Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Philippians 3:2

Philippians 3:2. Beware of the dogs. The word signifies ‘Look out,' and would rather seem to imply that these teachers were not yet at Philippi, but might come, and so the apostle bids them ‘watch.' To the Eastern mind, nothing could express greater contempt than the name ‘dog,' and there can be little doubt that this feeling was in the apostle's mind towards such false teachers. But there may also be an allusion to the contentions to which such lessons would give rise. For we see (Galatians 5:15) that in another church in which Judaizing opinions prevailed very greatly, the apostle is constrained to warn the members against ‘biting and devouring one another,' lest they should be consumed one of another.

beware of the evil workers. Evil workers, because they themselves who are circumcised do not keep the law, and their pains are bestowed only on pulling down the work of the Christian teachers, and giving nothing in its stead but mere ceremonial observance, weak and beggarly elements without any spiritual benefit.

beware of the concision. The thrice repeated ‘beware' in reference to the same persons marks the apostle's earnestness, and his sense of the peril to those who were again enslaved, after having been made free in Christ. He uses also a word for ‘concision' which is found nowhere else in the New Testament. He calls their practice mere ‘cutting,' a mutilation of the body for mutilation's sake, that, as he says elsewhere, ‘they may glory in your flesh,' that they may be proud that men consent to be outwardly marked for Jews. But in this word there may also be an allusion to the severance or cutting asunder in the church which such teachers were sure to cause. They were not only mutilators of the body, but also of the body of Christ, the Church.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Philippians 3:2

Old Testament

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