20 Indeed, I have no one equal in soul, anyone who by origin will concern himself with the things concerning you.
21 Indeed, all people seek the things of themselves (not the things of Jesus Christ)!
22 Yet the worth of him you know, because, like a child for a father, he served together with me unto the wonderful announcement [tò euangèlion]. (CFB)
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Brief comments:
Many modern translations of these verses create conflicts, or inconsistencies, within this text by Paul:
(a) They translate Paul as though he says that he has no one like Timothy who will genuinely care about the Philippians.
(b) They translate as though Paul is criticising the people around him for seeking only the things of their own and not the things of Christ.
But Paul closes his letter by sending greetings to the Philippians from the Christian siblings who are with Paul. Would Paul speak so harshly about his brothers and sisters at all? And then send greetings from them?
Furthermore, according to tradition (cp. KJV), this letter was drafted by St. Epaphroditus, who Paul would then have been sending alongside Timothy. If that tradition is correct, then translating with (a) and (b) creates infelicity, conflicts, inconsistencies.
Investigating the Ancient-Greek text enables a translation that does not conflict with the rest of The Letter to the Philippians, because the text is quite different than what many modern translations depict. It appears very likely that Paul is not speaking insultingly about anyone, but rather remarking that Timothy, as a Greek, will care by origin ("naturally" in the KJV) for the Greeks of Philippi, and wryly adding that after all everyone seeks the (good) for their own (people). This letter is written in Rome rather than in a Greek region: thus "I have no one like-souled who will by nature take care for the things of you (Greeks)".
(c) Many translations create a conflict by making it sound as though Paul is calling himself Timothy's (spiritual) father; this conflicts with Christ Jesus's commandment to call no father on earth one's own father (Matthew 23:9). In such a way, Philippians 2:22 works alongside mistranslations of 1 Corinthians 4:15, Ephesians 6:4, Colossians 3:21, and Philemon 10, to cause Christians to start calling others than their Heavenly Father "father", in conflict with Christ's commandment. (Bible translators unfortunately often add the word “father” to St. Paul’s self-descriptions in 1 Corinthians 4:15 and in Philemon 10, or in Ephesians 6:4 and Colossians 3:21 translate hoi pateres as “fathers”, rather than “parents”, which parallelism in the context, and general knowledge, both prefer.)
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CFB: Scripture quoted from the Christ Family Bible. Copyright © 2017 by J.J. Thomas. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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