Philippians 3:3

Context

The verse belongs to Philippians, the letter Paul wrote from prison to the church at Philippi. In the preceding verse, 3:2, Paul warns his readers to beware of "dogs" and "evil workers" and to be on guard against those who make much of circumcision. The original Greek contains a wordplay: Paul disparages their circumcision by using katatomē, meaning "mutilation" or "cutting off," which sounds like peritomē, the word for circumcision. In contrast to these people, verse 3 declares that believers are the true "circumcision," that is, the circumcised covenant people. In verses 4–6 Paul then lists his own ancestry and record under the law, and in verses 7–10 he says that he counts these things as loss for the sake of Christ. Scholars disagree about whom Paul is warning against. Many identify them as Jewish Christians who required Gentile believers to be circumcised, but others identify them as a different group.

Interpretation

The verse names three marks. The first is serving by the Spirit; the Greek verb latreuō refers to the service of temple sacrifice and worship. The second is glorying in Christ Jesus. The third is placing no confidence in "the flesh," such as ancestry, ritual, or personal achievement.

• Reformation reading: The Lutheran and Reformed commentary traditions read "the flesh" as self-righteousness and works of the law, and they connect the verse with the doctrine of justification.
• New Perspective on Paul reading: E. P. Sanders, James Dunn, N. T. Wright, and others emphasize markers of Jewish ethnic identity such as circumcision and ancestry. They read the verse as addressing a question of boundaries: who belongs to the people of God.
• Covenant theology reading: Covenant theology sees continuity between the covenant people of the Old Testament and the church of the New Testament, and it reads the verse as grounds for regarding the church, which has received circumcision of the heart, as the covenant people.
• Dispensationalist reading: Dispensationalism distinguishes between Israel and the church. It therefore tends to read the verse as describing the spiritual condition of believers rather than as teaching that the church replaces Israel.

Debates and Issues

• Textual variants: Some manuscripts read "by the Spirit of God" (theou), while others read "worship God in the spirit" (theō). The King James Version follows the latter, whereas modern critical texts generally adopt the former. Some translations render the verb as "worship" rather than "serve."
• The church and Israel: Together with the phrase "the Israel of God" in Galatians 6:16, this verse is cited by both sides in the debate over whether the church replaces Israel.

Related Passages

• Romans 2:28–29
• Colossians 2:11
• Galatians 6:14
• Galatians 6:15
• John 4:23