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 remaining questions related to the faithful partner.
I told you in the previous Gem we would 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. As I began to dig into the nuances of the matter of what the faithful partner was being asked to do, I realised to do it thoroughly I needed to deal with some deeper subtleties. So I will certainly not be moving on to Clement and other matters in this Gem.
What exactly was the faithful partner asked to do? And to whom?
There are three possibilities that arise from the sentence that Paul has given us in his letter to the Philippians related to what the faithful partner was asked to do:
- Help Euodia and Syntyche with their differences.
- Help Euodia and Syntyche with their differences and for Clement and the other fellow workers to help them as well.
- For the faithful partner to help Euodia, Syntyche, Clement and the other fellow workers to work together for unity while having the mind of Christ.
Looking into the details of what Paul “wrote” I found Paul’s task had many nuances for us. This particular sentence is a little complicated in terms of how its parts fit together. I have told you before that punctuation is important (Gem 1952–1953) when it comes to communicating clearly. I was surprised to find so much variation between the versions of the Bible when it came to the punctuation of this verse.
The Punctuation of Philippians 4:3
ναὶ ἐρωτῶ καὶ σέ, σύζυγε γνήσιε, συλλαμβάνου αὐταῖς, αἵτινες ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ συνήθλησάν μοι μετὰ καὶ Κλήμεντος καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν συνεργῶν μου, ὧν τὰ ὀνόματα ἐν βίβλῳ ζωῆς.
Yes {I ask} also you, partner faithful, help them, {those who} in the Gospel {struggled with} me with also Clement and the remaining {co-workers} {with me} {of whom} the names in book {of life}
The punctuation of the Greek is marked by black commas in the places where commas appear.
Here below I have laid out this verse (Phil 4:3) as the versions punctuate it. I was surprised to find the punctuation of this verse in the versions has all been handled rather too freely. That is, where the translators felt to punctuate it in places other than where Paul or his scribe punctuated it. Where that has occurred I have marked the added commas or other punctuation marks in red in the English versions below.
Commas Matching the Greek: (following the Greek closely)
(ESV) Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Commas throughout the verse:
- (ASV) Yea, I beseech thee also, true yokefellow, help these women, for they labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life.
- (BBE) And I make request to you, true helper in my work, to see to the needs of those women who took part with me in the good news, with Clement and the rest of my brother-workers whose names are in the book of life.
- (JUB) And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women who laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also and with my other fellow labourers, whose names are in the book of life.
- (KJV) And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow labourers, whose names are in the book of life.
- (LITV) And I also ask you, true yoke-fellow, help those who struggled along with me and with Clement in the gospel, and the rest, fellow-workers with me, whose names are in the Book of Life.
- (LSV) and I also ask you, genuine yoke-fellow, be assisting those women who strove along with me in the good news, with Clement also, and the others, my fellow-workers, whose names [are] in [the] Scroll of Life.
- (NENT) Yea, I ask thee also, genuine yokefellow, help them, who have shared my struggles with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life.
- (RV) Yea, I beseech thee also, true yokefellow, help these women, for they laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life.
- (TS2009) And I also ask you, true companion, help these women who laboured with me in the Good News, with Qlemes (what’s this?) also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.
Full Stops Used:
(CEV) And, my true partner, I ask you to help them. These women have worked together with me and with Clement and with the others in spreading the good news. Their names are now written in the book of life.
(MSG) And, oh, yes, Syzygus, since you’re right there to help them work things out, do your best with them. These women worked for the Message hand in hand with Clement and me, and with the other veterans—worked as hard as any of us. Remember, their names are also in the book of life.
(GW) Yes, I also ask you, Syzugus, my true partner, to help these women. They fought beside me to spread the Good News along with Clement and the rest of my coworkers, whose names are in the Book of Life.
(ISV) Yes, I also ask you, my true partner, to help these women. They have worked hard with me to advance the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.
(NET) Yes, I say also to you, true companion, help them. They have struggled together in the gospel ministry along with me and Clement and my other coworkers, whose names are in the book of life.
(NLT) And I ask you, my true partner, to help these two women, for they worked hard with me in telling others the Good News. They worked along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are written in the Book of Life.
(TPT) I would like my dear friend and burden-bearer to help resolve this issue, for both women have diligently labored with me for the prize and helped in spreading the revelation of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my coworkers. All of their names are written in the Book of Life.
And a Colon used:
(ERV) For this I make a special request to my friend who has served with me so faithfully: Help these women. They worked hard with me in telling people the Good News, together with Clement and others who worked with me. Their names are written in the book of life.
A Semi-Colon used:
(CJB) I also request you, loyal Syzygus, to help these women; for they have worked hard proclaiming the Good News with me, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow-workers whose names are in the Book of Life.
(GNB) 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 the living.
(Murdock) I also beseech of thee, my true yokefellow, that thou assist those women who toiled with me in the gospel; together with Clement, and with the rest of my helpers, whose names are written in the book of life.
(TLB) And I ask you, my true teammate, to help these women, for they worked side by side with me in telling the Good News to others; and they worked with Clement, too, and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are written in the Book of Life.
And an Exclamation Mark Used:
(ABP) Yes, I ask also you [fellow companion, genuine], aid these women! who in the good news fought together with me; also with Clement, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
A Dash Used:
(TLV) Yes, and I ask you, true companion, to help these women— they labored side by side with me in spreading the Good News, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.
The other feature I must point out is that [αἵτινες] which I have translated “those who” is a feminine plural relative pronoun referring specifically to the two women, not to all in the list.
Now I will attempt to put it all together using Propositional Analysis to show how the statements fit with one another. Following that I will give you my conclusion.
Yes, also I ask you,
faithful partner,
help them
those who struggled with me
in spreading the Gospel
with Clement
and the remaining co-workers with me,
all whose names
are in book of life.
I hope through what I have laid out above, by comparing the punctuation used and then laying out the proposition that it is clearer what Paul said to his amanuensis (scribe) or wrote himself. That his point was all encompassing. Those listed were included in the category of those working for the Gospel but they were also included in the group who were to help the Euodia and Syntyche. Paul made an added point of saying that the names of all those mentioned were included in the Book of Life. This of course fits Paul’s overall comments throughout his letter to the Philippians encouraging them to have the mind of Christ and maintain unity. How much more so should all of those mentioned assist individuals who were not in harmony or of one mind? All were assured that their names were written in the Book of Life, because they relied on the righteousness Christ had given to them and not their own and thus were assured of attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
I think I have now made these verses clear and answered all the questions as well as some unasked questions. I will wait for your comments and queries as readers before I close this series on these three ordinary verses in the next Gem, when I will investigate who Clement was and the nature of the Book of Life. Then finally we will move on to the classic statements of Paul which follow.
In a social media world where you can be anything, BE KIND.
Sidney Mohede
Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.
Socrates
Those who never venture beyond theory or opinion will never gain the prize of Truth.
Ian Vail
I AM the Way, the Truth, The Life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.
Jesus Christ
Winning doesn’t always mean being first. Winning means taking as many people as you can with you into the Life of the Age to Come.
Ian Vail
Its almost as though Paul is asking this dear friend to Pastor the group.
I couldn’t help but notice that the 2 women’s names weren’t in the original Greek or did you leave them out on purpose. I assume that they were there somewhere.
Yes I think you are right about the Faithful Partner being asked to pastor the group and encourage them all to be unified, of one mind, having the mind of Christ.
The women are mentioned in Phil 4:2 and not Phil 4:2, so that is the reason they are not there in verse 3 and I didn’t give you interlinearised Greek for verse 2.