SITE

Reviewer

1

Early Christian Writings - Philippians 

1. This site was begun in 2001 by Peter Kirby and has been managed by him to this day.  This information is readily accessible at the bottom of the main page of the website.
2. This site is not particularly attractive: it is plain with very little graphical enhancements.  Its organization, however, is top-notch: the site is very easy to navigate.  Out of the 18 outside links for Philippians, all but two are functional.  Due to its excellent organization, this site could be easily used by both advanced and novice learners.
3. The goal of the site, as stated by the web master, is to present all the works of Christian writers from the first, second, and part of the third, centuries.  This list includes canonized Scripture, apocrypha, and patristic works in English translations and, in many cases, in the original Greek or Latin.
4. The website offers many links to scholarly articles that draw on many different perspectives on the Philippian letter.  Kirby does quote research that puts the Philippian letter being composed in Rome, and seems to suppose that the letter is an amalgamation of 3 (or more) letters from Paul to the church in Philippi.  In regard to the Christ Hymn, Kirby quotes research that offers a comprehensive understanding of the origin of the Christ Hymn: a mixture of Jewish and Greek philosophical and theological symbols.
5. This site is very useful.  The links provided both for translation and commentary for Philippians is extensive, yet not overwhelming.  And the main website offers such a wealth of primary and secondary sources that the learner could happily make use of this site for nearly any project in early Christianity.

 MattM

2

Bible Resource Center

1. The American Bible Society is responsible for this site. This information could be found at the bottom of the website page.
2. This website had an easy navigational tool. There are many links to various resources such as: Sunday school curriculum, different translations of the Bible, daily devotionals, articles on various biblical subjects, and many things for all ages including kids and teens. Also provided is a bibliography for further study.
3. The goal of this site is to be what its name suggests, a resource center. It is to provide information and resources to help those in ministry.
4. This website describes Philippians as a short letter to encourage Christians. The Bible Resource Center also gives a history of the city of Philippi and describes how important it was, and that it was named after Philip II, who was the father of Alexander the Great. Lastly, this website gives an outline of how Philippians was written and broken in four parts:
   1) Paul greets and gives thanks for the Philippians (1:1-11)
   2) Living for Christ, God’s humble servant (1:12-2:18)
   3) Encouragement and advice (2:19-4:9)
   4) Final words of thanks and greeting (4:10-23)
5. The site’s usefulness is amazing. It has a wide variety of very useful information from various topics of today. I would use this site again and I recommend it to people who have a thirst to gain more concrete knowledge on topics of the Bible.

 Marcellus

3

bible.org Philippians Introduction, Argument, and Outline

1. Bible.org is a non-profit Christian organization based in Dallas, Texas. The website launched in 1995 in an effort to use the Internet for Christian ministry. The section on Philippians was written by Daniel B. Wallace who teaches Greek and New Testament at Dallas Theological seminary. He has also written several other sections of the website.
2. The site is not flashy, but it is attractive enough, and very easy to navigate. The subsections, like the one for Philippians are contained on a single page which can make for a lot of text on a page, but it is convenient to not have to click around to find additional information.
3. The main goal of Bible.org is stated in what they call "Ministry First". Their purpose is stated as follows:

• " It's our purpose. Ministry is our whole purpose. Supporting the vision of bible.org to see all people become mature followers of Jesus Christ.
• " It's our philosophy, our approach to the world and ministry which all bible.org leaders, team members, partners and participants are challenged to adhere to. It is the lens through which we evaluate everything we do.
• " It's our goal, to say "YES" to any idea, opportunity or request to do ministry using the NET BIBLE and/or bible.org resources.
• " It's our practice of introducing innovative methods, practices and approaches that put ministry ahead of profits
• " It's our passion, and be careful... it's infectious. And we pray you will desire to join with us and other like-minded individuals and organizations to seek "Ministry First"!

4. The author notes the three possible locations of Paul's imprisonment (although he very quickly dispels any possibility of Rome). He leans toward an Ephesian imprisonment. He dates the letter to around 61 CE. He expresses thoughts that Paul's opponents are located both in Rome and in Philippi. Regarding the Christ Hymn, the author mentions three possibilities (1) Paul is the author; (2) Paul is quoting a hymn already in existence; or (3) the hymn is nonPauline and a later interpolation. He concludes that neither the terms nor the theological formulation are reflective of Paul's writing, but believes that Paul incorporated this hymn, with some modifications, into the letter.
5. Bible.org is an extremely useful website, not only for study of Philippians but for the Bible as a whole. They offer fair and balanced commentary, along with solid principles for translation. It seems that they are in a continuing effort to leave no stone unturned in their analysis of the text. It is particularly useful for those who have a respect for the original language, but may not possess the individual scholarship to do detailed text analysis independently.

 BrianS

4

Blue Letter Bible Philippians 1

1. The site navigation bar on the left has several links that are quite unhelpful in figuring out who, exactly, is responsible for Blue Letter Bible. To figure it out, one must click "About BLB" and then find the link to "our sponsor, Sowing Circle." When you go to the Sowing Circle website ( www.sowingcircle.org ), you find out that Sowing Circle is "a ministry dedicated to sowing the Gospel of Jesus Christ" through Blue Letter Bible and the Blue Letter Bible Institute. Click the link for the Blue Letter Bible Institute and you find that it is a few online courses offered by, as far as I can tell, four pastors, one of whom appears to be no longer living. So, I would suppose that these pastors are, in the end, the ones responsible for the Blue Letter Bible site. In the "Other Links" section, there is a mention of "Koinonia House, a ministry of Chuck and Nancy Missler," and Koinonia House is credited as the "co-founder" of the BLB site.

2. In terms of the Bible resource alone, the site is clearly marked and easy to navigate; you can easily figure out how to search for a Bible passage, switch between translations, or move ahead and back by chapters or by books. The most interesting tool (and the one that takes a little while to figure out) is in the letters that are on the side of the verses. Each letter corresponds to a function (it would take too long to describe them all) that you can use to exegete each verse. There is a tool that finds every other verse in the Bible that contains certain key words or phrases from your target verse; there is a tool that links to a VERY comprehensive concordance (Greek root, tense, part of speech, pronunciation, verses where word occurs, lexicon, possible alternate translations, and on and on); there is a tool that connects to a list of video commentaries by people connected with the site and print commentaries that are public domain (meaning, VERY old); there is a "hymn-finder" tool. There is a tool that puts up all the available translations of the verse, and one that links to some dictionaries of key words. Many of these resources seem to be connected to the people who are responsible for the Blue Letter Bible, so there might not be a great diversity of perspective, but it's a great example of using the technology well.

3. I would say that the main goal of the site is to provide a comprehensive online resource for studying the Bible. The site has a definite evangelical flavor; if you click the "Know God" link on the left-hand nav bar, you will find an essay about conversion. However, the main intention here seems to be about Bible study rather than about converting the unbelievers.

4. By using the "commentaries" tool and reading a sampling of the commentaries that the BLB links to, you get the sense that those responsible for the site would not have any questions about Pauline authorship or about Philippians being one letter instead of several. The location of authorship: "while he was a prisoner in Rome" say several of the commentaries. The commentaries that I read didn't seem to have an awareness of the Christ hymn as a "hymn" or separate piece of material, which was interesting. The "enemies" are seen as Jewish-Christian missionaries in some commentaries and as just "those who seek secondary values in the guise of religion" in another commentary.

5. As I hinted, this site and its resources have a theologically conservative flavor that comes through in the interpretations, commentaries, and translation choices. I would recommend it to discerning pastors; I think that some parts of it would be confusing or hard to use for people without some prior theological education or study. The concordance tool is helpful, as is the "related passages" tool; both would be useful for sermon preparation but maybe not as much for serious study. I think this site shows a great use of technology and the Web, even when I don't agree with the resource choices! I also like that there are specific resources linked to each Bible verse.

 MattP

5

USCCB - NAB - Philippians - Introduction

1. A site sponsored by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, it also serves as a reference work using the R.C. New American Bible.

2. Clean and straightforward site. Lots of links to biblical texts in the NAB.

3. The site basically provides solid historical and literary background to the Philippians letter while engaging directly with the text.

4. Good awareness of historical (date/place notes tradition of Rome but also cites evidence of Ephesian imprisonment) and literary details.

5. A very useful site, especially the links to the online version of the the NAB which is nicely footnoted. Worth checking.

 MGVH

6

WWSB -- Philippians

1. The responsibility for this site seems to fall under the editor of the World Wide Study Bible (WWSB) who is an anonymous volunteer.  This volunteer has contributed most of the links in the last couple of years- most of the 50,000 current links.  Anyone can add links to the website and this anonymous volunteer has asked to be e-mailed when someone wants to add a resource and reserves the right to disregard certain material.  This information is provided clearly at the WWSB website (http://www.ccel.org/wwsb/index.html) by clicking on “About.”
2. The site was not colorful (black and blue), it clearly has an academic style that includes commentaries and other documents.  Overall the site is pretty bland, which does in a way help with navigation.  Certain headings could have been phrased differently to help with navigation; “About”- could have been phrased “Background Information,” but overall the site is easy to search through.
3. The main goal of this site is to organize “all the Bible-related resources on the World Wide Web according to scripture reference” (http://www.ccel.org/wwsb-res/about.html).  The editor is trying to combine a variety of resources such as commentaries, meditations, sermons, pictures, word studies and musical settings. 
4. All of the contributions are separate works by numerous authors that are combined in this site; for example there are links to the work Introduction to Philippians through The People's New Testament by B. W. Johnson (1891)  and Philippians by Bible - Encarta Concise Encyclopedia.  The site does not necessarily have it’s own views or work, it is a resource site to connect to other works.
5. This site seems to be very useful because it provides links to many resources.  There are a variety of resources, some more academic such as papers yet there are also hymns, sermons and outlines.  With this selection a range of interests could be reached.  I would consider using this site again. 

 Jenn

7

Philippians - A Study Guide (Executable Outlines)

1. Mark A. Copeland, minister for 30 years who considers himself to "simply be a Christian" as described in the New Testament and is not a member of any given denomination. He is 54 years old and graduated from Florida College in 1971. A more in depth biography is available and describes the major tenets of his ideals on theology, religion and Bible scholarship. The information is easily obtained by clicking on his name [highlighted in blue] and then clicking on the executableoutlines.com link followed by clicking on [more info.]
2. The website is mediocre in presentation, using lackluster graphics, but the ease of navigation and the efficient order of the material make up for this caveat.
3. The main goal of the website if to provide material and an overall "study guide" for preparation and teaching of adult Bible studies.
4. According to the author of the website, Mark A. Copeland: 
   • Paul is confident all is going to go well in relation to his prison release and he, "will even come to see them again." [Meaning the Philippi believers] 
   • There is no in depth comment in relation to the Christ hymn, only a quick outline of the verses included. 
   • Likewise there is no considerable attention given to the nature of the adversaries or enemies who play a considerable role in the passage. 
   • The website mainly focuses upon the encouragement that is lifted up in the lines of the text along with a call for unity and a call to follow Christ as an example. 
   • **Overall not very theologically sound, but rather a simple outline snapshot of the letter to the Philippians
5. Overall not very useful in regards to scholarship, but anyone looking for a quick outline to receive the basic foundation of the book of Philippians, it could be used as a tool in this type of endeavor. Again, the order, clarity, and organization of the website is its strongest and most powerful ally.

 DaveS

8

Theology WebSite New Testament Study Helps Philippians

1. A group called Theoweb who initially was the Historical Theological Department of Trinity International University. The webmaster has never changed from Scott David Foutz. Their stated mission: "We are dedicated to providing the internet community with academically rigorous and doctrinally sound theological content in a public forum characterized by open mindedness and genuine engagement toward diverse convictions and beliefs."
2. The main page of www.theologywebsite.com easily helps a beginner to find the information needed by clicking on various topics such as Church History, Theology, and New Testament. Of course, the Philippians commentary lies under New Testament. Overall I find the site pleasing to view.
3. The main goal is to give basic study helps to studying the Letter to the Philippians.
4. The website has 5 points with one in progress as following:
   • The Philippian Church
   • Occasion
   • Authenticity
   • The Place and Date
   • Outline (in progress)

   To be on a website called Theology Website, I find the lack of theological interpretation to be saddening. Foutz’s work has minute attention to theological applications in Occasion, yet his focus is mainly on the gift with no attention to the major theme of rejoicing and joy. In regards to historical background, Foutz loves details by including a note to the battle with Mark Anthony and details about the Paul’s imprisonment with proposition of him being in Rome. Finally, the literary aspects tie in beautifully comments in Acts and do not dispute Paul being the author. Unfortunately, little mention of the 3 letter theory occurs.

5. Overall the site gives some good historical and literary background, yet I would not restrain myself to Theology Website. Foutz’s information does not include all the opinions having a one-sided approach making me only recommend the site for review but not heavy use.

 JoelR

9

Philippians (Walking Thru the Bible)

1. Windell Gann of the Church of Christ, a nineteenth century Restoration Movement church based on the Christian church of the first century.
2. The site is easily navigated, and pleasant to view—not overly decorated with adiaphora.  
3. The goal is simply to teach the basics of the book, provides questions to guide the reading, a basic Bible study.
4. Historically it dates and locates Philippians the same as we have in class
   Theologically he emphasizes the joy theme then directs the reading of joy as an acronym of how we are to live our lives by focusing attention on:  J-Jesus               O-others                   Y-yourself
   The only literary comment I noticed was the viewing of the “happiness robbers” or the “joy stealers” as the threats to the Philippians.
5. This would be a good “down and dirty” easy Bible study to use with youth or other people who have not done a lot of in-depth study of the Bible. 

Use with some caution. Site focuses on 'answers' rather than discussion. Dedication to alliterative patterns may be interesting mnemonic strategy  but overly simplifies. (MGVH)

 Gretchen

10

THE LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS

1. Barry D. Smith, a professor at Atlantic Baptist University (in Canada) is the author of this website. This can be found by clicking on the "back to index page" at the bottom of the website, which leads to the course website for "The New Testament and Its Context," Smith's intro to the NT class.

2. The website is not very pretty, unless your favorite colors are yellow and orange. There are no graphics, just text. The text is fairly dense and not easy to glance over, but it is organized in an outline form, with blue bullets drawing attention to 6 major questions about the writing of Philippians (who, to whom, where, when, what, why). There are no links off this page, except for the "back to index page" link.

3. Smith uses workbooks for his class. Students have to read the book and answer the questions. This website provides them with the answers to the workbook questions. For those of us not in the class, the information can be used for a general overview of the background of the book of Philippians.

4. Smith spends far more time dealing with historical rather than theological or ethical concerns. The Christ hymn barely gets a mention in his outline, while he spends 5+ paragraphs analyzing when and where Paul was when he wrote the letter (Smith says Rome, sometime between 58-61). He relies on the book of Acts for much of the historical information about the church in Philippi. There is much speculation about the content of a letter that Smith believes the Philippians wrote to Paul, which then prompted Paul's letter.

5. Some of the information on this page could be moderately useful for someone wanting to introduce a Bible study group to background information about the letter, but discretion would have to be used in evaluating some of Smith's claims (e.g., his use of Acts as history). I think there are other places to find better summaries of this information.

 Lauren

11

Philippians

1. Prof L. G. Bloomquist at Saint Paul University in Ottawa is responsible for this site, although one must navigate to his home page to figure this out.
2. This link to "Philippians" is obviously from an old course as there are no active links to or from the page itself. Also somewhat confusing is the "1 Corinthians" title that comes up on the title bar.
3. The main goal of the website is to deal with four topics: a. Critical Issues in the Study of Philippians b. Paul's Dialogue with the Philippians c. The Structure of Philippians d. An Overview of Philippians
4. "Paul (still in prison / or sick) writes Philippians - sends it to the Philippians by means of Epaphroditus (who thus returns home)" is as detailed information as you will find on this website. A big section on this page deals with Paul's journeys as found in Acts. It then attempts to piece snippets from Paul's letters into this puzzle to reconstruct some sort of time line, though no dates are ever used. As one can imagine, it is pretty vague. As far as the 'enemies' go, Bloomquist does state, "Paul warns the Philippians about Judaizers who are causing trouble (Phil 3.2-21)."
5. The information presented doesn't go into much depth. It is also presented in a way that left me wondering if it was just scratch work for the professor, with quick bullets, rough charts, and clearly no concern for aesthetic value of the web page itself. I would also comment that the professor's "THO 3102 Pauline Literature" page that this would have been linked to is written in 'dummy' filler text. Not very helpful!

 BenB

12

Third Millennium Ministries

1. Dr. Reggie Kidd seems to be responsible for this site, as his picture and name is at the bottom of the main page. Also credited with contributions to the site are some of his students (Dr. Kidd is Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, FL.). What is confusing is that Dr. Kidd’s personal site attributes the Third Millennium site to Richard Pratt. There are a few of Dr. Pratt’s presentations on the site in PDF format, and he does appear in a quicktime video which explains the site’s mission, but there appears to be more information about Dr. Kidd than Dr. Pratt. Interesting, but confusing…

2. The site is not the most attractive, and it does not break any new ground in terms of its layout and design, but it is fairly easy to navigate. I will say this- some of the links are actually to student papers, and some are other web pages, so one often does not know what to expect (it’s much easier, in my opinion, to navigate a page rather than peruse a paper). Everything is well-organized, as one click on a subject leads to a page full of in-house links related to that subject.

3. The introduction video talks all about the issue of bringing correct theological teaching to people all over the world, with specific emphasis on Latin America.  It claims to be inspired by the protestant reformation, and Third Millennium’s goal is that they will train pastors all over the world through multimedia and internet technologies with a complete seminary curriculum.  This curriculum will be in five different languages.  How they intend to increase awareness of these resources is not known, but presumably their website will be the means of dispensing the curriculum.

4. The background on Philippi is very short and tells me nothing new, and the very short page on Philippi seems to be almost an afterthought.  It seems to assume that a Roman audience is a Roman audience, and that a Roman culture is a Roman culture (i.e., they’re all similar).  3M makes statements like “immorality prevailed in the Roman empire” when discussing the culture.  While not extreme, the language and background of the site seem to be conservative theologically (while acknowledging disagreeing voices, they seem to take the stance that Paul wrote Ephesians and Colossians, among other disputed epistles).  There is not a lot of time devoted exclusively to Philippians, but this is a work in progress, so perhaps they have not gotten there yet.  There is an interesting outline, in which the letter seems to be taken at its word (that is, it is one letter, not pieces of letters woven together).  The enemies are not explicitly identified as far as I can tell, outside of being “enemies of the cross of Christ.”  In terms of dating the letter, there is no date given.  The only thing I can find related to Paul and the community at Philippi in terms of dating is the statement, “Philippi was the first European City in which Paul preached.” 
   There is no reference to the Christ Hymn at all.
   Dr. Kidd recommends three commentaries for Philippians, one of which was is Lightfoot’s 1868 commentary.  I did not know enough about these commentaries to come to any conclusions.

5. One could do worse if looking for an introduction to Paul.  One may either be turned off or drawn in by the conservative bent of the website.  If one is looking for resources related to Philippians, well, it just isn’t here yet.  I have bookmarked the site just for the curiosity of what may be posted in the future.  They have a lofty goal, but I do believe that this could be a decent resource for its intended audience if they continue to update the project.  Unfortunately, much of the site’s content in English has not been translated to many of the other languages yet (the Spanish site is missing considerable documents, but unfortunately I could not make heads or tales of the Mandarin Chinese, so I don’t have much to offer for that). 

 BrianB

13

Journeys of Paul

1. A small text at the bottom right of the main banner reads “© Craig Koester.” Also there is a small text at the bottom of the page that reads “Credits and Permissions.” These texts are hyperlinked to a “Credits and Permissions” page, which gives information about who did what for the site. A link is provided for Craig Koester’s Homepage. That link takes you to a default page from Luther Seminary that says, “We’re sorry. The page you have requested was not found.” I entered “Koester” in the search field of Luther Sem’s website and found his faculty page. He is a professor of New Testament at Luther, and the web resources he offers appear to be useful. The website does not easily provide information about who is responsible for the site.
2. The site is mostly navigable  but provides only short summary information. (Be sure, however, to use the "See the sights in Philippi" link and then note the small Back/Next buttons near the top right of the screen.) Each section of Paul’s journeys contains only references to Acts, a picture of the region (or of a mosaic or some other art form the region) and a brief note on context to give a brief glimpse of Paul’s travels as recorded in Acts. This site has very little value as an academic resource.
3. The main goal of the site is to give a very brief overview of Paul’s travels as recorded by Acts, and it succeeds in being only just that.
4. There are no theological or literary determinations made about Paul’s visit to Philippi. Some historical information is provided: Philippi was a Roman colony on the Egnatian Way, it was a cosmopolitan city whose culture blended Latin and Greek traditions, etc. Other information is briefly given about the agora/bema, deities, and Judaism.
5. I would not recommend this site to anyone other than those who perhaps want a quick overview of Paul’s journeys or who wish to see low resolution pictures of the regions he visited.

 PaulS

14

IBS Philippians & Galatians 
The Presbyterian Publishing Corporation ( www.ppcbook.com ) publishes the IBS Bible Study series, a collection of adult Bible studies on different books of the Bible. One of these books is Philippians and Galatians by Stanley P. Saunders ($8.95 from Amazon.) The online material is not this book, rather it consists of “leader helps” which are “designed to facilitate group study by providing lesson plans for the ten units in each of the Interpretation Bible Studies. These lesson plans utilize a variety of interactive methods, which have been chosen for the express purpose of engaging participants in the learning process.” (The book has four lessons on Philippians and six on Galatians.)

Although the “leader helps” are free, the book would have to be purchased separately. Moreover, it is stated that “each participant in the group should have a copy of IBS study book”. (The “leader helps” assume that one is using the book and each lesson has activities based on material in the text.) Thus, this material in the “leader helps” would have to undergo substantial modification if one were to use it without the book.

The Presbyterian Publishing Corporation is a PCUSA (Presbyterian Church in the USA) operation. On a theological level, the PCUSA is to Presbyterians as the ELCA is to Lutherans, so that the material should be relatively safe for Lutheran use if one were to purchase the book.

The website for this and other “leader helps” in the IBS series is https://www.ppcbooks.com/studyguides.asp . The website is straightforward to navigate and readers of this review are encouraged to visit and make their own evaluations.

 BillN

15

Van Manen, Epistles to the Philippians

1. The Journal of Higher Criticism was initiated in 1994 as a forthright attempt, in a time of scholarly neo-conservatism, to hark back to the bold historical hypotheses and critical interpretations associated with the great names of F.C. Baur and Tubingen. The Editor was Robert M. Price, The Associate Editor was Darrell J. Doughty. This journal was published semi-annually, spring and fall. The final issue of the Journal appeared in the fall of 2003. The site is well organized and easy to read. Understanding the way it was written and its language is another matter.
2. This site is very easy to navigate but not attractive at all. Just plain with no graphical enhancements at all. 
3. The goal of all the articles presented by the Journal of Higher Criticism is to deal with historical, literary and history of each religious article from the perspective of higher criticism. 
4. The website said the following, "The historical as distinguished from the abiding religious and ethical value of this writing, even though it makes no contribution to our knowledge of the life of Paul, is not slight. It throws light for us upon the history of Paulinism and the course of this quickening practical movement within Christianity during the first half of the second century." Most of this website was trying to prove or say it was hardly possible to think of Paul as the writer of Philippians. 
5. This site might, might be useful to someone who can understand the language and the way it was written. I do not plan on using this website again for anything.

Note that this webpage is a copy of an article by W. C. VanManen that originally appeared in: "Philippians (Epistles)," in Encyclopaedia Biblica (New York: Macmillan, 4 Vols., 1899-1903), Vol. 4, 3703-3713. Note the date! It is most interesting for its summary of 19th century interpretation of Philippians. VanManen claims that Philippians was not written by Paul but was actually written around 125CE in Syria.

 JerryWitmus

16

Philippians

1. This site is found under Yahoo www.geocities.com, and is titled Bible Doctrine Study Guide. The site has no specific person who is identified as the moderator. It states "References to specific teachers of the Word have been removed at their request. This site is now a composite of the teachings of a number of unnamed servants of God and we thank them for their service to God." The site appears to be well organized in the following manner: epistles--grouped by author and date, Gospels, Old Testament grouped by Jewish names.

2. The site is easy to navigate, has a nice border but no frills. It is easy to locate particular Books of the Bible. However, the word search option leaves a lot to be desired. It is reached by going to www.google.com and searching the word from there. It suggests that the individual bookmark the google search.

3. The main goal of the site is the compiling of various individual teachings but the lack of authorship for each writing makes the site a poor choice for reference material.

4. The site has some good historical content, but it is limited to just enough to get started with. There is no in depth content for most of the Bible books. As far as I could find there is no specific reference to "enemies" or the "Christ Hymn" in the Philippians writings. Most of the historical background is authorship, probable dates of writings, and one or two facts that are readily available at other sites.

5. I would use this site for beginning a search of material (remember, there are no individual authorships from those who have contributed material to the site). The site would be a good starting point in searching for material on all Books of the Bible since it does have some fairly good analysis of individual verses, but caution should be used since authorship of who has interpreted the passage is unknown.

 Rosey

17

As Paul tells it ... especially Ephesian Headquarters (5)

1. The author of this site is: J. Peter Bercovitz, a professor of religion (Emeritus) from West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon WV. He gives his home address. 
2. The site doesn't have many bells or whistles, but lots of good information laid out well. 
3. "A letters based study of what the apostle Paul tells us about his work, his teaching, and himself." 
4. Literarily, this site looks at the undisputed Paul when considering the events of Paul's life solely from his letters. With regard to history, in a meticulous manner, this site considers Paul's context. In particular, the discussion of where Paul could be when he wrote Philippians was detailed (there's too much information on the site for me to touch on it all). Theologically, it is especially worth noting how Bercovitz looks at Paul's evolving theology (e.g. eschatology and how he and perhaps most of the congregation will reach eternity: through bodily death rather than the return of Christ).  Since this site is an overview site of Paul's entire life, it gives us limited theological information and discussion on matters such as the enemies or the origin of the Christ hymn.  As Paul Tells it helps to ask questions but often doesn't answer them.
5. This is a VERY useful site. One of the better ones I've seen and something I bookmarked.

 MarkB

18

Letter to Philippians POUNDS PERSONAL BIBLE STUDY NOTES

1. This website was produced by Will Pounds in 2000. This is easily seen in a nice blurb at the bottom of the main page, which also states that the scriptural references are taken from the New American Standard Bible from 1995. It appears that he is Baptist in background.
2. The navigation through the site is quite nice. The main page has links to all the other pages in the site and these links follow you as you go through different sites. As far as general attractiveness goes, the site could use some spicing up. The majority of the text is in plain print. A bit of color is used in the header of the main page and for subheadings.
3. It is evident from the layout that the goal of the site is to be mainly informational, not entertaining. The main page is divided into the following categories: author, style, place, recipients (of the letter), date, occasion, Roman influence and themes. Linked to the main page are: Background of Philippians (using the book of Acts primarily), Prelude to Philippians and a decent bibliography page would recommend it mainly for adults who are looking for a rather introductory overview of Paul's letter to the Philippians.
4. The website states that Paul was writing the letter to the Philippians in 61,62 or 63 CE and that it was written from prison in Rome. It does mention his prison terms in Caesarea, Philippi and Jerusalem, but is content to settle on Rome by citing textual references to the praetorian guard and to Caesars household. It also mentions the idea of kenosis as a major theological point in the letter, citing the self-emptying of Christ expressed in the Christ Hymn. The site only briefly mentions Paul's problems in the form of selfish ambition, Judaizing legalists, sinless perfection and antinomianism. The website also mentions that after Paul's death the church at Philippi falls into obscurity.
5. This website is useful for adults who are looking for a general overview of Paul's letter to the Philippians. Discussions could be fruitful regarding the list of themes on the main page, but overall I would probably head to other sites for reasons of low interactivity and the one dimensional character of the site.

 Andy

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Philippians Bible Commentary

1. This website is provided by Allan Turner, a former sheriff who says he’s not affiliated with any denomination, calling himself “simply a Christian”. Yet, he writes about pagans: “I do not use the term "pagan" in any pejorative way. I use it to identify a group that rejects Jehovah as their God and the Bible as being a revelation from Him. Had to hunt for this info.
2. It’s an attractive site, easy to find chapters. The short paragraphs make it easy to scan.
3. “A verse by verse examination of the apostle Paul’s epistle of joy to the beloved Philippians church,” according to the website. No use of Greek.
4. Turner says the letter was written from Rome, 63 A.D. He makes no mention of the "Christ hymn” as an early church hymn. He does site and argue against the “kenotic theory” which holds that the verses teach that Jesus divested Himself of His divinity and Godhood and became a man, just a man, and only a man as He lived here on this earth expressed on the site regarding Philippians. The author rejects this idea, (e.g.: date and location of authorship, identity of 'enemies,' background of Christ hymn...)
5. This commentary seems to be without base. I wouldn’t use it.

 JeanneB

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Philippians Commentary and Study Guide

1. "These Bible commentaries, mostly by Don and Nancy Sween, have been posted daily on the Today's Bible Commentary Blog since November 2003." And just who are Don and Nancy Sween and what qualifies them to publish anything online as an authoritative Bible commentary? elifainw..-however, this useless statement was posted in a fairly visible spot. 
2. The site is quite busy. It mostly consists of links to other sites, surrounding a commentary on the book of Philippians which is part of a greater work breaking down the entirety (presumably) of the Bible into daily readings with reflection. The links offer access to insane amounts of other things including maps, study guides, background reading… 
3. To offer the general public the views and commentary of two complete strangers on various sections of the Bible, in this case Paul's letter to the church in Philippi, and also to provide links to many other informative, possibly more legitimate sites. 
4. This site has more of a devotional nature than a literary/historical interest. Here are some interesting little tidbits that leaped off the page to assail my eyes: 
   • "Paul chose to survive imprisonment so believers would see how to continue progressing and rejoicing in the faith, no matter what the opposition." 
   • "Paul once relied upon the law for pleasing God, but that method had now either actually been lost or considered lost." 
   • "There are many enemies of the cross of Christ. They prefer earthly rewards, like being well fed." 
5. This site does have über links to other sites, so maybe I'd exploit it for its links, but only if I totally forgot how to find links from other, better sites.

 Lucy

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THE MESSAGE OF PHILIPPIANS

1. The site is run by Peninsula Bible Church (teacher Ray C. Stedman) - non-denominational evangelical congregation. That information is provided clearly at the end of the article.

2. My first impression about this site was: “a long sermon.”

3. The main goal of this site is to give basic information about the Letter to Philippi, to give overview, to pick up some verses and then looking to apply that in the context of life.

4. The article begins with information about the establishment of church with Paul and some information about Paul journey according to Acts. Location the place and date of writing the letter is in Rome when Paul was prisoner of Nero. He does not mention any identity of enemies.

5. I would not plan to use this site as a resource for studies or for preparation for Bible studies. I would recommend this site in some ways as an inspiration for sermons.

 Mirka

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Epistle to the Philippians - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1. Here is a snippet from the about page of wikipedia.org: Wikipedia is a free-content encyclopedia, written collaboratively by people from all around the world. The site is a wiki, which means that anyone can edit entries simply by clicking on the edit this page link. Wikipedia is a trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. This organization wants everyone that has internet access, to have information free of charge.
2. It is pretty plain, but nicely organized with a table of links to take you to 6 different sections on the page.
3. To give an overview of this book of the New Testament.
4. It clearly states Paul as the author of the Epistle, but states a case for non Pauline authorship, and shows a date of composition of 61 or 62 CE, it gives very little historical or literary background.
5. I do not think I would use this information again for scholarly work, however I would recommend this site to someone who wants a place to start looking at the books of the Bible as it has 2 useful links at the bottom of the page, and I would also use this site as a basis for what people searching the web are finding about the books of the Bible.

 JerryWirtley

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Philippians

1. Randy McRoberts. Short of reading through his weblogs, deciphering information about him is difficult. His name is clearly posted on an introduction page and at the bottom of a main page.

2. The Philippians portion of the site is linked off of the main blog page. The information on Philippians is on one page and is in simple bulleted form with headings.
3. The goal of the site is to offer lists of questions to be used for personal or group Bible study. The book is broken into ten sections with anywhere from 10-20 questions per section.
4. The site contains few theological, historical or literary claims, except, perhaps by raising certain questions, claims are made. It seems the primary purpose of the site is not to convey information, but to encourage the reader to study scripture and make his/her own claims.
5. This site would be useful for someone in preparing a Bible study as one seeks to integrate the Bible to life. The author pays close attention to the text encouraging others to think about what Paul is challenging the Philippians and us to do in the passage. Though this site is readily usable by someone without historical and literary frameworks of Philippians, such knowledge would certainly enhance one’s thoughts regarding the questions raised.

 EmmyI

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Philippians - Andrew Wommack Ministries