As a result indicates that what follows in verses 13-14 is the consequence of the progress of the gospel (cf. Bruce “the upshot of it all has been this”). Even though the phrase has been discarded by many translators, it is best to have it for a better connection. As a result may also be rendered as “because of this” or “because of what happened.”

Good News Translation restructures the sentence by making the phrase the whole palace guard and all the others the subject, instead of “my imprisonment” (New English Bible New American Bible; Jerusalem Bible “my chains”) or the impersonal “it” (Goodspeed Revised Standard Version). The word rendered palace guard, literally “praetorium” (a Latin word borrowed into Greek), refers either to a particular residence or to a particular group of men. If the former is meant, it would be a reference to the imperial palace in Rome (King James Version “palace”) or to the ruler’s residence (cf. Mark 15.16; Acts 23.35). In such a case, it could be translated as “the house where the emperor lives.”

The context, however, indicates that the “praetorium” refers to a body of men, thus the palace guard (so also Phillips; Goodspeed “Imperial Guard”). One can also use a more generic term such as “headquarters guard” (New English Bible “all at headquarters”) and leave the place of Paul’s imprisonment an open question. The whole palace guard may be expressed as “all of the soldiers who are guarding the palace,” or “… the house where the emperor lives.”

There is no need to restrict the meaning of all the others here to “the rest of the soldiers”; it may be understood as “the public at large” (New English Bible), “everyone else here,” “all the other people here,” or simply “everyone here.”

Because I am a servant of Christ (literally, “in Christ”) explains the cause of the apostle’s imprisonment (New English Bible New American Bible “in Christ’s cause”; Goodspeed “for the sake of Christ”). Good News Translation employs “servant,” the only title Paul claims in this letter (v. 1), to focus upon the apostle’s relation to Christ. As in verse 1, a servant of Christ may be made a verbal expression, for example, “because I serve Christ,” “because I work on behalf of Christ,” or “because all I do is to help Christ.”

Quoted with permission from Luo, I-Jin. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1977. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .