Fortress Press

Philippians

Philippians

Paul A. Holloway (Author), Adela Yarbro Collins (Editor)

$49.00

Interested in a gratis copy?

How do you plan on using your gratis copy? Review requests are for media inquiries. Exam requests are for professors, teachers, and librarians who want to review a book for course adoption.

ReviewExam
  • In stock

Paul’s letter to the Philippians offers treasures to the reader—and historical and theological puzzles as well. Paul A. Holloway treats the letter as a literary unity and a letter of consolation, according to Greek and Roman understandings of that genre, written probably in Rome and thus the latest of Paul’s letters to come down to us. Adapting the methodology of what he calls a new history of religions perspective, Holloway attends carefully to the religious topoi of Philippians, especially the metamorphic myth in chapter 2, and draws significant conclusions about Paul’s personalism and “mysticism.” With succinct and judicious excursuses treating pertinent exegetical and theological issues throughout, Holloway draws richly on Jewish, Greek, and Roman comparative material to present a complex understanding of the apostle as a Hellenized and Romanized Jew. 

  • Publisher Fortress Press
  • Format Hardcover
  • ISBN 9780800660963
  • Dimensions 8.25 x 9.25
  • Pages 286
  • Publication Date November 1, 2017

Contents

Introduction:

Prefatory Remarks on Ancient Consolation

Literary Integrity of Canonical Philippians

Place and Date of Writing

“Rhetorical Situation”

Genre: Philippians as a Letter of Consolation

The Disposition of the Letter

Key Religious Topoi

Excursus: σῶμα πνευματικόν

Commentary:

I.Letter Prescript (1:1–2)

II.Exordium: Paul’s Affection and Prayers for the Philippians (1:3–11)

III.The Body of the Letter: Things That Really Matter and Other Consolatory Arguments (1:12‒4:9)

IV.Peroration: Paraenesis and Consolation (4:2–9)

V.A Post-Scripted Expression of Thanks (4:10–20)

VI.Final Greeting and Prayer (4:21–23) 

Endorsements

A superb mastery of a massive range of both Jewish and non-Jewish materials.

“Holloway displays a superb mastery of a massive range of both Jewish and non-Jewish materials to throw light on Paul’s letter. This outstanding commentary will be a standard work on Philippians for many years to come.”  

Christopher Tuckett | professor emeritus, University of Oxford

The very best of historical scholarship.

“This substantial new commentary represents the very best of historical scholarship and draws on an encyclopedic knowledge both of Hellenistic philosophy and rhetoric and of Jewish apocalyptic and mystical traditions. One has the sense that everything is here thought through afresh, with original results at every turn.”  

John M. G. Barclay | Durham University

Holloway has succeeded masterfully in bringing Paul’s mythological thinking into clear relief. 

“Holloway has succeeded masterfully in bringing Paul’s mythological thinking into clear relief. As someone who studies the reception of Paul in late antiquity, I am grateful to Holloway for making Philippians more securely and intelligibly an ancient document.” 

Charles M. Stang | Harvard Divinity School

Brilliant and readable.

“A brilliant, and readable, contribution to the study of Philippians."

Amy-Jill Levine | Vanderbilt University Divinity School

Always fresh and often innovative.

“This is a wonderful commentary . . . Concise, informed, fair, and—what matters most—always fresh and often innovative.”  

Samuel Vollenweider | University of Zurich
2