#epaphras

Greg and I shared some insights for leaders interacting with people from different generations. Check out this clip about Gen Y. I have a lot of new video content on my YouTube channel every week. Please check it out and subscribe so you don’t miss anything. G.K. Chesterton penned these words over a century ago. If they were true then, imagine how much more so they are now: “These are the days…

7 Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. 8 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, 9 and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here. 10 Aristarchus my…

Fable: "Quisqueya et ses hommes", le nouveau texte de @GibbsEpaphras.- #Juno7 #J7Nov2021

Fable: “Quisqueya et ses hommes”, le nouveau texte du jeune fabuliste Epaphras Gibbs.  Le jeune fabuliste Epaphras Gibbs a pris le soin de présenter une nouvelle fable titrée “Quisqueya et ses hommes”, à l’occasion de ce 18 novembre, date historique marquant la bataille des Vertières en 1803. Ci-dessous, lisez l’intégralité de cette fable. Dans la capitale le nombre d’entreprises va décroissant,…

Philemon: Paul's Co-Campaigners These were the team Tychicus and Onesimus had only recently left in order to courier Paul’s missives to the region of Phrygia, four stalwart co-campaigners, weathered and seasoned in the work of the Lord. #Philemon

Enfolding you in warm greetings: Epaphras, co-captive with me in Christ Jesus, Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, companions in labor with me.The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ [be] with the spirit of all of you.Philemon 1:23-25 (my translation) In closing his letter with the warm embrace of greeting, Paul referenced Epaphras, originally from Colossae and now part of Paul’s evangelism team.…

Phm. 1:23-25. There salute thee Epaphras, my fellowprisoner in Christ Jesus; Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Paul’s final greeting in his letters often referred to specific people who had helped him in the years of his ministry. Each one has his own story. I have thought about making a list of every person he…

 28 σπουδαιοτέρως οὖν ἔπεμψα αὐτόν, ἵνα ἰδόντες αὐτὸν πάλιν χαρῆτε κἀγὼ ἀλυπότερος ὦ. 29 προσδέχεσθε οὖν αὐτὸν ἐν κυρίῳ μετὰ πάσης χαρᾶς καὶ τοὺς τοιούτους ἐντίμους ἔχετε, 30 ὅτι διὰ τὸ ἔργον Χριστοῦ μέχρι θανάτου ἤγγισεν παραβολευσάμενος τῇ ψυχῇ, ἵνα ἀναπληρώσῃ τὸ ὑμῶν ὑστέρημα τῆς πρός με λειτουργίας.

My translation:

28 Therefore I sent him very eagerly, in order that seeing him again you might rejoice, and I might be without sorrow. 29 Therefore welcome him in the Lord with all joy, and hold all such ones in honor, 30 because on account of the work for Christ he drew near to the point of death, risking his soul, in order that he might fill up what was lacking in your ministry to me.

Σπουδαιοτέρως is the comparative form of σπουδαίως, “earnestly, diligently, zealously”, thus “more earnestly”. The comparative form is a substitute for the elative, since context suggests the meaning “very earnestly”. BAGD says σπουδαίως can also mean “with haste, urgently”, so the comparative/elative would be “very urgently”. Contextually, Paul doesn't seem to be in a huge rush to send him back so much as simply willing and eager to do so, so the first definition fits best.

ἰδόντες is temporal (“when you see him”) or causal (“by seeing him”).

EGGNT suggests that πάλιν likely modifies not ἰδόντες (“seeing him again”) but χαρῆτε (“rejoice again”), since Paul usually puts adverbs before their nouns. My translation “seeing him again you might rejoice” preserves the ambiguity.

ἀλυπότερος is the comparative form of ἄλυπος, which is the alpha primitive + ἡ λύπη, “sorrow”, a word we saw twice in verse 27. Paul was spared sorrow when God healed Epaphroditus, and he is spared sorrow again by sending him back to alleviate the Philippians' worry. EGGNT notes that most English versions translate ἄλυπος here as something like “free from anxiety”, but this has no linguistic basis.

ὦ is the 1 person singular aorist subjunctive of ἔιμι.

τοὺς τοιούτους ἐντίμους ἔχετε took me a while to figure out. τοὺς τοιούτους is substantival, “such ones”, and ἐντίμους is its predicate, with ἔχετε meaning something like “regard”: lit. “Hold such people as honorable”. I don’t know why Paul switches to an indefinite plural instead of just saying “Hold Epaphroditus in honor”; perhaps it was to not single him out too much over against the other faithful ministers at Philippi who had not gone on the journey.

EGGNT notes that some have suggested παραβουλεύομαι was a gambling term: “He gambled with his life for the sake of the work of Christ”.

The last line is lit. “Fill up the deficit in your service to me”. Commentators are mostly agreed that the “deficit” was only that the Philippians’ monetary gift simply needed delivering; Epaphroditus volunteered to complete this service, representing the Philippians to Paul in person.

25 Ἀναγκαῖον δὲ ἡγησάμην Ἐπαφρόδιτον τὸν ἀδελφὸν καὶ συνεργὸν καὶ συστρατιώτην μου, ὑμῶν δὲ ἀπόστολον καὶ λειτουργὸν τῆς χρείας μου, πέμψαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς, 26 ἐπειδὴ ἐπιποθῶν ἦν πάντας ὑμᾶς καὶ ἀδημονῶν, διότι ἠκούσατε ὅτι ἠσθένησεν. 27 καὶ γὰρ ἠσθένησεν παραπλήσιον θανάτῳ· ἀλλ᾽ ὁ θεὸς ἠλέησεν αὐτόν, οὐκ αὐτὸν δὲ μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐμέ, ἵνα μὴ λύπην ἐπὶ λύπην σχῶ.

My translation:

25 Still, I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, brother and coworker and fellow-soldier of mine, and messenger from you and minister to my needs, 26 because he was longing for all of you and grieved because you heard that he was sick. 27 For indeed he was sick close to death; but God had mercy on him, and not only him but also me, that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow.

ἐπειδὴ, “since, because” is used 10 times in the NT. It is from ἐπί + εἰ + δή = “aptly if indeed”, i.e. Assuming a premise is factual, this is what will follow.

ἐπιποθέω “I long for, strain after, desire greatly” (9x in the NT) is from ἐπί (intensifier) + ποθεῶ, “yearn affectionately”. Thayer says ἐπί is directive, not intensive, i.e. it turns “I yearn” into “I yearn for (a person/thing)”. Other NT words from this root are the adjective ἐπιπόθητος, used in 4:1, and nouns ἡ ἐπιποθία (Rom. 15:23) and ἡ ἐπιπόθησις (2 Cor. 7:7, 11).

Some notable manuscripts have ἰδεῖν after πάντας ὑμᾶς, “longing to see you all”. EGGNT notes that the addition likely came about due to of the influence of Rom. 1:11, 1 Thess. 3:6, and 2 Tim. 1:4.

ἀδημονέω (3x in the NT), “I feel fear, lack courage, am distressed, troubled”, is perhaps from δῆμος, thus with the alpha primative originally meant “not at home”. Some suggest this means Epaphroditus was “homesick”, but EGGNT says this is reading too much into it. 

ἀσθενέω, “I am weak”, is from ἀσθενής, alpha primitive + σθενος, “strength”. Along with cognate adjective ἀσθενής and noun ἡ ἀσθένεια, the word group is used in the NT about half of the time idiomatically to mean “I am sick”, “sick”, “sickness”.  

παραπλήσιον, a NT hapax legomenon, literally means “alongside your neighbor”, thus “very close, nearly”.

ἡ λύπη (16x in the NT) is “pain, grief, sorrow, affliction, vexation”. The cognate verb λυπέω (“I grieve, vex”) is used 26x and so the root is worth memorizing.