Filadelphia

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Mar 3 07:30:22 EST 1999


At 10:28 PM -0600 3/2/99, David A Bielby I wrote:
>In 2 Peter 1:7 I have a question about this term filadelphia or
>philadelphia.  I don't see it in my LXX database, on in the NT.  Does it
>originate from the name of the city in the Decapolis? Where did that name
>come from? Could someone point me to the original source of this term, if
>known?  I'm interested in connotations from Classical Greek that may cast
>a proper background for Peter's useage.

The Perseus version of the older LSJ gives the following:

phi^la^delph-ia, hê, brotherly love, Alex. 334, Ph.2.558, J.AJ2.6.9,
Babr.47.15; in NT, love of the brethren, Ep.Rom.12.10, al.

My recollection (which may have lapsed here) is that this was a word coined
by Alexander the Greek to express his conception of a universal
fellow-feeling uniting Greeks and 'barbarians' (or at least Greeks and
HELLENIZED 'barbarians'). Of course it all depends upon your definition of
ADELFOS, or of PLHSIOS, as its put in the context of the parable of the
Good Samaritan.

At any rate, I think it's safe to say that the concept FILADELFIA preceded
the naming of the city, and that the term did not derive from the name of
the city.

On the other hand, was it not the second of the Ptolemies in Alexandria who
took the surname FILADELFOS? Or was it the first? And the city in the
Decapolis may have been founded during the Ptolemaic control of
Palestine--or it may have been founded by Alexander himself. Unless I'm
mistaken there were numerous Hellenistic cities in the East that had that
name.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad at yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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