (so the oldest manuscripts read) tribulation to my bonds." Their thought was, that taking the opportunity of my being laid aside, they would exalt themselves by their Judaizing preaching, and depreciate me and my preaching, and so cause me trouble of spirit in my bonds; they thought that I, like themselves, sought my own glory, and so would be mortified at their success over mine. But they are utterly mistaken; "I rejoice" at it (Php 1:18), so far am I from being troubled at it.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

This distinction he did amplify and explain here, by particularly showing the ill motive, manners, and end of the worst sort of preachers, from an ill affection of hatred, emulation, and wrath, 2 Corinthians 12:20 Galatians 5:20; with an intemperate zeal to render Paul suspected and despicable in the eyes of the church; and to occasion in the emperor a more severe persecution, and heighten the accusers’ rage against Paul, and to gain applause to themselves, and vex his soul under outward troubles.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The one preach Christ of contention,.... That is, those that preached of envy and strife, an not of good will to Christ, to the Gospel, to the souls of men, or to the apostle; and though they preached Christ, yet

not sincerely or "purely"; not but that they delivered the sincere milk of the word, and preached the pure Gospel of Christ, without any mixture and adulteration; but then they did not preach it with a sincere heart, and a pure intention; for this respects not the doctrine they preached, but their views in it, which were not honest and upright; they did not preach Christ from a principle of love to his person, and from an inward experience of the power of his Gospel, and a zealous affection for it, and firm attachment to it, and with a view to the glory of God, the honour of Christ, and the good of immortal souls; but were influenced by avarice, ambition, and envy: they had very evil designs upon the apostle,

supposing to add affliction to my bonds; imagining that by their free and bold way of preaching Christ openly in the city without control, and with impunity, it might be thought that the apostle did not lie in bonds for preaching Christ, but for some other crime; or otherwise why were not they laid hold on and put under confinement also? or thinking that by such numbers of them frequently preaching Christ about the city, it would either incense and stir up the Jews, Paul's accusers, to prosecute him more vigorously; or excite Nero to take more cognizance of his case, and either more closely confine him, or hasten the bringing his cause to a hearing, and him to punishment, as the ringleader of this sect, to the terror of others; but this they could not do without exposing themselves to great danger, unless they were determined to recant, as soon as they should be taken up; wherefore it should rather seem that their view was in preaching Christ to carry away the glory of it from the apostle, and take it to themselves; and fancying that he was a man of the same cast with them, desirous of vain glory, they thought it would afflict and distress him, he being in bonds, and not at liberty to exert himself, and make use of his superior gifts and abilities; but in this they were mistaken, he was so far from being made uneasy hereby, that he rejoiced at the preaching of Christ, let their intentions be what they would; and therefore he does not say that they did add affliction to his bonds; but they "supposed", or thought, that the method they took would do it.

Geneva Study Bible

The one preach Christ of contention, not {l} sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:

(l) Not with a pure mind: for otherwise their doctrine was pure.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Php 1:16-17. We have here a more detailed description of both parties in respect to the motives which actuated them in relation to the δεσμοί of the apostle.

οἱ μέν … οἱ δέ] corresponds to the two parties of Php 1:15, but—and that indeed without any particular purpose—in an inverted order (see the critical remarks), as in 2 Corinthians 2:16, and frequently in classical authors (Thuc. i. 68. 4.; Xen. Anab. i. 10. 4). In Php 1:18 the order adopted in Php 1:15 is again reverted to.

οἱ ἐξ ἀγάπης] sc. ὄντες, a genetic description of the ethical condition of these people: those who are of love, i.e. of loving nature and action; comp. Romans 2:8; Galatians 3:7; John 18:37, et al. We must supply what immediately precedes: τὸν Χριστὸν κηρύσσουσιν, of which εἰδότες κ.τ.λ. then contains the particular moving cause (Romans 5:3; Romans 5:6; Romans 5:9; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 6:8 f., et al.). We might also take οἱ μέν (and then οἱ δέ) absolutely: the one, and then bring up immediately, for ἐξ ἀγάπης, the subsequent τ. Χριστὸν καταγγέλλουσιν (so Hofmann and others). But this would be less appropriate, because the progress of the discourse does not turn on the saying that the one preach out of love, and the other out of contention (for this has been said in substance previously), but on the internal determining motives which are expressed by εἰδότες κ.τ.λ. and οἰόμενοι κ.τ.λ.; besides, οὐχ ἁγνῶς would then follow as merely a weak and disturbing auxiliary clause to ἐξ ἐριθείας.

ὅτι εἰς ἀπολ. τοῦ εὐαγγ. κεῖμαι] that I am destined, am ordained of God for (nothing else than) the defence of the gospel—a destination which they on their parts, in consequence of their love to me, feel themselves impelled to subserve. They labour sympathetically hand in hand with me.

κεῖμαι] as in Luke 2:34; 1 Thessalonians 3:3; comp. Plat. Legg. x. p. 909; Thuc. iii. 45, 2, 47, 2; Sir 38:29, and other passages in which “κεῖσθαι tanquam passivum verbi ποιεῖσθαι vel τιθέναι videtur,” Ellendt, Lex. Soph. I. p. 943. Others render: I lie in prison (Luther, Piscator, Estius, Wolf, am Ende, Huther, and others); but the idea of lying under fetters, which κεῖμαι would thus convey (comp. Eur. Phoen. 1633; Aesch. Ag. 1492), does not harmonize with the position of the apostle any more than the reference of its meaning thereby introduced: they know that I am hindered in my preaching, and therefore they “supplent hoc meum impedimentum sua praedicatione,” Estius. See, on the contrary, Acts 28:30-31; Php 1:7. Van Hengel also imports (comp. Weiss): “me ad causam rei Christianae, ubi urgeat necessitas, coram judice defendendam hic in miseria jacere.” Comp. Hom. Od. i. 46; Soph. Aj. 316 (323); Pflugk, ad Eur. Hec. 496.

οἱ δὲ ἐξ ἐριθ.] sc. ὄντες, the factious, the cabal-makers. See on Romans 2:8; 2 Corinthians 12:20; Galatians 5:20. So also Ignatius, ad Philadelph. 8. It corresponds with the φθόνον κ. ἔριν, Php 1:15.

τὸν Χ. καταγγ. οὐχ ἁγνῶς] belong together. καταγγ. is, in substance, the same as κηρύσσειν, but more precisely defining it as the announcement of the Messiah (Acts 17:3; Acts 17:23; Colossians 1:28, et al.). The words τ. Χριστὸν καταγγέλλουσιν might have been left out, following the analogy of Php 1:16, but are inserted to bring out the tragic contrast which is implied in preaching Christ, and yet doing so οὐχ ἁγνῶς, non caste, not in purity of feeling and purpose. καθαρῶς is synonymous (Hom. H. in Apoll. 121), also with a mental reference (Hesiod. ἔργα, 339). Comp. Plat. Legg. viii. p. 840 D; 2 Corinthians 7:11; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Php 4:8, et al.; 2 Corinthians 6:6.

οἰόμενοι κ.τ.λ.] thinking to stir up affliction for my bonds, to make my captivity full of sorrow. This they intend to do, and that is the immoral moving spring of their unworthy conduct; but (observe the distinction between οἰόμενοι and εἰδότες in Php 1:16) Paul hints by this purposely-chosen word (which is nowhere else used by him), that what they imagine fails to happen. On οἶμαι with the present infinitive, see Pflugk, ad Eur. Hec. 283. The future infinitive would not convey that what is meant is even now occurring. See generally Stallbaum, ad Plat. Crit. p. 52 C; comp. Phaed. p. 116 E. How far they thought that they could effect that injurious result by their preaching, follows from Php 1:15 and from ἐξ ἐριθείας; in so far, namely, that they doubtless, rendered the more unscrupulous through the captivity of the apostle, sought by their preaching to prejudice his authority, and to stir up controversial and partisan interests of a Judaistic character against him, and thus thought thoroughly to embitter the prisoner’s lot by exciting opponents to vex and wrong him. This was the cabal in the background of their dishonest preaching. That by the spread of the gospel they desired to provoke the hostility of the heathen, especially of Nero, against Paul, and thus to render his captivity more severe, is a groundless conjecture imported (Erasmus, Cornelius a Lapide, Grotius, and others; comp. already Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Pelagius).

On ἐγείρειν (see the critical remarks) comp. ἐγ. ὠδῖνας, Plat. Theaet. p. 149 C, and similar passages.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Php 1:16-17. An overwhelming mass of authority is in favour of transposing these verses as above (see crit. note). TR. is simply an emendation based on the order in Php 1:15.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. The one preach Christ, &c.] There is good critical evidence for reading Php 1:16-17 in the opposite order to that of the A.V. Render, with R.V., The one do it of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the Gospel; but the other proclaim Christ of faction, &c. It is possible to render, with Bp Ellicott, “Those who are (men) of love, do it, &c.… but those who are (men) of faction, &c.” But this puts a certain strain on the Greek, and is not required by the context.

preach] Better, with R.V., proclaim; not the same verb as that rendered “preach” just above. It is a word of slightly greater force.

contention] Better, faction, or rather factiousness, partizanship. The Greek word means first, “work for hire”; passes thence by usage into special political references, denoting hired canvassing, or other interested party-work; and lastly emerges into the present meaning. It is used similarly Romans 2:8; 2 Corinthians 12:20; Galatians 5:20; below, Php 2:3 (where see note); James 3:14; James 3:16.

sincerely] Lit. purely.

to add affliction to my bonds] So the Received Text. But a better reading gives to raise up. The R.V. gives a good paraphrase; thinking to raise up affliction for me in my bonds. So Alford.—Lightfoot suggests the paraphrase, “thinking to make my chains gall me,” the word rendered “affliction” meaning literally “rubbing,” or “pressure.” (The Vulgate here has pressura, a word which easily bears, however, a non-physical meaning.) But the suggestion seems to us not altogether probable.

How did the persons in question expect to “raise up trouble” for the imprisoned Apostle? By preventing the access of enquirers or converts to him, unable as he was to go after them. Loyal fellow-workers would have made it a point to bring their hearers under the personal influence of the great Messenger of Christ, and also into a connexion of order with him. Every instance in which the opposite was done was fitted to try severely the spirit of St Paul; to afflict him in and through his position of restraint.

Bengel's Gnomen

Php 1:16.[9] Ἐξ ἐριθείας, of contention) Construed with preach.—οὐχ ἁγνῶς, not sincerely) not with a pure intention, or, not without a Jewish leaven; comp. Galatians 6:12-13. They spoke of and related what Paul taught: they either did not believe it themselves, or did not confess that they did so. Rumour, report, general preaching, is useful for rousing the attention of many, and requires no great ability [ἱκανότητα] in them that preach, which is necessary, and demands purity of mind and doctrine in closer application; as, for example, among the Galatians; comp. Galatians 1:7, etc.—οἰόμενοι, thinking) They thought that the Gentiles, when they observed the increase of the Gospel, would be indignant with Paul in particular; but the efforts of his opponents did not succeed with them, nor did Paul consider it as an affliction, therefore he says, thinking.—θλίψιν, affliction) even accompanied with the danger of death.—ἐπιφέρειν, to add) His bonds were already an affliction: they were adding affliction to the afflicted.

[9] The Germ. Vers. places the 17th verse before this clause of the 16th, following the marg. of the 2d Ed. rather than the larger Ed.—E. B.

ABD(Δ)G Vulg. place οἱ μὲν ἐξ ἀγάπης—κεῖμαι before οἱ δἐ ἐξ ἐριθ.—μου. The Rec. Text order is supported by none of the very old authorities except the later Syr.—ED.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 16, 17. - These two verses must change places according to the reading of the best manuscripts. The clauses are inverted by the figure chiasmus. But the other of love; read, as R.V., the one do it of love. This is better than the other possible rendering, "those who are of love do it." Knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. Κεῖμαι. I am set or appointed, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:3; not, as some understand, I lie in prison. They preach Christ out of love - love for Christ, and love for Paul for Christ's sake. The one preach Christ of contention; read and translate, as R.V., but the other proclaim Christ of faction; perhaps rather, announce (καταγγέλλουσιν); bring news of Christ; and that they do out of factious-ness. Ἐριθεία, derived from ἕριθος, a hired servant, means labor for hire, and is commonly used of hired canvassers, in the sense of factiousness, party spirit. It is reckoned by St. Paul in Galatians 5:20 among the works of the flesh, and is condemned also in Romans 2:8. Not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds; rather, as R.V. (reading with the best manuscripts ἐγείρειν), thinking to raise up affliction for me in my bonds. Their motives were not pure; they wished to make St. Paul feel the helplessness of imprisonment, and to increase his affliction by opposing his doctrines, and by forming a party insisting on the observance of the ceremonial law. Bishop Lightfoot translates θλίψιν ἐγείρειν "to make my chains gall me." Philippians 1:16

Vincent's Word Studies

The one preach Christ of contention

The order of Philippians 1:16, Philippians 1:17, is reversed in the best texts. Of contentions (ἐξ ἐριθείας). See on strife, James 3:14. Rev., better, faction. Compare Chaucer:

"For mine entente is not but for to winne

And nothing for correction of sinne"

"Pardonere's Tale," 12337-8.

Sincerely (ἁγνῶς)

Purely, with unmixed motives. The adjective ἁγνός means pure, in the sense of chaste, free from admixture of evil, and is once applied to God, 1 John 3:3. See on Acts 26:10, footnote. Not sincerely is explained by in pretense, Philippians 1:18.

To add affliction (θλῖψιν ἐπιφέρειν)

Lit., to bring affliction to bear. But the correct reading is ἐγείρειν to raise up, as Rev.: to waken or stir up affliction. The phrase is striking in the light of the original meaning of θλίψις, namely, pressure. They would make his bonds press more heavily and gall him. See on Matthew 13:21.