Roman Citizenship in the Epistle to the Philippians: a dialogue with José Comblin

Abstract

This article aims to reflect Joseph Comblin's interpretation of the situation that motivated Paul of Tarsus in writing the Epistle to the Philippians. This is not only the resumption of Master Comblin's work published in 1985 as a commentary on the Epistle, but a dialogue that opens up new possibilities for understanding the context, not only of Paul, but of the community to which he writes. The goal is to demonstrate how the author understands Paul's arrest and what can happen to him in that immediate context. Besides the possibility of this first motivation, whose center is the possibility of the use of Roman citizenship that Paul, at that moment, might presuppose to “escape” martyrdom, we seek to add other elements of the sociological context of the letter's recipients: the new life in Christ of the Philippians must face the tensions of a city proud to boast the status of Roman colony. The immediate situation of prisoner Paul is undoubtedly an important motivation for one of the three notes that make up the whole of the Epistle. However, the reality of social conflict experienced by the community when facing the socio-cultural model of dominant inequality explains the character of the ethical exhortation around unity (Phil 2: 1-5) and the Christological model presented as a criterion for living the example of Jesus. who became a slave (Phil 2: 6-11). Both following Jesus and the new model of human relationship are the hallmarks of Christian identity that should prevail as a witness to outsiders.