Book Comment: The Epistles to the Philippians and to Philemon

The full title of this book published in Edinburgh in 1897 is A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistles to the Philippians and to Philemon. The writer was Marvin R. Vincent, the Baldwin Professor of Sacred Literature in Union Theological Seminary in New York, New York. In this book, Dr. Vincent defends the Pauline authorship of the letters.


The book is quite technical and requires at least a rudimentary understanding (like mine) of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. Dr. Vincent examines the Greek text of both books, word by word, phrase by phrase, and describes the usages of the words in other literature of the same time period. He discusses various possible interpretations of certain words and passages and gives his reasons, based on Greek grammar, lexicology, and consistency of biblical interpretation, for making the translations which he does.

Vincent makes many interesting observations, such as the following on Philippians 1:5:

“For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;” (ἐπὶ τῇ κοινωνίᾳ ὑμῶν εἰς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης ἡμέρας ἄχρι τοῦ νῦν). τοῦ is the definite article “the,” so, literally, this is “the now.”  Vincent says this is “only in Paul,” which may mean that Paul was the writer who introduced the modern idea of “the now.”

This is a commentary which respects the Scriptures it examines. As he says in his preface to the book, "The main object in this commentary has been to exhibit St. Paul's thought in these two letters ..."