Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Philippians · About this commentary
Poured Out as a Drink Offering
Philippians 2:17-18
17 Yes, and if I am poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. · WEB
Paul imagines his execution as the smallest part of a sacrifice the Philippians are making.
Yes, and if I am poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and rejoice with you all.
The image is precise. A drink offering was wine poured beside a sacrifice already on the altar — an accompaniment, not the offering itself. Paul uses the same verb of his death in his last letter 2 Timothy 4:6.
What makes the sentence remarkable is the assignment of parts. Their faith is the sacrifice. His execution is the libation poured alongside it. The apostle facing a capital trial casts himself as the accessory to what a provincial congregation is already offering.
And the response named is joy, twice — I rejoice, and I rejoice with you.
Verse 18 turns it into an instruction, and the symmetry is exact: in the same way, you also rejoice, and rejoice with me. He asks them to be glad about his possible execution in the same way he is glad about their faith. Nothing in the letter is more difficult, and nothing in it is more consistent with a man who has already said that dying is gain Philippians 1:21.
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