Philippians 3:17

συμμιμ. The compound is significant. Uno consensu et una mente (Calv.). This emphasis on their unity justifies the interpretation of τῷ αὐτῷ favoured above. Paul is compelled to make his own example a norm of the new life. It was not as in Judaism where the Law lay ready to hand as a fixed standard. There was, as yet, no tradition of the Christian life. σκοπεῖτε. A keen, close scrutiny. Cf. Romans 16:17 (but there = “mark so as to avoid”). οὕτω probably points back to μου. It seems more natural to give καθώς its common argumentative force, “even as”. τύπον = (1) “stamp” of a die, (2) “copy, figure,” as the stamp bears a figure on the face of the die, (3) “mould, pattern,” by transference from the effect to the cause. Wetst. quotes Diod. Sic, Ex. (?), τὸν ἑαυτοῦ βίον εἰς καλῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων μίμησιν ἀρχέτυπον τιθέναι. See also Radford, Expositor, v., 6, p. 380 ff.