Philippians 1:28

πτυρόμ. is apparently used esp [77] of scared horses. So Diod. Sic., xvii., 34, 6, διὰ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν περὶ αὐτοὺς σωρευομένων νεκρῶν πτυρόμενοι. It is found in Plut., Reipub. Ger. Praec., p. 800, of a multitude. See Kypke ad loc. τ. ἀντικειμ. Who are their adversaries? In Philippians 1:30 he speaks of them as having the same conflict as he had when at Philippi and now has at Rome. In both these instances, most probably, his opponents were heathen. Further, when warning his readers against Jewish malice, what he usually fears is not that they will be terrified into compliance, but that they will be seduced from the right path. And, as Franke (Myr [78] 5 ad loc.) points out, the conflict here is for the πίστις, not for the ἀλήθεια of the Gospel. It is no argument against this that some of his reasoning would only have force for Jews, e.g., suffering as a gift of God (so Holst., Jahrb. f. prot. Th., 1875, p. 444). For he is speaking of the impression made upon them (the Philippians), and he uses Christian modes of expression. Probably therefore he thinks chiefly of their heathen antagonists, as, in any case, Jews seem to have formed a very small minority of the population. The pagans of Philippi, on the other hand, would struggle hard against a faith which condemned all idol-worship, for the extant remains at Philippi and in its neighbourhood show that they were an extraordinarily devout community. See esp [79] Heuzey et Daumet, Mission Archéologique de Macédoine, pp. iii., 84 86. At the same time we cannot exclude the possibility that he had non-Christian Jews in his mind as well. ἥτις. “Inasmuch as this” (sc., the fact of their not being terrified). The relative is, as frequently, attracted to its predicate. So ἥτις, agreeing with ἐνδ., for τοῦτο. In the following words the true reading is ἐστὶν αὐτοῖς. That of TR. has arisen for the sake of symmetry with the succeeding clause. ἔνδειξις. An Attic law-term. In N.T. only in Paul. Not found in LXX. It denotes proof obtained by an appeal to facts. See SH [80] on Romans 2:15. ἀπώλεια has its usual Pauline antithesis σωτηρία. Paul has never defined ἀπώλεια. All edd. read ὑμῶν δέ. Not only is it better attested (see crit. note), but it also deserves preference as being the harder reading and sufficient to explain the other. It really includes ὑμῖν. The emphasis in Paul's mind changes from the persons to their destinies. It was quite natural to assimilate ὑμῖν to αὐτοῖς preceding. But there is also the thought that they (the adversaries) will be affected not only by the proof of their own destruction, but also by that of the Philippians' salvation. τοῦτο seems to refer to ἔνδειξις. “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

[77] especially.

[78] Meyer.

[79] especially.

[80] Sanday and Headlam (Romans).