138 HORiE TAULINA. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS- 



I. When a transaction is referred to in such a manner 

 as that the reference is easily and immediately understood 

 by those who are beforehand, or from other quarters, ac- 

 quainted with the fact, but is obscure or imperfect, or re- 

 quires investigation or a comparison of different parts, in 

 order to be made clear to other readers, the transaction so 

 referred to is probably real ; because, had it been fictitious, 

 the writer would have set forth his story more fully and 

 plainly, not merely as conscious of the fiction, but as con- 

 scious that his readers could have no other knowledge of the 

 subject of his allusion than from the information of which 

 he put them in possession. 



The account of Epaphroditus, in the epistle to the Philip- 

 pians, of his journey to Rome, and of the business which 

 brought him thither, is the article to which I mean to apply 

 this observation. There are three passages in the epistle 

 v/hich relate to this subject. The first, chap. 1:7," Even 

 as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have 

 you in my heart ; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the 

 defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are cvyKOivuvoi 

 (lov TTjg xm'^og, joint contributors to the gift which I have 

 received."* Nothing more is said in this place. In the 

 latter part of the second chapter, and at the distance of half 

 the epistle from the last quotation, the subject appears again : 

 .*' Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, 

 my brother, and companion in labor, and fellow-soldier, but 



* Pearce, I believe, was the first commentator who gave this sense 

 to the expression; and I believe also that his exposition is now gen- 

 erally assented to. He interprets in the same sense the phrase in the 

 fifth verse, which our translation renders " your fellowship in the gos- 

 pel ;" but which in the original is not KOivcovla tov cvayyeXlov, ox KOLVii- 

 via Iv TU) evayye^uo), but koivuviq. kvc rh evayyiliov. 



