So then3, my friends, how dear you are to me and how I miss you! How happy you make me, and how proud I am of you!—this, dear friends, is how you should stand firm in your life in the Lord. Euodia and Syntyche, please, I beg you, try to agree as sisters in the Lord. And you too, my faithful partner, I want you to help these women; for they have worked hard with me to spread the gospel, together with Clement and all my other fellow workers, whose names are in God’s book of life.
Phil 4:1-3
We have a list of people who are mentioned, some of them by name:-
- Euodia ✔
- Syntyche ✔
- You / My faithful partner <–
- Clement
- All my other fellow workers, whose names are in God’s book of life
As you know from earlier Gems, there is much debate over these three verses.
Here are the questions in focus for this Gem.
- Paul then refers the matter to his faithful partner in order for him or her to help Euodia and Syntyche, but he doesn’t let on as to who he was talking to. So debate rages among the commentators and those of us who want to know as to who Paul’s faithful partner was. Who was Paul’s faithful partner?
- Or put another way: who was Suzugos?
- What was Paul’s special partner to do? Was (s)he to help Euodia and Syntych only or did the task include Clement and all the other workers for the gospel as well?
- Or were the two women to be helped by the whole body?
- Or was the whole body: Euodia, Syntyche, Paul’s faithful partner, Clement and all the other workers being reminded to live in harmony and agreement?
Well, there you have it. There are a number of unstated things or things left hanging from this text. The first is who Paul’s faithful partner was and why he didn’t mentioned the name of his faithful partner? It just seems curious that he, Paul, would refer to “my faithful partner” but not mention them by name. Especially so when he has named two ‘unknown’ women who perhaps could have remained nameless, but doesn’t mention his faithful partner by name. Yes curious is the right word. Which makes me all the more convinced that Paul deliberately named these two women because of the meaning of their names. That being the case, why doesn’t he mention his faithful partner by name? Is it to protect them from being singled out for being mentioned? There is much speculation about that as you can imagine.
The candidates for Paul’s faithful friend are:
- Timothy
- Silas
- Epaphroditus
- Lydia
- The husband of Euodia
- The husband of Syntyche
- Paul’s wife
- Suzugos or Syzugos
- Christ Himself
You can tell that people have been thinking about it over the years. You can also tell that some of that thinking has been fanciful. The first four are logical, reasonable guesses based on the names being those of real-life-people who were in Philippi at one time or another with Paul. The others are a mixture of fanciful speculation or in one choice (Suzugos) deduced from the text. There is shaky evidence as to whether Paul had a wife or not. Many have speculated about the possibility but I am not going to go into all the “evidence”. To come up with this list I have not scoured the commentaries; I have better things to do. I have simply used the Exegetical Helps on Philippians to do the job for me1.
However, the listing of Suzugos or Syzugos is another matter altogether. Suzugos comes into the list because of the Greek text.
σε συζυγε γνησιε
you {yoke fellow} {genuine or true}
Here’s how the Bible Versions handle this person:
- (ABP) you [fellow-companion genuine]
- (BBE) you, true helper in my work
- (ERV) my friend who has served with me so faithfully
- (ESV) you also, true companion,
- (GNB) you too, my faithful partner,
- (KJV) thee also, true yokefellow,
- (LITV) you, true yoke-fellow,
- (NLT) you, my true partner,
- (TLB) you, my true teammate,
- (TPT) my dear friend and burden-bearer
These Versions have assumed συζυγε is a proper name Syzugus:
- (CJB) you, loyal Syzygus,
- (GW) you, Syzugus, my true partner,
- (MSG) And, oh, yes, Syzygus, since you’re right there to help them work things out,
Paul himself or his amanuensis has turned [συζυγε] (suzuge) into Suzuge which is the vocative2 form in Greek for a proper name in the nominative case Suzugos or Syzugos. Hence these three versions opt for naming this person Syzygus or Syzugus. So our judgement call if we are to translate these words is based on whether we take the Greek word [συζυγε] as the vocative form of the name Suzugos or whether we take it as a noun to mean “companion”, “friend”, “helper”, “partner” or “yoke fellow”.
I have not yet addressed the matter of what this group were to do, nor who was to do it. But I think this Gem has grown too long already so I will leave Paul’s instructions for the next Gem. I have already explained enough to turn you, my readers into Bible translators. So my suggestion is that YOU decide how you would handle this verse and how you would translate it. Would you choose to interpret συζυγε as a name or a statement of what he or she was to Paul – friend, teammate or partner? You will also have to make a decision as to who you are asking to help these two women: Suzugos or your true mate or Clement and your other fellow work mates, or all of the aforementioned. I have left you with a significant translation decision to make over a seemingly insignificant verse.
Have fun on deciding who Paul’s faithful partner was, however allow me to encourage you to take an educated guess. Your guess is as good as any commentator or translator, including me, because anyone who comes to a conclusion has to do so on the basis of speculation. So feel free, go ahead and guess. Your guess is as good as mine.
Next Gem we will look into what Paul was asking the faithful partner to do and we will hopefully finish off the rest of the questions and determine which Clement Paul is referring to here in his letter to the Philippians.
Welcome to the world of Bible translation and interpretation.
1 Jake J. Muller in the New International Commentary on the New Testament has summarised the literature for us in The Epistles of Paul to the Philippians and to Philemon [NIC]
2 Vocative is a Greek case form which indicates a proper name, pronoun or adjective is being used to address or call out to someone. e.g. “Hey Ian”, “Hey You”, “Hey Partner”
Action without a name, a who attached to it, is meaningless.
Hanna Arendt
Some men do as much to begrudge others a good name, as they want one themselves: and perhaps that is the reason of it.
William Penn
Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones.
Shannon L. Alder
Our names are labels, plainly printed on the bottled essence of our past behaviour.
Logan Pearsall Smith
Pen names are masks that allow us to unmask ourselves.
Terri Guillemets