Philippians 3:19

ἀπώλεια. Paul regards the two issues of human life as σωτηρία and ἀπώλεια (1 Corinthians 1:18; 2 Corinthians 2:15-16). The latter, is a common word for “destruction”. There is much in the Epistles to support the statement of Hltzm [3]. (N.T. Th., ii., p. 50): “To be dead and to remain dead eternally, that is to him (Paul) the most dreadful of all thoughts”. (Similarly Kabisch, Eschatol. d. Paul., pp. 85, 134.) ἡ κοιλία. Most comm. compare Eupolis, Κολακ. 4, κοιλιοδαίμων, a “devotee of the belly”. κ. is probably used as a general term to include all that belongs most essentially to the bodily, fleshly life of man and therefore inevitably perishes. Istorum venter nitet: nostrum corpus atteritur: utrumque schema commutabitur (Beng.). Hort (Judaistic Christianity, p. 115 ff.) supposes that we have here the same development of Judaism which is attacked in Colossians 2:20-23. But this type of life was by no means confined to Jews. ἡ δ. ἐν τ. αἰσχ. “Who boast of what is really a disgrace to them.” Wetst. aptly quotes Polyb., 15, 23, ἐφʼ οἷς ἐχρῆν αἰσχύνεσθαι καθʼ ὑπερβολήν, ἐπὶ τούτοις ὡς καλοῖς σεμνύνεσθαι καὶ μεγαλαυχεῖν. Cf. Proverbs 26:11, ἔστιν αἰσχύνη ἐπάγουσα ἁμαρτίαν, καὶ ἔστιν αἰσχύνη δόξα καὶ χάρις. (So also Sir 4:21.) This was apparently a current proverb. The limiting of αἰσχ. here to sensual sins is doubtful. οἱ τ. ἐπίγ. φρον. It seems reasonable to explain the nominative as a resumption of the opening words of the sentence, summing up tersely the character in view. Cf. Mark 12:38-40. τὰ ἐπίγ. are opposed to τὰ ἔμπροσθεν or τὰ ἄνω. Curiously parallel is the Homeric phrase (Odyss., 21, 85), νήπιοι ἀγροιῶται ἐφημέρια φρονέοντες.

[3] tzm. Holtzmann.