Philippians

The Crossway Classic Commentaries

by J.B. Lightfoot, Alister E. McGrath (Introduction), J.I. Packer (Series Editor)

For hundreds of years Christendom has been blessed with Bible commentaries written by great men of God highly respected for their godly walk and their insight into spiritual truth. The Crossway Classic Commentaries series presents the very best work on individual Bible books, carefully adapted for maximum understanding and usefulness for today's believers. Many Christians consider the apostle Paul's letter to the Philippians a special treasure. Its grand themes of spiritual joy and vitality, the self-humbling Savior who gave his life for us, the good news of a salvation that is superior to the boastings of the flesh―these and other gems still nurture followers of Jesus Christ today. This classic commentary will deeply encourage all who long to draw closer to God.

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

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 1913

About the author

The Right Reverend Joseph Barber Lightfoot, D.D. (Trinity College, Cambridge University, 1864; M.A., Cambridge, 1854; B.A., Cambridge, 1851) was an Anglican theologian who was ordinaed priest in 1858. He served as Hulsean Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, 1861–75, Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity 1875–79, and was consecrated Bishop of Durham by William Thomson, Archbishop of York, entering the House of Lords ex officio in 1879.

Reviews

[Daniel Kleven · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid commentary by one of the pre-eminent new testament scholars of the 19th century. The commentary is of the Greek text, so caveat emptor, and this 1913 edition includes a number of essays, some shorter and interspersed in the commentary ("the synonymes 'bishop' and 'presbyter'; "Lost Epistles to the Philippians?"), and two longer essays, labeled "Dissertations": "The Christian Ministry," and "Paul and Seneca."

I read this because I've heard that in that essay "The Christian Ministry," JBL makes one of the stronger biblical and historical cases for "episcopacy," namely, the idea that there are bishops who have legitimate authority over multiple local churches, from outside and "above" that local congregation. Personally, I am a Baptist and hold strongly to congregationalism, but I wanted to read the strong case for the other view. I appreciate Lightfoot's approach, especially where he distinguishes biblical teaching and historical happening, and in the end I'm still happily a Baptist, but hopefully a more informed one :)

The book is accessible for free online: https://archive.org/details/epistleph...

[Natalie Herr · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️ The actual comments on the text itself are pretty sparse and sometimes technical, but Lightfoot obviously had a great understanding of the Greek language. My favorite parts of the commentary were his personal translations of the text- some of them were just absolute gold and seemed written by a much more modern writer than someone in the 1800s. Wouldn’t be my first pick for Philippians, but it was a decent companion to a few others.

[John Waldrip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lightfoot's scholarship and familiarity with the Greek language is astonishing. His commentary and notes, along with the included dissertations, are invaluable. It is a delight to read the Greek text with Lightfoot nearby.

[Terence Tan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is like the just released Kraven movie. If you are listening to this episode some years after 2024, you probably don’t know the movie. It bombed so badly. At the moment it is known for turning great actors like Russell Crowe into terrible ones.

Why is Lightfoot’s commentary on Philippians so bad? I didn’t experience this with John Owen’s commentary on Hebrews. Maybe something happened to me. Oh no! Has my consumption of Internet and social media junk food turned my brain to mush so that dimwit that I am now, I can’t recognise the brilliant light of Lightfoot?

Could be.

But maybe it’s the nature of the book. Philippians is not Hebrews. It’s quite easy to read Philippians, that’s why I so easily recommend it to others to read it. Not so for Hebrews. You need a grizzly guide for Hebrews cause someone needs to explain it!

So a technical commentary for Philippians would not yield the sort of insights you would get for a commentary on Hebrews. No big controversy. No doctrine to decipher.

The other possibility is simply this, I didn’t read the Greek. It is possible (likely?) that the reason why so many people offer profuse praise for this book is Lightfoot ably answers the question a reader of the Greek faces.

“Why is there no definite article? Oh, Lightfoot says it happened in these other verses. Ah okay, no great mystery here then. Moving on.”

And if true, then this review just shows how big of an idiot I am.

Full Review: https://readingandreaders.com/podcast...

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very helpful older commentary. Fairly technical. You can find a free professionally scanned (by major universities) copies of this book from original editions in PDF at Archive.org, however, I have a reprint edition that I've had for several years. I have always found this commentary helpful and accessible, even though it is in a format that was popular over a hundred years ago where the Bible text is at the top and the commentary underneath. It makes you feel like you are reading extensive footnotes, which in reality you kinda are.

[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 Calvin’s, this one, FF Bruce’s, and Ralph P. Martin’s.

I was very excited for this, since I firmly believe that some of the classics, although less technical, are more helpful than the newer ones. But in this case, I was a tad disappointed. It was still great, and his arguments are famous for a reason, but the actually commentaries on the verses was often sparse.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very interesting stuff and some things that seemed rather unimportant.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for big picture and background.