FRONEW in Philippians
Mike Sangrey
mike at sojurn.lns.pa.us
Sat Oct 7 18:12:36 EDT 2000
No question this time, just an observation or two. If you have feedback
pro or con, that would be appreciated.
Have you ever noticed the phrase TO LOIPON, ADELFOI at 3:1 and 4:8 in
Philippians? I've thought for some time now Paul is saying, "In summary,
brothers, ..." My current viewpoint is this structures the letter into
three main parts: 1:12-3:1, 3:2-4:9, and 4:10-4:20 and these correspond
to the three groups addressed by the letter: the general church, the
overseers, the deacons.
Now, what has caught my interest is Paul's use of FRONEW which occurs
10 times (!) in this short letter. There are three occurrences which
are particularly prominent.
In 2:2 it occurs twice (!) and once more in verse 5. These occurrences,
of course, immediately proceed in introductory fashion the wonderful
example of Christ's humility. In other words, they introduce the apex
of this section of the letter. The occurrence in verse 5 appears to be
the reason behind the illustration. "Do FRONEW just like this:..."
Another set occurs in 3:15 (twice again!) and once more in verse 19.
Again, this is near the center of the section. This time Paul has just
shifted gears from presenting himself as an example and is now applying
the example to the "mature ones" (hOSOI OUN TELEIOI).
FRONEW occurs once in 4:2 in Paul's counsel to Euodia and Syntyche,
two ladies singled out for a quite emphatic pleading: EUODIAN PARAKALW
KAI SUNTUCHN PARAKALW.
Lastly, FRONEW occurs twice again (!) in 4:10, right at the beginning
of the last section.
Do you think Paul is trying to get the Philippians to maybe FRONEW a
little more, or better, to FRONEW in a particular way?
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