Philippians 1:10

δοκ. τὰ διαφ. Cf. Romans 2:18, δοκιμάζεις τὰ διαφ. Two possible renderings. (1) “Approve things that are excellent.” (2) “Test things that differ,” i.e., good and bad. Lft [4] opposes (2) on the ground that “it requires no keen moral sense to discriminate between good and bad”. But was not this precisely the great difficulty for heathen-Christians? Theophyl. defines τὰ διαφ. by τί δεῖ πρᾶξαι καὶ τί δεῖ μὴ πρᾶξαι. The idea seems to be borne out by the following εἰλικρ. and ἀπρόσκ. We are therefore compelled to decide for (2). “The fundamental choice arrived at in believing has to be reiterated continually in a just application of it to a world of varying and sometimes perplexing cases” (Rainy, Expos. Bib., p. 37). There are exx. of τὰ διαφ. in chap. 3 passim. Of course this δοκιμάζειν is made possible by the guidance of the indwelling Spirit. It shows us “the highest point which Paul reaches in his treatment of moral questions” (Hitzm., N.T. Theol., ii., p. 149, who points out as instances of his delicate moral tact the precepts given in 1 Corinthians 8-10, Romans 14). εἰλικρ. κ. ἀπρόσκ. There is no warrant for adhering to the common derivation of εἰλικρ. from κρίνω compounded with either εἵλη (“heat of sun”) and so = “tested by sunbeam,” or εἵλη (= ἴλη “troops”) and so “separated into ranks”. The word is the equiv. of Lat. sincerus, “pure,” “unmixed”. A favourite term in Plato for pure intellect and also for the soul purged from sense. Cf. Phaedo, 66 [5], 67 [6], 81 B. Naturally transferred to the moral sphere. T. H. Green (Two Sermons, p. 41) describes εἰλικρίνεια as “perfect openness towards God”. ἀπρόσκ. will then mean, in all probability, “not giving offence” to others, the obverse side of εἰλικρ. This sense seems to us to be proved by 1 Corinthians 10:32 with the context, which is simply an expansion of Paul's thought here. Cf. also 1 John 2:10. εἰς ἡμέραν Χρ. εἰς has the meanings “with a view to” and “until,” which here shade off into each other. The conception of ἡμ. Χ. “grew in Paul's hands to a whole æon, lasting from the παρουσία to the τέλος ” (Beysch., N.T. Th., ii., p. 273).

[4] Lightfoot.

[5] Codex Alexandrinus (sæc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).

[6] Codex Alexandrinus (sæc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).