the prison letters if you'll think back to one of the First videos that you watched Paul's letters fall into three major categories you got the missionary letters chronologically speaking that's Galatians first missionary journey 1 and second Thessalonians second missionary journey 1 and second Corinthians and Romans third missionary journey and Paul is planning a fourth missionary journey to Spain he's actually going to launch from Rome that's why he wrote that's one of the reasons why he wrote the letter to the Romans but before he does that he wants to travel back into the Eastern Mediterranean specifically to go to Jerusalem to visit with the Christians there and kind of help establish and encourage them before he then launches out on that fourth missionary journey well of course you've read the book of Acts you know what happens he uh doesn't make it on the fourth missionary journey while he's in Jerusalem he gets arrested uh and is in arrest there in Jerusalem and then is in prison sort of dropped in a hole in cesaria and then finally ends up in Rome and that's where the book of Acts ends and it is while Paul is in prison in Rome that he writes the four prison letters so you got the missionary letters Galatians first 2 Thessalonians first second Corinthians Romans then you got the prison letters Philippians Ephesians Colossians and philimon and that's the order in which we're going to do them in Philippians Ephesians Colossians phiman it's probably not necessarily the order they were written in there's a lot of debate and discussion as to the order Philippi or phiman was probably written for before Colossians Philippians may or may not have been first my guess is they were all written right about the same time probably within the same year so that's what we're going to do in these next few videos so let's introduce Philippians then well the author is uh Paul the Apostle his name appears on the from line of the letter we've heard this before the text is very Pauline it represents Pauline concerns and Pauline theology um Philippians is also one of those letters that goes into the category of most modern Scholars even the most skeptical of Scholars don't really debate uh Pauline authorship of Philippians because it concerns the things that Paul is they would agree everybody would agree Paul is intimately concerned with the collection of the Saints for Jerusalem the support that he received from the Philippians while on the missionary Journeys justification by faith and so on now Paul's theology you you'll you will read in commentaries in a new testament intros things statements like this Paul's theology is most comprehensively formulated in the prison letters and his writing shows signs of maturity now I realize that we as evangelicals we believe in the inspiration of the holy spirit for the scripture we believe that the Bible is God's word those kinds of statements make us feel a bit uneasy when we say things like Paul's theology developed and is most um sophisticatedly formulated in the prison Epistles or that his writing shows signs of maturity now those statements are true I believe that they are true but I we do want to Nuance those as evangelicals I want as an Evangelical I want to Nuance that first of all when I say that I don't mean to imply that Paul's earlier writings um are spotty or incomplete and when I say that Paul's theology in the prison Epistles is more shows signs of maturity I don't mean to suggest that his previous writings are immature in fact most everybody agrees that sort of the high point of Pauline theology is actually the book of Romans so keep hold all that in mind when you as you hear me explain this there are a number of differences between the circumstances of the writing of the prison letters and the circumstances of the writing of the missionary letters um and those differences in circumstances make the prison letters feel different they do feel more comprehensively formulated they do feel more uh complete they do feel more mature in their theology now again that does not mean that Paul was inventor before or that he's correcting himself now I don't believe any of that I believe Galatians is just as inspired as Philippians However the fact that letters like Galatians and 1 and 2 Thessalonians and 1 and 2 Corinthians that are ways are ad hoc letters they are letters that were written in response to something and sometimes they were written hastily uh because they were written to deal with a very specific crisis and so you read Galatians in 1 and second Thessalonians they are short um they are Hasty they are very occasional dealing with a specific set of problems you see some of that in First Corinthians though First Corinthians was I think expanded by Paul to cover much more issues Romans is not that though Romans is very comprehensively formulated however when you get to the prison letters Paul now is not in a hurry he's had plenty of time to see the missionary movement develop he's had plenty of time to see the church develop and God uses all of those experiences to create the prison letters um the way that they are Paul has plenty of time to think to ruminate to develop and I think that his writing reflects that now you're going to we'll talk about this a little bit more in the next couple of videos the next couple of introduction videos but there are lots of hold all of this in your mind is what I'm trying to say because there are lots of modern Scholars who are skeptical who are going to say things like Paul doesn't Paul probably didn't write Ephesians and Paul probably didn't write Colossians because the author of Ephesians and Colossians talks so differently about the church and about the mission and about Jesus than the Paul that we know the Paul who wrote Galatians and first Thessalonians and Romans there's some truth to that that's actually a an astute observation that reaches a wrong conclusion I believe Paul wrote Philippians Ephesians Colossians and philimon but when you observe Ephesians is really different than Galatians you're on to something because Ephesians is really different from Galatians and a lot of that has to do with Galatians was written Ephesians is written 10 years later Ephesians is written the end of sort of the first leg of the missionary movement when Galatians is written Gentile Christianity is new when Ephesians is written Gentile Christianity is the church and so because of those differences because Paul is now in a different place Paul is he's achieved a lot of his goal to get the gospel to the ends of the Earth he's still trying to achieve it the prison letters are more comprehensive comprehensively formulated and Paul has matured God has done things in the world by the time Paul writes the prison letters that he hadn't done when Paul wrote Galatians and his writing reflects that so if that makes sense Let's uh let's move on and let's talk about the date I kind of already gave it away I like to keep things as you guys have figured out I like to keep things simple with the dates I give all of my students the date of around 60 for the prison letters around 60 you say well what about the textbook says maybe 59 and then maybe 61 whatever I don't care around 60 is good enough okay um Philippians along with Ephesians Colossians and phimon they were all written by Paul while he was in prison most likely in Rome there are some Scholars who argue that maybe Philippians was written while he was in prison in cesaria before he got transferred to Rome again doesn't matter um the prison letters clearly demonstrate Paul's captivity but they are optimistic put a pin in that one too because when you read second Timothy for example Paul's in prison again and yet Paul is not optimistic and by optimistic I mean I don't mean that he's depressed by optimistic I mean Paul expects when Paul writes Philippians Ephesians and Colossians and phiman he expects to get out of jail he expects to get out of jail and to go on that fourth missionary journey however when Paul writes second Timothy he does not expect to get out of jail and that's why you'll hear Scholars talk about a second Roman imprisonment that Paul is rearrested and we'll talk about that when we get to the pastorals but Paul is rearrested and while he's in jail very quickly writes second Timothy and then shortly after that is probably executed so D for the writing of Philippians Ephesians Colossians and phimon Paul is optimistic he was expecting to be released from prison in the near future uh thus and probably somewhere near the end of the first Roman imprisonment 59 60 I just say 60 because it's a nice round number is probably the best suggestion for the timing of that writing now if those conclusions about the date are correct then Paul almost certainly wrote Philippians while he was in Rome so there's your provenance so author Paul date 60 provenance Rome and again you're going to see your textbook try to put some in the notes too I try to give you some of these things in order uh most Scholars think maybe Philippians written first so they'll call it 59 they think Colossians was probably written last so they'll call it 60 61 can't be much later than that because the City was destroyed by an earthquake again just around 60 is good enough for me so why write Philippians then what is the purpose well there Paul when he writes to the Philippians he actually has several pastoral concerns now the letter is dominated by a call to Unity and that Unity has several major categories into which it fits first of all Paul does have some concern for false teaching and Division in the church and he calls them to Unity to overcome that false teaching Philippians also serves as a very um a very potent thank you letter to the Philippians and he puts his thank you in the context of Unity on several occasions they supported him and we'll see this in the text text they supported Paul while he was doing Ministry missionary Ministry in Macedonia and AA they sent him money and he calls that Unity he says thank you for your fellowship and for the unity that you have and by unity he doesn't just mean getting along and picking the color carpet and not fighting over what the bulletins are going to be he's talking about you guys are all on the same page when it comes to the mission of God in the world and so and it's also a thank you for the gift that they gave to help the poor Saints in Jerusalem you guys remember that from our discussion first and second Corinthians so first again Paul wants to update the Philip so what does he do in the letter well he wants to update the Philippians on his circumstances and on the health of apodius again all of this in the context of Unity thank you for your prayers for me um I'm doing great um the mission is not even being hindered by my imprisonment in fact my imprisonment is encouraging other people oh and by the way apatis who was the greatest show of Philippian Unity of all that a guy actually traveled from Philippi all the way to Rome to help Paul while he was in jail that's a patis but apparently aitis got really sick and the Philippians thought maybe he was going to die and so Paul writes to them to say hey atis is doing better he wants the Philippians to be encouraged by his current circumstances even though he's in prison um and he wants the Philippians to be encouraged by the fact that a Pit's Health has improved so he's updating them on his circumstances he's um he's unifying with them thanking them for their tremendous support of him and giving them encouragement that's the one thing and the other thing he does in the letter is he wants to commend Timothy to them Timothy is coming to them and he wants them to receive Timothy um as because Timothy's going there to prepare them for Paul's visit again it's the missionary Network that Paul is building well again what about an outline well Paul comes back to the theme of unity throughout the letter uh the letter is a call for Unity he's concerned about the doctrinal unity of the church in light of fal's teachers he celebrates the unity of the church and taking up the collection for him for the Saints and sending them a apodius and getting a report of of apodius is Health um and receiving Timothy um and their ongoing passion for the mission is their unity and that is what Paul focuses on in Philippians now you'll notice in the notes your textbook has a sort of an advanced outline for Philippians I just gave you sort of a four-point outline one for each chapter in the next video we will survey the content of Philippians briefly but in Philippians 1 Paul it's as you would expect Paul to the Philippians Grace and peace thank you and so much of chapter one is Paul's thank you for the Philippians and he also describes to them his present circumstances in Philippians 2 because the whole theme of the letter is Unity Paul gives actually three examples of unity three examples to commend to them and for them to emulate example number one the famous One in Philippians 2 Jesus and then Timothy and then aphroditus in Philippians 3 Paul warns them about false teachers and other dangers to Unity again Unity is the context and then in Philippians 4 Paul makes a final appeal to Unity and tells them about his uh tells the Philippians of his plan plans when he gets out of jail what it is that he's planning to do