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Paul’s Letter to the Philippians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary is unavailable, but you can change that!

Paul’s short, affectionate letter to the Philippians has been much belabored of late by biblical scholars keen to analyze it in light of Greco-Roman letter-writing conventions. Yet Ben Witherington argues that Philippians shouldn’t be read as a letter at all but, rather, as a masterful piece of long-distance oratory—an extension of Paul’s oral speech, dictated to a scribe and meant to be read...

matters of praise and blame or what is honorable and noble and worthy of emulation. Paul is not so much trying to change the course of the Philippian Christians’ behavior as to keep them united and on track by providing good examples (and pointing out negative examples), the chief good exemplum being Christ himself. This discourse is a call to careful reflection and hard thinking, with beliefs sparking appropriate behavior—hence all the language about “mind” and “thinking.” Paul in Philippians is
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