He Who Began a Good Work in Y'All ~ GregJ

Sometime in my youth a preacher suggested personalizing Biblical promises and commands.  Thus:

“God so loved Greg that he gave his only begotten son…” and,
“Greg shalt have no other Gods before me….”
 
When I was older—like, ten minutes later—it occurred to me that personalizing the Bible could be abused.  I found 1 Samuel 15. I could personalize it! “Now, Greg, go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”

As a matter of certainty, I did not know any Amalekites. But I had suspicions about a local bully.
 
I was reminded of Bible personalization when I was looking for birthday cards and found this one:

I used to have no trouble treating Philippians 1:6 as yet another promise to me, especially if I kept the whole sentence:

“He who began a good work in Greg will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
 
Hold up your hand if you feel this verse encourages you individually to trust that God is completing you, as a master carpenter would complete a construction project.
 
Stretch your hand even higher if this verse assures you that God’s work in you personally won’t stop until heaven.

---

OK, that’s fine. Individual growth does happen, thanks to God's work and Spirit evidenced in virtues such as I cited in recent posts. You know, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, smiting. But here’s my thesis:
 
Individual growth is not what this verse promises, at least not directly.
 
This verse invites me not to a solitary hike, not to pilgrim’s progress. It calls me to get on the bus.

Philippians 1:6 is not a promise to you as an individual. Sorry. Instead, Philippians 1:6 assures the whole Philippian church of God's continued aid. The Greek source language has two different words that translate into the single English word, “you”. Greek singular you is pronounced "sue". Greek plural you is pronounced "who mays". The word in Philippians 1:6 is the plural you, "who mays".

There are two ways I aim to support this assertion, “He who began a good work in you,” refers to the church: by context and by grammar.

First, context. A courier such as Timothy or Epaphroditus or maybe a local Christian Lydia or Jay L. Orr reads this letter. Each time you see the word "you", ask, are Paul and Timothy addressing an individual, or a group?

---

 Philippians chapter 1 verses 1-7

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace…

If you scan onward through the four chapters of Philippians. Paul speaks collectively to "brothers", "brothers and sisters". "saints", "every saint", "children of God", and so on.

---

That was context. Now grammar: specifically second-person personal pronouns.

A long time ago, a teacher asked me to name some pronouns.  Startled awake, I asked, "What? Who? Me?"

1. For one singular sensation, individual “you”, Greek has a whole word family pronounced sue.  This is the pronoun recorded in Matthew 16:18 when Jesus says, "You are Peter," Sue ei Petros.  Philippians has exactly one verse targeting an individual sue:
 
   Philippians 4:3
       Yes, I ask you also, true companion,
       help these women,…

2. The other 36 occurrences of English "you" in Philippians come from the Greek word family pronounced who-mays. Grammatically, this references a collective such as a herd, flock, or army. John the Baptist uses this plural who-mays "you" twice when he trash-talks the Pharisees and Sadducees: "YOU bunch of snakes! Who warned YOU to run from the coming judgment?" 

Footnote:  In Old English, thou, thee, and thine were singular; you, ye, and yours were plural. Around 1595, Shakespeare wrote: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate..." Shakespeare also wrote: "Ye spotted snakes with double tongue!" The 1611 King James Version and its direct descendants preserved this singular thou versus plural you distinction. "Thou art the man!" But Shakespeare, King James, and the Quakers were a shrinking minority in this distinction. The transition to “you" covering both singular and plural had been in progress since 1600. 

Footnote: “If the individual members of a group were intended, hekastos humon, 'each / every one of you', was used. This is seen in 12 of the 77 uses of hekastos (each, every) in the New Testament. Consequently, there was no confusion on the part of the original readers or writers, as to the intention of a speaker or reporter.” - Pioneers' New Testament, Word Study 142 

---

phil1.6-7_4.3_interlinear_esv.pdf
File Size:	59 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

---

Like apparently most languages except English, the Spanish language distinguishes between singular and plural "you". Below is what Wadmar tells me is the most-used Español Bible translation, highlighting the “you” words. 

• Filipenses 1:6-7 Reina-Valera 1960 (plural “you” vosotros)
• Filipenses 4:3 Reina-Valera 1960 (singular “you” ti)
• Filipenses 1:6-7 Reina Valera Contemporánea 2011  (plural “you” ustedes)
• Filipenses 4:3 Reina Valera Contemporánea 2011  (singular “you” ti)

---

I suspect many English translations ignore the difference between singular "you" and plural "you" because:

(a) Tradition!  Inertia!  Wishful thinking!
(b) Same-sentence singular context such as “you are Peter” and plural “you bunch of snakes” should suffice. Larger scope such as the greetings in Philippians, Ephesians, etc., simply requires alertness from readers. Never mind birthday cards, one-verse devotions, and its-all-about-me.
(c) Some translations aim to be "word for word".  Alas, accurately translating a Greek word often requires two or three English words.  Thus plural-you becomes "you all".  Adequately translating a Hebrew word tends to require three or four English words. For example, Psalm 23:1, "The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want," translates just four Hebrew words to nine English words.
(d) We come to Christ as individuals. Whatever benefits the church tends to occur by individual growth or result in individual growth. Still, if we take Philippians 1:6 as about a work of God on our team and in our team, that makes a difference.

The majority of conversion episodes recorded in the book of Acts involve presentation to a group, simultaneous individual responses within that group, and thus instant congregation with a memorable shared history. In the cases of Cornelius and the Philippian jailor there was a distinct individual conversion immediately followed by group conversion. Generally, it's hard in Acts to separate the new Christian individual from the new Christian congregation.

In any case, few English Bible translations clearly distinguish source plural “you” from singular “you”.

• The 1901 ASV and 1994 KJ21 follow the 1611 KJV in using "ye" for singular (Phil 4:3) and "you" for plural (Phil 1:6, etc.). However, many KJV users perceive thee/thy/thine as a respectful singular pronoun ("After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name."). Similarly, you/your is perceived as a familiar singular pronoun, maybe because "except a man be born again" is followed by, "ye must be born again".
• The 1982 NKJV uses "you" for both singular and plural.
• The CSB and NET relegate plural “among you” to a footnote.* 
• The PNT uses inline brackets: “in [among] you....” 
• The NRSVA and VOICE use “among you”.

    * but who reads footnotes?

The prize for most nearly consistent word-by-word attention to Greek and Hebrew second person plural and some other nuances goes to https://yallversion.com. Singular "you" Sue remains "you" and plural "you" who-mays becomes “y'all”! I've found some omissions but not nearly as many as other English language translations.

Philippians chapter 1, Y'all Version:
 
¹ Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: ² Grace and peace to y’all from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
³ I thank my God every time I remember y’all. ⁴ In every prayer for all y’all, I always pray with joy,  ⁵ because of y’all’s partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶ being confident of this very thing, that ʜᴇ who began a good work in y’all will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. ⁷ It is right for me to think this way about all y’all, because I have y’all in my heart, since both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, all y’all are partakers of grace with me. ⁸ For God is my witness, how I long for y’all in the affection of Christ Jesus.

Philippians chapter 4, Y'all Version:
¹ Therefore, my beloved siblings whom I long for, my joy and crown, y’all stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
² I urge Euodia, and I urge Syntyche, to think the same way in the Lord.
³ Yes, true partner, I ask you to help these women who have struggled together with me in the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
⁴ Y’all rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say, “Rejoice y’all!”

---

Footnote: Would you be surprised the Y'All Version comes from a Dallas Theological Seminary guy?

Reading a singular "you" when there's really a Greek plural "you" makes a big difference in Luke 17:21. The KJV and at least two dozen other versions have Jesus say,

   "For behold, the Kingdom of God is within you."

A couple more say, "the Kingdom of God is inside you."

However, the "you" in the Greek source is genitive plural: ὑμῶν, pronounced who-moan. Thus, I'm with two dozen or more English translations that render this verse,

   "The kingdom of God is among you", or "the kingdom of God is in your midst."

Hey, the context of Luke 17:21 has Jesus addressing multiple Pharisees. I don't think Jesus is claiming that the kingdom of God is within a "white-washed tomb."

The plural pronoun makes me side with the Y'All version. I find "Empire" a little strange, but can live with it.

The Pharisees questioned him about when
the Empire of God would come,
and Jesus answered them,
“The Empire of God
does not come with something observable, 
nor will anyone say, ‘Look, here!’ or, ‘There it is!’
for indeed, the Empire of God
is in y’all’s midst.”

Footnote: Dr. Mounce has similar but more credible pronoun pondering, twice. Also, Martin. And others. Mounce's observation of the small present-day Philippian congregation raises a question: If Phil 1:6 is an encouragement for church growth, then shouldn't a congregation once begun keep growing? That's why I clarify earlier that Phil 1:6 is primarily about qualitative spiritual  growth in gifts such as generosity and fruit such as love and joy. This maturation tends to result in numerical growth of the congregation.  But maturation can result in martyrdom and dispersal, and thus quantitative decrease.

Footnote: I get these statistics from the 2017 Tyndale Greek New Testament :
    Count of Plural 2nd person pronouns (ὑμεῖς, ἡμῶν, ὑμῖν, ὑμᾶς) =1539
    Count of Singular 2nd person pronouns (σύ, σου, σοῦ, σοι, σοί, σε, σέ) = 712
    So! If you spot a "you" in the ESV,  NASB,, or many other English-language New Testaments, there's a 68% chance it is plural. 
     If you spot a "you" in an English language epistle such as Romans or 1 Peter, there's an 84% chance it is plural! 
 
Footnote:  There are around 83 "one another" uses in the New Testament, such as "love one another", "instruct one another", "encourage one another." See the study series by Gene Getz.

Footnote: Yep, biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek all distinguish the singular pronoun from the plural pronoun, but not always the way I would guess when I see a bare "you"".  I am definitely no expert. Still: "You shall have no other gods before me." and the other nine commandments are announced to Israel but put "you" as singular. " KJV says: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." That's grammatically the same as, "You each person shall have no other gods before me."  It would not be wrong for me to take this personally: "You, Greg, shall have no other gods before me." Likewise, in Deuteronomy  6:5, "you" and "your" are singular: "... You, Greg, shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might." On the other hand, there are plenty of Old Testament verses explicitly to the collective "y'all" nation of Israel. For example, in Jeremiah 29:11, Prosperity Gospel advocates would have me read, "For I know the plans I have for you, Greg, declares The LORD, plans for prosperity, not disaster..." That's not what it says! A better translation encourages the war-stricken nation of Israel in second person plural: "For I know the plans I have for y’all, Israel:” declares YHWH, “Plans for prosperity not disaster, to give y’all hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11 YALL Version).

Footnote:  Mike Farraguti has a cute, lightly Calvinist take on Philippians 1:6: "He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it."
    “You’re gonna get better, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

phil1.6.xlsx
File Size:	67 kb
File Type:	xlsx

Download File

---