The Epistle of Paul to the Philippians: An Introduction and Commentary

Tyndale New Testament Commentaries

by Ralph P. Martin, Paul the Apostle

Martin's study on the Book of Philippians is part of the Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, a popular series designed to help the general Bible reader understand clearly what the text actually says and what it means, without overuse of scholarly technicalities.

Genres: Reference, Christian, Theology, New Testament, Biblical Studies, Nonfiction, Biblical

186 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Ralph Martin (1925-2013) was a distinguished New Testament scholar and a significant figure in the post-World War 2 resurgence of British evangelical scholarship. Born in Anfield, Liverpool, England, his early education was interrupted in 1939 by the war, and he was conscripted to work in the coal mines of Lancashire. After the war he pursued ministerial training at Manchester Baptist College and in 1949 earned his B.A. at the University of Manchester. In 1963 he completed his Ph.D. at King’s College, University of London. In 1969 Martin joined the faculty of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, where he would serve as professor of New Testament from 1969 to 1988, and director of the graduate studies program beginning in 1979. He resumed his teaching there in 1995 as Distinguished Scholar in Residence. Throughout his academic career he stayed involved in preaching, teaching laypeople and other pastoral ministry. He was the author of numerous studies and commentaries on the New Testament, including Worship in the Early Church, the volume on Philippians in The Tyndale New Testament Commentary series, and 2 Corinthians and James in the Word Biblical Commentary, for which he also served as New Testament editor.

Reviews

[Maxime N. Georgel · Rating 5 out of 5]

J'ai consulté d'autres commentaires académiques comme celui de O'Brien sur Philippiens (ne le cherchez pas en magasin, il a été retiré pour question de droits d'auteurs...). Ces derniers sont souvent arides, remplis de références au grec et concernent parfois plus la manière de traduire tel mot que son sens dans la rhétorique de la phrase.

Ce commentaire de la série Tyndall évite véritablement ce genre de soucis. Il est accessible, même pour celui qui n'est pas initié au grec (savoir lire un mot grec, donc connaître l'alphabet est suffisant, un peu de vocabulaire aidera aussi) mais ne perd pas en précision. Mais surtout, l'auteur cherche, comme Calvin (et, j'ai envie de dire, comme les commentateurs dignes de ce nom !) à faire comprendre le flot de la rhétorique, à suivre l'argumentation, à articuler de manière sensée les propositions et expliquer l'usage de tel mot.

Une aide précieuse et précise, excellent commentaire.

[Ryan Hawkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fall I taught through Philippians in a Sunday school class at my church. During preparation I read through four short commentaries on the letter. The commentaries were (in date-written order) John Cavlin’s, JB Lightfoot’s, FF Bruce’s, and this one.

I think if I could only use one, it would be this one. Tyndale truly does a good job with their brief yet helpful commentaries. I disagree with Martin on his view of where the letter was written (I tend to side with the traditional/Lightfoot view of Rome), but on most other things, I agreed with Martin the most.

A helpful read. Just not 5 stars because I wasn’t blown away with it by any means.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philippians is one of the shorter epistles of Paul, yet it is one of the most studied in all of scripture.  For this reason there are hundreds of commentaries on this epistle, some are focused on a exegetical study on individual Greek words and are thousands of pages in length.  Others are are so sparse they are of almost no usefulness at all.

Thankfully there is are a few commentaries which are not just beneficial to scholars or for a daily devotionals.  One of these works is Philippians of the Tyndale New Testament Commentary series.  This commentary is written by well respected British scholar Ralph P. Martin.  This commentary is one of the oldest volumes in the series, written in 1959, yet this work is one of the strongest in the series.  Despite it's age it still a wonderful introduction to Paul's epistle to the Philippians, with specific focus on basic level explanation and practical application.    As stated before this work is short but it packs a powerful punch and is still relevant to today, even though it was written well before the New Perspective on Paul, started to question the Protestant view of Paul's theology.

If a pastor or Bible study leader wishes to teach through Philippians, this work would be a great supplemental work to aid in preaching or teaching.

This book was provided to me free of charge from IVP Academic in exchange for an unbiased, honest review.

[Joe Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an interested layman rather than a seminarian, I can be confused by the language of the professional seminary instructor. Here the author gives a solid and understandable look at Philippians in language I can understand.
As usual in this series, the introduction does a good job of looking at questions about authorship and in this case particularly when and where this letter was authored. The commentary gave solid insight without getting too tangled in the individual Greek words and losing sight of the greater whole. It interacted somewhat with the various theories about various passages. Overall a solid source of information for the novice commentary reader.

[Jeff Elliott · Rating 2 out of 5]

The lightest of the commentaries I used. Not a lot of tremendous study and depth but perhaps sufficient for someone's personal Bible study.

[Joseph McBee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The very first commentary I ever owned was from Tyndale and I have always appreciated their concise and accessible format and writing style and this one was no exception. No matter what book of the Bible I am studying, you will likely find one of the Tyndale commentaries in my stack of study materials. I find them to be an excellent resource for personal Bible study as well as sermon prep.

[Ryan Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent treatment of Philippians. Moments of brightness, but hindered by a general drabness. My pastor has accused me of needing to say less and explain more when I preach, so I'll diagnose Martin with the same problem (takes one to know one). He tends to introduce myriad options of interpretation with little discussion to the idea's relevance, merit, or the like. Granted, controversies should be discussed and the options of hotly debated passages offered, but knowing his space was limited, less breadth and more depth would have been appreciated on this largely straightforward epistle.

He also tends to follow the scholastic masses on the wild bread crumb trail of speculation much too often, although his ideas are more reserved and realistic than many he interacts with. The result of so much imagination is that the speculation of one's fanciful interpretation is read back into the text rather than the text informing one's interpretation. This may be why I felt there was a persistent lack of conviction and passion when discussing a letter that resonates with the joy of the apostle Paul in the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord, a passion that spills over into deep pastoral concern for the Philippian church and their joy and progress in the faith of the gospel.

More often than not, I found the contagious joy of Paul vaccinated against with Victorian like reserve, long lists of interpretive options, and more time spent exploring the fancies of various scholars rather than theological and devotional meat as one explores with the Paul the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord, eclipsing all circumstances and suffering, to the point of being able to say with Paul, "For me, to live is Christ, to die is gain." To be sure, there are moments where Martin shines, but mainly I was left wanting more from the author in his treatment of the Epistle to the Philippians.