Unity and or Disunity? – Seeking a Theme for Philippians

Reed‟s conclusion that “The very genre of the discourse, namely a personal hortatory letter, allows for multiple purposes and themes,” does not fit well with some scholarly approaches to Philippians.78 Reed contends that the desire to find a macro-theme for the letter has led to top-down approaches where a theme is identified and a structure imposed on the interpretation of the text to justify the claim.79 Reed himself highlights the work of Black (especially as Black also uses discourse analysis) but other scholars appear to be concerned to identify a macro-structure or an overall theme for Philippians.

One example of the desire to find a macro-theme is the work of Davorin Peterlin, who argues that “the topic of disunity is the element which thematically binds the whole letter together.”80

He constructs a historical context for the Philippian letter that postulates disunity among the members, strife between Epaphroditus and some of the others, and problems between Paul and some or all of them.81 Peterlin builds a picture from verses in the text and then uses this picture to interpret the text as a whole. For example, he draws on the

77

Ibid., 415-8.

78

Ibid., 414.

79 _{Ibid., see extensive footnote 25.}

80 _{Davorin Peterlin, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians in the Light of Disunity in the Church, Supplement to}

NovT vol. LXXIX (Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill, 1995), 217.

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concept of the “thankless thanks” to say that in 4:10-20 Paul is walking a tightrope of

thanking those who sent him some money, while not offending those who saw this as against the will of God. Paul thanks them, but tells them they should not have sent the money, he would have been fine without it, thus satisfying both sides in the reconstructed dispute. In his conclusion he offers a detailed reconstruction of events as fact-based upon his proposed reading of the situation, without any external evidence to support it.82 Peterlin enters into a “hermeneutical spiral” where he has identified a theme, sought it in the text and used that evidence to support the initial thesis.83 The text is presumed to reflect the central theme of Paul‟s thought and read in a manner that supports the original thesis.

Oakes offers a reason for establishing that Philippians is primarily concerned with disunity and division in the Philippian community. The reason is that it places Philippians in the “main stream” of Pauline thought. He argues that regarding it as a “friendly „chat‟, with a rather alien outburst in chapter 3” leads to it being “disconnected” from Pauline studies.84

In contrast to Peterlin he bases his study on an archaeological model that challenges an

assumption made by most commentators that: “Philippi was almost unique among the cities Paul addressed in his letters: it differed from other places he evangelized because of its Roman-ness and lack of a Jewish community.”85 Oakes shows this to be false and that the Philippian community was not a wealthy comfortable church, but one that suffered economic hardship, heightened by the decision to follow Jesus.86 He does this by a thorough analysis of evidence from inscriptions and social data. He argues that the town was predominantly Greek, with wealthy army veterans only making up only 1.5 to 5 per cent of the population. The town was probably a service town for the wider agricultural population and unlikely to

82

Ibid,. 219-24.

83

Ralph P. Martin, “A Centre of Paul‟s Theology,” in Dictionary of Paul and his Letters, eds. G.F. Hawthorne, R.P. Martin, and D.G. Reid (Leicester: IVP, 1993), 93.

84 _{Peter Oakes, Philippians- From people to letter, SNTS 110 (Cambridge: CUP, 2001), 212.} 85 _{Reumann, Philippians, 3.}

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have been rich.87 Overall he estimates Philippi to have been 40 per cent Roman and 60 per cent Greek, with the power lying in the hands of the Romans. He argues that this balance would have been reflected in the make-up of the church.88

Oakes is careful and detailed in his construction of his archaeological model, but, in contrast, his missiological assumptions are sweeping and offer no external reference points. In his analysis of the likely make-up of the church he argues that farmers would not have been able to hear the gospel from Paul because Paul would have been more likely to build links with craftspeople and traders. Missiological research in previously unreached areas shows that indigenous people develop their own means of primary evangelism.89 Oakes‟ missiological assumption is flawed. His conclusion of the make-up of the church is possible, but missiological experience makes it unlikely. This does not weaken his case that wealthy army veterans, predominantly Roman in culture and outlook, did not dominate the church. It strengthens it, opening the possibility of the inclusion of the rural population in the church. However, it illustrates how he uses missiological claims without evaluating missiological models.

More problematic is another assumption. Oakes argues that the majority of the town and the church were mainly poor and politically excluded. His model leads him to discuss the economic implications of accepting Christ, terms and argues that suffering for Christ was an economic reality for the members of the church. Allegiance to Christ would lead, he argues, to further exclusion from the wealth-creating structures of the community.90 He makes his case well, but following this he makes a category jump from his commendable

87 _{Ibid., 17. See chart. Also, 53-4.} 88 _{Ibid., 76.}

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For example, see Elizabeth Knox, Signal on the Mountain (Canberra: Acorn Press, 1991), 115-6. The community of Ibwijili begged Price, a white missionary, to settle amongst them but as they had not heard anyone for eight years they sent the chief‟s brother to the town of Mpwapwa to receive and impart instruction and so produced their own missionary. Similar innovations lead to the seemingly instant conversion of villages not visited by missionaries. This is not an isolated case. Further detailed studies of the significance of

indigenous evangelists in the same region see Mwita Akiri, "The Growth of Christianity in Ugogo and Ukaguru (Central Tanzania): A Socio-Historical Analysis of the Role of Indigenous Agents 1876-1933" (PhD diss., University of Edinburgh, 1999).

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work to discover the social-economic situation of the Philippian Church to a sociological and missiological conclusion that the evidence does not support. His proposal is that “the

presence of so substantial suffering will always have an effect on the issue of unity in a church.” This claim is not substantiated within his thesis.91

He argues, reasonably, that “suffering in a church increases the importance of unity.”92

The desire for unity can

sociologically increase in a community finding itself vulnerable to persecution. However he goes on to argue that “suffering also produces forces which threaten unity.”93

This leads him to an exegetical model which places the disunity of the Philippians as the key to

understanding the text.94 It might be argued that wealth and the avoidance of suffering in the Corinthian Church gave the room for disunity that was not available to the poorer

Macedonian congregations. He does not offer any evidence in support of his claim that poverty and persecution inevitably bring increased risk of disunity. The present divisions in churches exist in wealthy parts of the world where Christians are not persecuted.95 The jump from significant and legitimate archaeological model to unsubstantiated conjecture seems to be motivated by a desire to place Philippians as a key Pauline text, defined as one

concerning disputes and divisions.96

Hawthorne and O‟Brien both regard the relationship as the primary focus of

Philippians. Hawthorne lists eight purposes for the writing of the letter with first being: “The simplest purpose to imagine is that, having a deep affection for the Philippians (cf. 4:1), he

91 _{Ibid., 99-100.} 92 _{Ibid., 100.} 93 _{Ibid., 102.} 94 Ibid., 121-8.

95 _{In the Anglican Communion, There have been protracted divisions and extensive lawsuits in the Diocese}

of Virginia – among the wealthiest dioceses in TEC. Division is also acute in Anglican churches in poor nations such as Tanzania. See Mkunga Mtingele “Leadership and Conflict in an African Church: An Enquiry into the Context Nature, Causes and Consequences of Conflict and Conflict Management in the Anglican Church of Tanzania during the period of Indigenous Leadership Circa 1960 – Circa 2000” (PhD diss., The Open University, 2004). Also, division occurs where Christians face persecution, such as Sudan. The causes of conflict and division in churches are complex and cannot be accounted for solely by poverty and persecution.

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wanted to write them (sic).”97 O‟Brien‟s first two listed reasons for the writing of the letter are also about relationships: Paul had an opportunity to write and wanted to communicate with his friends thanking them for their gift and telling them of his situation.98 However, both frequently place issues to do with the relationship between Paul and the Philippians in the footnotes of their commentaries, rather than in the body of the text. Relationship is viewed as the key purpose of the letter, but not considered interesting in the interpretation of the letter.