A scholarly and readable study of Paul's letter to the suffering community of Christians in Philippi. New Testament scholar and textual critic Gordon D. Fee offers us a volume in the New International Commentary on the New Testament (NICNT) series, working directly from the Greek text, with comments from the New International Version (NIV). He provides us with an insightful comparison of Philippians to two well-known types of letters in the Greco-Roman world, friendship letters and letters of moral exhortation, and masterfully sets the letter to the Philippians within the context of the first century. His introduction includes information about the occasion, authenticity, and theological contributions of Philippians. Fee also offers scholarly insights which resolve many of the formal and structural issues that have long puzzled New Testament scholars.

In this fine new commentary on Paul's letter to the Philippians, Stephen Fowl notes that for the great premodern commentators of the Christian tradition, the literal sense of Scripture is always regulated by theological concerns. Thus, unlike commentaries that simply append theology to historical criticism, Fowl's volume displays disciplined attention to the text of Philippians in ways that enhance rather than frustrate theological inquiry.

While Fowl engages the great scholars of the past, John Chrysostom and Thomas Aquinas among them, he also draws a novel theology of friendship from Paul's letter and unpacks how the teachings of Philippians might be embodied today by Christians in the West.

Philippians is Paul's letter of encouragement to a church that has done their best to be obedient to his words and teachings. Paul gives them gratitude and then follows it with encouragement and a prescription for unity. Frank Thielman has written From Plight to Solution: A Jewish Framework for Understanding Paul's Views of the Law in Galatians and Romans, as well as articles for various scholarly publications.