Philippians 1:23

For Read But, with conclusive evidence. The word here marks addition rather than distinction. An English writer would have dispensed with a transitional particle, probably.

in a strait betwixt two More precisely, with R.V., the two; the two alternatives just spoken of, life and death. The imagery is of a man hemmed in right and left, so as to be stationary. Quite literally the words are, "I am confined fromthe two (sides)"; the position is one of dilemma, viewed fromwhichever side.

Wonderful is the phenomenon of this dilemma, peculiar to the living Christian as such. "The Apostle asks which is most worth his while, to live or to die. The same question is often presented to ourselves, and perhaps our reply has been that of the Apostle. But may we not have made it with a far different purport?… Life and death have seemed to us like two evils, and we knew not which was the less. To the Apostle they seem like two immense blessings, and he knows not which is the better." (Ad. Monod, Adieux, No. ii.)

To the question, "Is life worth living?" this is the Christian answer.

having a desire Lit., the desire. That is, the whole element of personal preference lies that way, not merely one desire among many. We may paraphrase, "my longingbeing towards departure &c."

to depart The verb (analuein) occurs only here and Luke 12:36, where A.V. and R.V. render "when he shall returnfrom the wedding," but where we may equally well render, "when he shall depart, set out homewards, from the wedding." The cognate noun analusis, whence our word analysisis transliterated, occurs 2 Timothy 4:6, in a connexion exactly akin to this; "the time of my departureis at hand." The root meaning of the verb has to do with loosing, undoing; and by usage it can refer to either (a) the dissolutionof a compound (so the Vulgate here, cupio dissolvi), or (b) the unmooringof a ship, or strikingof a tent or camp. It does not occur in the LXX., but is not infrequent in the Apocrypha, and there usually means to go away, or, as another side of the same act, to return (cp. Tob 2:8; Jdt 13:1). Such a meaning is doubtless to be traced to the imagery of (b) above, but appears to have dropped all conscious reference to it. This apocryphal usage, and the comments here of the Greek expositors (St Chrysostom paraphrases our text by "migrationfrom hence to heaven"), are decisively in favour of our Versions as against the Vulgate. St Paul desires to leave for home; to break up his camp, to weigh his anchor, for that better country. See the same thought under other phraseology 2 Corinthians 5:1-8; where we see a "tent taken down," and a wanderer "going to be at home with the Lord."

Suicer (Thesaurus, under ἀ ναλύω), says that Melanchthon on his death-bed called the attention of his learned friend Camerarius to this word, dwelling with delight on the passage, correcting the "dissolution" of the Vulgate, and rendering rather, "to prepare for departure," "to migrate," or "to return home." Luther renders here abzuscheiden, "to depart."

and to be with Christ The other side of the fact of departure, and that which makes its blessedness. From this passage and 2 Corinthians 5 quoted above we gather that as it were not a space, but a mathematical line, divides the state of faith this side death from the state of sight that side; see esp. 2 Corinthians 5:7, in its immediate context. "Those who blame as … presumptuous the fervours and speciality of devout affection, such as eminent Christians have expressed in their dying moments, know probably nothing of Christianity beyond the bare story they read in the Gospels, and nothing of human nature … as affected by religion, beyond what belongs to the servile sentiments of a Pelagian faith, better called distrust … Christianity meets us where most of all we need its aid, and it meets us with the very aid we need. It does not tell us of the splendours of the invisible world; but it does far better when, in three words, it informs us that (ἀ ναλ ῦ σαι) to loosen from the shore of mortality is (σ ὺ ν Χριστ ῶ̣ ε ἶ ναι) to be with Christ." (Isaac Taylor, Saturday Evening, ch. xxvi.)

It is divinely true that the Christian, here below, is "with Christ," and Christ with him. But such is the developed manifestation of that Presence after death, and such its conditions, that it is there as if it had not been before. Cp. Acts 7:59; words which St Paul had heard.

which is far better Probably read, for it is &c. And the Greek, quite precisely, is "much rather better"; a bold accumulation, to convey intense meaning. R.V., for it is very far better.

Observe that it is thus "better" in comparison not with the shadows of this life, but with its most happy light. The man who views the prospect thus has just said that to him "to live is Christ." Death is "gain" for him, therefore, not as mere escape or release, but as a glorious augmentation; it is "Christ" still, only very far more of Christ.