40 Fun Facts About Book of Philippians

Philippians 4:13, written about facing plenty and hunger, says Paul can do all things through Christ who does what?

Strengthens him is the secret Paul gives for coping with whatever comes, and the line before explains it: he has learned how to be full and how to be hungry.

Philippians 4:4 repeats which one-word command twice, telling readers to do it in the Lord always?

Rejoice comes from a man in chains, which is why it lands so hard; Johann Albrecht Bengel summed up the whole letter as Paul saying he is glad and telling his readers to be glad too.

In the hymn of Philippians 2:10, what should bow at the name of Jesus, on earth and beneath it?

Every knee is the phrase, and it travelled far: a third-century silver amulet found at Frankfurt quotes this passage in Latin and is among the earliest evidence of Christianity north of the Alps.

Writing in chains at Philippians 1:21, Paul says that for him to live is Christ and to die is what?

Gain is his word for death, because he expects it to bring him straight to Christ; two verses on he admits he is torn, since staying alive would be more use to the Philippians.

According to Philippians 4:7, what surpasses all understanding and guards hearts and minds in Christ Jesus?

The peace of God is the promise attached to the verse before, which tells anxious readers to stop worrying and take every request to God in prayer.

Philippians 3:2 opens a warning about rival teachers by telling readers to beware of which animals?

Dogs is the insult Paul throws at teachers who demanded circumcision, in the same breath as evil workers; a few lines later he lists his own Jewish credentials to show he could outdo them.

Acts 16 says which seller of purple from Thyatira was baptised at Philippi and then hosted Paul?

Lydia is regarded as the first documented convert to Christianity in Europe; she heard Paul at a riverside prayer meeting outside the city and pressed him to stay at her house.

In Philippians 3:14, Paul presses toward the mark for what reward of God's high calling in Christ Jesus?

The prize is still ahead of him, Paul insists: two verses earlier he says he has not already attained it, so he keeps pressing on.

Philippians 2:12 tells believers to work out their own salvation with what?

Fear and trembling gave Søren Kierkegaard the title of his 1843 work on Abraham, and Paul balances the phrase at once: the next verse says it is God who is at work in them.

The ruins of Philippi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2016, lie in which modern country?

Greece holds the site, north-west of the modern city of Kavala, and Paul is believed to have preached on European soil for the first time there.

In the King James Version, Philippians 1:1 greets the saints at Philippi along with which two groups of officers?

Bishops and deacons could as well be translated overseers and helpers, and their roles were not yet what those titles later came to mean in the church.

Which word does the King James Version use at Philippians 1:8 and 2:1 where newer Bibles speak of affection?

Bowels reached 2:1 late: the commentator Handley Moule noted that no English version used the word there before 1582, and the Revised Version of 1881 switched to tender mercies and compassions.

In the King James Version of Philippians 1:27, which word, now meaning talk, describes a whole way of living?

Conversation meant behaviour to the 1611 translators, not chat; the Berean Standard Bible renders the same instruction as conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel.

Philippians 2:3 warns against strife and vainglory and says each person should esteem others as what?

Better than themselves is the standard, and Paul adds that nobody should look only to their own interests; the hymn about Christ's humility follows straight after as the model.

In the King James Version of Philippians 2:6, Christ thought it not what to be equal with God?

Robbery translates a word scholars still argue over: some read it as something to be grasped after, others as an idiom for taking advantage of a status already held.

Philippians 2:7 says Christ made himself of no reputation and took on the form of what?

A servant is the King James wording; the New Revised Standard Version puts it more starkly as a slave, the opposite extreme from the form of God in the verse before.

Philippians 2:8 says Christ humbled himself and became what unto death, even death on a cross?

Obedient is the word, and the cross marks the lowest point of the hymn; the turn comes at once, as the very next verse says God therefore highly exalted him.

Philippians 2:11 says what should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father?

Every tongue confessing Jesus as Lord closes the hymn, a passage some scholars believe was composed before the letter itself and then quoted by Paul.

The closing lines of the hymn in Philippians 2:10–11 quote an oath recorded by which Old Testament prophet?

Isaiah has God swear that all will bow to him alone, so the hymn gives Jesus a homage first reserved for God the Father.

The Roman Missal appoints the hymn of Philippians 2:5–11 as the epistle reading for which day of the church year?

Palm Sunday gets the reading in the Roman Missal and the Revised Common Lectionary alike, so the hymn's story of descent and exaltation is heard as Holy Week begins.

Philippians 2:7, where Christ empties himself in many translations, gives theology which term for that self-emptying?

Kenosis comes from the verb the verse uses for emptying; the noun itself never appears in the New Testament, though the verb turns up five times in Paul's letters.

Which co-worker does Paul hope to send to Philippi in Philippians 2:19, praising him as a son serving with a father?

Timothy is also named beside Paul in the letter's opening line, and Paul says he has no one else like him who will care so sincerely about the Philippians.

Philippians 2:27 says Epaphroditus, the messenger who carried the church's gift to Paul, suffered what misfortune?

A near-fatal illness struck him on the mission, and he was distressed mainly because the Philippians had heard about it; Paul sent him home and told the church to honour men like him.

Listing his Jewish credentials in Philippians 3:5, Paul names which tribe of Israel as his own?

Benjamin comes up again in Romans 11:1, where Paul repeats the claim; in Philippians it sits in a list of reasons he could boast, all of which he then sets aside for Christ.

In Philippians 3:5, Paul says that as touching the law he was a member of which Jewish group?

The Pharisees were known for careful observance of the law, which is Paul's point: by that measure he calls himself blameless, then says none of it counts beside knowing Christ.

In Philippians 3:7, Paul says the credentials he once prized he now counts as what for Christ?

Loss is his verdict on a spotless religious record, a reversal the Jesuit scholar Robert Murray called a transvaluation of values, borrowing a phrase from Friedrich Nietzsche.

In the King James Version of Philippians 3:8, Paul counts everything he gave up as what, to win Christ?

Dung is the blunt King James choice, softened to rubbish in the New King James Version; Paul applies it to his pedigree, his sect and his moral record alike.

In Philippians 3:10, Paul says he wants to know Christ and the power of his what?

Resurrection power comes paired with something harder: in the same breath Paul asks to share in Christ's sufferings and to be made like him in his death.

Philippians 3:13 names the one thing Paul does: reaching for what lies ahead while doing what with the past?

Forgetting it is half of his one thing; the other half is straining forward, and he tells mature believers to take the same view.

Philippians 3:20 tells readers in the Roman colony of Philippi that their true citizenship is where?

In heaven is a pointed answer for this audience: Philippi had been refounded as a colony for Roman army veterans and was run as a miniature Rome under Roman law.

Which church leader of Smyrna, later martyred, wrote his own surviving letter to the Christians of Philippi?

Polycarp's letter is the sole surviving work attributed to him, and in it he reminds the Philippians that Paul once wrote to them and urges them to study that letter carefully.

In Philippians 4:2, Paul urges Syntyche and which other woman of the church at Philippi to agree in the Lord?

Euodia appears as Euodias in the King James Version, a male form of the name unknown in writings of the period, which makes the quarrel look like one between a man and a woman.

Which fellow labourer does Paul name in Philippians 4:3, a man who shares his name with an early pope?

Clement is named beside the women who had worked with Paul for the gospel; whether he later became Pope Clement I has been debated, but modern scholarship suggests there is no connection.

Philippians 4:3 says the names of Paul's fellow labourers at Philippi are written where?

The book of life holds these unnamed helpers, Paul says, right after he asks an unidentified true yokefellow to help two women of the church settle a dispute.

Philippians 4:6 tells anxious readers to make requests to God by prayer and supplication, along with what?

Thanksgiving is the ingredient that sets this prayer apart, and the King James Version words the opening as a warning to be careful for nothing, an older way of saying do not be anxious.

In Philippians 4:11, Paul says he has learned to be what in whatever state he finds himself?

Content is what Paul calls a lesson learned, and he spells out the range in the next verse: he knows how to be brought low and how to abound.

In Philippians 4:22, Paul passes on special greetings from believers who belong to whose household?

Caesar's household, meaning the emperor's household, is probably mentioned as a hint of how far Paul's contacts had reached while he was in chains; chapter 1 says his case was known throughout the palace.

Philippians 4:16 recalls the church at Philippi sending Paul aid more than once while he was in which city?

Thessalonica was Paul's next major stop after Philippi, and he says no other church had partnered with him in giving and receiving in those early days.

Acts 16 says an earthquake at Philippi freed Paul from the stocks and led which official to be baptised that night?

The jailer was about to fall on his sword, assuming his captives had fled, when Paul shouted that everyone was still there; he then washed their wounds and took them home for a meal.

Acts 16 says Paul sailed toward Philippi after a night vision of a man from which region pleading for help?

Macedonia was the home of the man in the vision, and Paul's party took it as a call from God; Acts describes Philippi as the chief city of that district and a Roman colony.