What Does Philippians 1:15 Mean?
Some indeed herald the Anointed One through envy and strife, and some through good will.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:THE KEY
The same Anointed One is proclaimed from inwardly opposed motives: envy and rivalry in some, goodwill in others.
THE MEANING
The announcement of the Anointed One reaches you through people moved by very different motives: some by envy and conflict, some by goodwill. Hearing the message does not, by itself, reveal what is driving the speaker.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that sacred speech proves a generous heart: the same proclamation may rise from envy, rivalry, or goodwill.
THE ROOT
Χριστόν
Christon
GROWS FROM
χρι-
chri-
Anoint, applying oil.
The title Χριστός (Christos, “the anointed one”) carries the act of anointing within it. The verse’s striking contrast is that this same one is proclaimed from inwardly opposed motives.
ALSO GROWS
chriō: To anoint.
χρίω
The verb shows the action inside the title: the Anointed One is one who has been anointed.
chrisma: Anointing.
χρῖσμα
This noun keeps the same anointing language close to the title being proclaimed.
κηρύσσουσιν
kērússousin
GROWS FROM
κηρυκ-
kēryk-
The herald-family: announcing publicly as a herald.
The verb pictures a herald’s public announcement, leaving the herald’s inward motive as a separate matter. The announcement is shared here, while envy, rivalry, or goodwill names what drives the announcer.
ALSO GROWS
kērux: Herald.
κῆρυξ
The herald is the person who carries the announcement, helping distinguish the messenger from the message.
kērygma: Proclamation.
κήρυγμα
This noun names the announcement itself, the shared act that can come from different motives.
εὐδοκίαν
eudokian
GROWS FROM
δοκ- (dok-), in εὐ-δοκία (eu-dokia)
The δοκ- family carries the sense of thinking, approving, or being pleased; εὐ- adds “good” or “well.”
“good will” in this verse is eudokian. Goodwill here is more than a pleasant manner: εὐδοκία (eudokia, “good pleasure” or “favorable intention”) names a positive inward disposition. Its contrast with envy makes motive visible beneath the same outward proclamation.
ALSO GROWS
dokeō: To think or seem.
δοκέω
This base verb shows the thought or judgment carried within the word-family.
eudokeō: To be well pleased or to approve.
εὐδοκέω
This related verb makes the favorable intention of goodwill more explicit.
THE PATTERN
The same outward act can carry different inward motives, so the act alone does not reveal the heart.
All the ways of a person are clean in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the breaths.Take heed not to do your alignment before men, to be seen by them; otherwise you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.And if I feed out in morsels all that lies under my hand, and if I hand over my body that I may boast, but do not hold love, it helps me nothing.THE THREAD
What then? Only that in every way, whether in show or in truth, the Anointed One is heralded. And in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice.Both verses use κηρύσσω (kērússō, “to herald or proclaim”). Verse 15 names envy and goodwill as different motives; verse 18 makes explicit that the announcement occurs either way, separating what is proclaimed from what drives the speaker.
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