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Epistle to the Philippians

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Not just a commentary on Philippians, Barth is showing us how to interpret the Bible generally, how to believe, and how to live the Christian life. We are to look past what Paul says "to his contemporaries about certain matters of common concern--in order to lay bare its [Epistle to the Philippians] true, ETERNAL CONTENT, which is the kingdom of God as the permanent crisis and hope of humankind. The interpreter must 'see through and beyond the historical into the spirit of the Bible, which is the eternal Spirit' ... What Paul said conceals what Paul SAYS." (Watson, p. xxix). This theme and process is what Barth applies, as an example for interpreting all scriptures, and to Philippians specifically. The effect is profound, and life changing--especially given the subject of the epistle: Kenosis (Christ's humbling, emptying of himself of his God nature to become human, i.e., Christology).

The following titled sections indicate Barth's focus:
Copartners in Grace!
Christ Will be Magnified ("Christ is preached!")
Children of God among a Perverse Generation (self versus humility/grace)
Rejoice in the Lord!
Righteousness from God (not from self righteousness)
The God of Peace
The Offering Well Pleasing to God


"God's Equal forgoes asserting himself as such, enters into the obscurity of human, nature, seeks not to be called good (Mark 10:18) but like all other men to live by grace ... not because of the moral achievement of this Man" (pp. 64,65).

"According to the good pleasure of God, in his freedom, that Jesus is the Lord, that we are Christians--in a word, that grace is REALITY ... therefore ... one can face the Other only in fear and trembling, in humility, without cause, courage, or desire for self-assurance, self-assertion, self-justification" (p. 74).

On faith:
"To make pistis [faith] as little as possible a definition of human action by man himself and place the whole emphasis on the Object [God] that is the ground of pistis; in other words, on what takes place in pistis: the determination, illumination, qualification of man by God or Christ" (p. 101); and "faith in its decisive act is the collapse of every effort of his own capacity and will" (p.102).

Barth leads us to God, to God through Christ as the Holy other, on whom we can solely rely, and on whom we can rely exclusively (not of ourself), and perfectly by grace for all to be well with our soul. He expands Paul's theology from his epistle to the Philippians to ground and clarify these ideas and beliefs. Paul is being threatened with his life for his apostolic preaching of the gospel, and yet, he is not concerned for his life, but for the preaching of Christ, and the living out of that REALITY in his own life, in the life of the Philippians, and in the life of the World. This is real time faith, lived and preached by the apostle Paul and interpreted in the eternal perspective by the theologian, Karl Barth.

Critique: While Barth is very good at emphasizing God's holiness, there is much theology needed to maintain our humanity in the presence of the divine. In Barth's attempt to keep man humble, and to give proper ascription of holiness as from God, he unfortunately minimizes man's legitimate capacity and need to "psychologically" participate with God, to reverberate emotionally with warmth, happiness, joy, pride in the Lord, and even to be ecstatic with physical sensations about the Holy Spirit moving through us, etc.

PS: To appreciate this work, you need to be fairly familiar with the Bible and Christianity, bible interpretation (hermeneutics), and a fair amount of theology.

One of my rules of thumb in choosing a commentary over the years has been to the check first to see if Karl Barth has written a review. I generally trust Barth to provide a solid interpretation. Again, Barth has not disappointed.

This printing of Barth's commentary, Epistle to the Philippians, starts with two very helpful interpretations of Barth's work: The significance of Karl Barth's Theological Exegesis of Philippians by Bruce L. McCormack and Barth's Philippians as Theological Exegesis by Francis B. Watson. Both provide deep insight into Barth and the context of his commentary. McCormack, for example, alerts the reader to Karl's interpretation of Paul through the lens of 1 Corinthians 15--Paul's longest statement of the meaning of the resurrection. By contrast, Watson observes that Barth sees the commentator's role as to "assist the text to explain itself". If anything, Barth is subtle so I appreciated the helping hand provided by these two authors.

Why should someone return to Barth for a commentary after 40 years? I suppose the same question could be posed of Calvin, Luther, and Augustine's commentaries: Barth stands in their league. I still try to read Calvin not only for historical interest, but because I believe that the postmodern era presents its own problems in interpretation. New is not always improved. Barth provides a window into somewhat earlier time than our own and helped usher in the current era of biblical interpretation. He reads Calvin in the Latin and Luther in the German. He is familiar with the German school of NT interpretation--not just what has been translated. He takes note of textual weaknesses

As a seminarian, I observe that Barth is heavily quoted in recent commentaries which is suprising in view of the relative brevity of his commentary (128 pages). Obviously, scholars are paying attention.

I like Barth because he takes scripture seriously. If you take scripture seriously, I suspect that you will like him too.

Dr. Stephen W. Hiemstra
Centreville, VA