Journal: Bulletin for Biblical Research
Volume: BBR 20:1 (NA 2010)
Article: Vindicating God’s Servants In Philippi And In Philippians The Influence Of Paul’s Ministry In Philippi Upon The Composition Of Philippians 2:6–11
Author: Joseph H. Hellerman

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Vindicating God’s Servants In Philippi And In Philippians
The Influence Of Paul’s Ministry In Philippi Upon The Composition Of Philippians 2:6–11

Joseph H. Hellerman

Talbot School Of Theology

This article examines the thematic parallels between (a) Paul’s portrayal of the humiliation and exaltation of Christ in Phil 2:6–11 and (b) Luke’s story of the public shaming and vindication of Paul and Silas, while they were in Philippi during the second missionary journey. I draw on socioanthropological findings related to collective memory and social identity formation to suggest that the sequence of events surrounding the founding of the Philippian church (later related by Luke in Acts 16:11–40) functioned in an ongoing way as the community’s narrative of origins. The story thus served to legitimate the Philippian Christians’ social identity as a threatened minority group in the colony. Paul, now imprisoned in Rome (ca. a.d. 62), and quite aware of the enduring impact on the Philippians of events surrounding the founding of the church, frames his picture of Christ in Phil 2 in a way that resonates with this still-familiar story of the humiliation and vindication of the missionaries during their visit to the colony more than a decade earlier.

Key Words: Philippians 2:6–11, Acts 16:11–40, Philippi, Christology, parallels, humiliation, vindication, intertextuality, collective memory

Philippians 2:6–11 has attracted more scholarly attention than any other Pauline text-segment.1 One of the more creative avenues of exploration has involved a search elsewhere in biblical literature for intertextual

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parallels to Paul’s majestic portrayal of Christ. Several candidates have surfaced, including (a) the Johannine narrative of Jesus’ washing the feet of the disciples (John 13:1–15), (b) the story of the transfiguration in the triple tradition (Matt 17:1–8, Mark 9:2–8, Luke 9:28–36), (c) the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, as variously related in the Synoptic Gospels (Matt 4:1–11, Mark 1:12–13,