AN EXPOSITION

OF THE

EPISTLES OF SAINT PAUL,

ETC.,

ETC.

AN EXPOSITION

OF THE

EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL,

AND OF

The Catholic Epistles ;

CONSISTING OF

AN INTRODUCTION TO EACH EPISTLE, AN ANALYSIS OF EACH CHAPTER,
A PARAPHRASE OF THE SACRED TEXT,

AND A

COMMENTARY,

Embracing Notes, Critical, Explanatory, and Dogmatical,

INTERSPERSED WITH MORAL REFLECTIONS.

BY THE RIGHT REV. JOHN MACEVILLY, D.D.,
Bishop of Galway.

"All Scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice. That the
man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good work."-2 TIM. iii. 16, 17.

"Understanding this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is made by private interpretation."-2 PETER, î. 20.
I believe "that the Holy Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff have the Primacy over the entire earth, and that
the Roman Pontiff is the successor of the Blessed Prince of the Apostles and the true Vicar of Christ......and that
to Him was given, in the person of the Blessed Peter, by our Lord Jesus Christ, full power of feeding, ruling, and
governing the Universal Church."-COUNCIL OF FLORENCE.

VOL. II.

THIRD EDITION, ENLARGED.

THEC

•BODL

DUBLIN:

W. B. KELLY, 8, GRAFTON-STREET.
LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO., STATIONERS' HALL COURT.

1875.

THE EPISTLE

OF

ST. PAUL TO THE PHILIPPIANS.

Entroduction.

THE history of St. Paul's arrival and preaching at Philippi is recorded at full length in the Acts of the Apostles (xvi. 6-40). When at Troas, he was divinely admonished to pass over to Macedon, to preach the Gospel there. A man of Macedon stood before him in a vision at night, and besought him to pass over to his country and help them. Accordingly, setting sail from Troas, he reached Neapolis on the following day, accompanied by Timothy, Silas, and Luke; and from thence they came to Philippi, so called from Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, by whom it was enlarged and fortified against the incursions of the Thracians. Here, having preached the Gospel with success, both himself and Silas were scourged and cast. into prison, upon the doors of which being miraculously thrown open, the gaoler, with all his family, were converted. The Philippians, although very poor, were liberal in aiding the Apostle out of their temporal substance; they sent him pecuniary aid when at Thessalonica, and they were the only Church that did so. Hearing of the Apostle's imprisonment, they sent Epaphroditus (who, according to some, was their Bishop), to carry relief to him in his necessities. Epaphroditus, falling sick, was brought to the very verge of the grave. Upon his recovery, the Apostle sent this Epistle by him to the Philippians.

66

THE OBJECT OF WHICH WAS-To thank them for their charity towards him, and to inform them how matters stood with him; to congratulate them on the patience which they exhibited under affliction, and, at the same time, to encourage them to persevere. He charges them in a particular manner to distrust the false teachers, whose morals he depicts, and whom he denounces as dogs," as "enemies of the cross of Christ," &c. The false teachers in question were the same that he combated in his Epistle to the Galatians-viz., the Judaizantes, or Jewish zealots, whose leading error was, that the observances of the Mosaic law should be necessarily united with the Gospel, in order to obtain justification.

THE LANGUAGE of this Epistle was the Greek.

ITS CANONICITY has never been questioned in the Church.

TIME AND PLACE OF.-It was written by St. Paul in chains; and (as is generally supposed), during his first imprisonment, from which he expected to be liberated. He was not liberated from his second imprisonment. It was written about the year 62.

VOL. II.

B