Philippians 4:7

Hpt [30]. would put no stop at the close of Philippians 4:6. Whether there be a stop or not, this verse is manifestly a kind of apodosis to the preceding. “If you make your requests, etc., … then the peace … shall guard,” etc. ἡ εἰρ. τ. Θ. Paul's favourite thought of that health and harmonious relation which prevail in the inner life as the result of reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. Cf. Matthew 11:28. It would be an undue restriction of his thought to imagine that he only refers to agreement between members of the Church, although, no doubt, that idea is here included. “This peace is like some magic mirror, by the dimness growing on which we may discern the breath of an unclean spirit that would work us ill” (Rendel Harris, Memoranda Sacra, p. 130; the quotation skilfully catches the spiritual conception before Paul's mind). To share anxiety with God is to destroy its corroding power and to be calmed by His peace. Peace is used as a name of God in the Talmud (see Taylor, Jewish Fathers, pp. 25 26). ἡ ὑπερέχ. πάντα νοῦν. “Which surpasses every thought, all our conception.” (So also Chr [31]., Erasm., Weizs., Moule, Von Soden, etc.). This meaning seems inevitable from the parallel in Ephesians 3:20, τῷ δὲ δυναμένῳ ὑπὲρ πάντα ποιῆσαι ὑπερεκπερισσοῦ ὧν αἰτούμεθα ἢ νοοῦμεν, and Cf. Philippians 4:19, τὴν ὑπερβάλλουσαν τῆς γνώσεως ἀγάπην τοῦ Χ. Space forbids the enumeration of the many interpretations given. Wordsworth (Prelude, Bk. 14) defines this peace as “repose in moral judgments”. νοῦν … καρδίας … νοήματα. νοῦς, very much what we call “reason,” in Paul's view, belongs to the life of the σάρξ. It is the highest power in that life, and affords, as it were, the material on which the Divine πνεῦμα can work. It remains in those who possess the πνεῦμα as that part of the inner man which is exposed to earthly influences and relations. (See an admirable note in Ws [32].) καρδία is “a more undefined concept, side by side with νοῦς ” (so Lüdemann, Anthropol., p. 16 ff.). It has to do not merely with feelings but with will. νοήματα are products of the νοῦς, thoughts or purposes. Paul would probably regard them as being contained in the καρδία. The word is found five times in 2 Cor. and nowhere else in N.T. φρουρήσει. A close parallel is 1 Peter 1:5, τοὺς ἐν δυνάμει Θεοῦ φρουρουμένους διὰ πίστεως εἰς σωτηρίαν. Hicks (Class. Review, i., pp. 7 8) presses the figure of a garrison keeping ward over a town, and observes that one of the most important elements in the history of the Hellenistic period was the garrisoning of the cities both in Greece and Asia Minor by the successors of Alexander the Great. Cf. Galatians 3:23. The peace of God is the garrison of the soul in all the experiences of its life, defending it from the external assaults of temptation or anxiety, and disciplining all lawless desires and imaginations within, that war against its higher purposes. ἐν Χ. Ἰ. Christ Jesus is the sure refuge and the atmosphere of security.

[30] Haupt.

[31] Chrysostom.

[32]. Weiss.