FRONEW in Philippians

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Oct 8 07:14:41 EDT 2000


At 6:12 PM -0400 10/7/00, Mike Sangrey wrote:
>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.

--While I'd agree that the body of the extant letter falls into these
divisions, the integrity of the letter has always seemed questionable to me
to some degree in view of the abruptness of the transition from 3:1 to 3:2.
As for "the three groups addressed by the letter: the general church, the
overseers, the deacons," that seems to me to be speculation based upon
assumptions about the Sitz-im-Leben of the letter(s) and ecclesiological
assumptions about institutional structure and offices that can't be very
readily justified on the basis of internal evidence from the letter.

>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?

--While it is certainly interesting that the verb appears thus frequently
in Philippians, it needs to be remembered (a) that the root FREN/FRON was
regularly associated in Greek cultural traditions with an "intellectualist"
conception of morality and the notion of prudent, deliberate self-direction
from the era of the recurrent Homeric formulaic line,

	ALLO DE TOI EREW, SU D' ENI FRESI BALLEO SHiSI,

and (b) that while one might settle upon a basic sense signaled by English
"think" for this verb, yet there is a range of sorts of thinking indicated
by the verb in its different instances; in 4:2, where Euodia and Suntuche
aare urged TO AUTO FRONEIN EN KURIWi, I would assume they are being asked
to reach a reconciliation of some sort of quarrel; in 4:10 TO hUPER EMOU
FRONEIN and the immediately following EF' hWi KAI EFRONEITE seems more to
refer to "thoughtfulness" in terms of a special kindness done by the
Philippian congregation on Paul's behalf. The most interesting instances
are those at the beginning of chapter 2 where a mind-set or attitude or
perspective governing action is involved, is exhorted upon the whole
congregation and referred to the perspective assumed by Jesus; I suppose
3:19 (TA EPIGEIA FRONOUNTES) might fall into the same category with its
reference to an "earthbound perspective." 3:15 seems a bit more problematic
to me: hOSOI OUN TELEIOI, TOUTO FRONWMEN, KAI EI TI hETERWS FRONEITE, KAI
TOUTO hO QEOS hUMIN APOKALUYEI. I think that here too it is a matter of
attitude  or perspective governing action and specifically that just
described in terms of Paul's paradoxically non-competitive race-track
metaphor of the athlete contending for a prize--so that the stance or
attitude in view is quite a different one from that of the opening verses
of chapter 2, although certainly it's not inconsistent with that stance. In
1:7 (KAQWS ESTIN DIKAION EMOI TOUTO FRONEIN hUPER PANTWN HUMWN DIA TO ECEIN
ME EN THi KARDIAi hUMAS ...) again the TOUTO in TOUTO FRONEIN must refer
back to the immediately preceding confidence expressed by Paul about the
Philippian congregation (6 PEPOIQWS AUTO TOUTO, hOTI hO ENARXAMENOS EN
hUMIN ERGON AGAQON EPITELESEI ACRI hHMERAS CRISTOU IHSOU), so that he's
saying he has a right to make that assumption about them because of the way
they've been his close associates in his evangelistic efforts and the
trials associated with them.

In sum, while I think these instances of FRONEIN are indeed interesting and
worth noting, I'm more skeptical about any unique or special emphasis upon
FRONEIN in Philippians as a whole, inasmuch as the nuance of the verb
really does shift from one context to the next.

-- 

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
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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