Philippians: Prison Epistle Written By Paul

Philippians 2:1-11

Introduction: About the Author And The Book Philippians is a prison epistle, written by Paul to the people at Philippi. Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ, a name that he even called himself in his letters. He was an apostle to not only the Gentiles, but also to the Jews. In the year 10 BC, Paul was born originally named Saul, in Tarsus, an Asian city located on the southern coast of Turkey. By birth, he was Jewish, as both his parents were Jews. It is possible that Saul’s parents were religious rulers such as the Pharisees, which could possibly be what influenced him to become a Pharisee later on in his lifetime. Though his parents were both Jewish and Pharisees, they were also Roman citizens, which made Saul a citizen

He trained underneath Gamaliel, where he was not only trained to be a Rabbi, but also a tent maker in order to provide for his own needs. Saul, a strong Pharisee, considered the teaching of Christ to be heresy, and his attempt to confront this “heresy” was to persecute those who followed Jesus. It was, in a way, at his own hands as well as his own feet, that the first Christian, Stephen, was killed for the faith. Saul, strong in his beliefs that this radical Christianity was contrary to teachings of Judaism and had to be stopped, went from house to house, and drug out every believer he could find. He pursued both men and women and then threw them all in

That point, however, is voided, if that scripture is taken out of context, therefore, it is important to understand the context within the book of Philippians before going any further in this exegetical paper. From the information provided by the author of Acts it is known that Phillippi is a Roman colony as well as the leading city for the district of Macedonia. Note the words “leading city”. The city being a leading city may mean that the people were likely doing well financially which relates to one reason why Paul may have written the book, which will be further discussed in greater detail later on in this paper. Although Paul arrived in Phillipi around 49 CE, its history goes back much further than that. In fact, Philippi was not always named Philippi. Located in Macedonia, or North Eastern Greece, the land was originally occupied by the Thracians as possibly as far back as the fourth century before it was named Philippi. In 356 B.C., however, that changed. Philip II conquered the city, naming it after himself, and later made it a military stronghold to protect his riches and land from other