In Greek the first clause is literally “most of the brothers having confidence in the Lord because of my bonds.” Good News Translation restructures this by changing “because of my bonds” (dative of cause) into the subject and “most of the brothers” (subject of the participle) into the direct object, thus my being in prison has given most of the brothers more confidence in the Lord (cf. Moffatt “my imprisonment has given the majority of the brotherhood greater confidence in the Lord”). My being in prison constitutes the cause for Paul’s fellow believer’s becoming more confident. This relation must be expressed in some languages by a clause of cause, for example, “because I am in prison, most of my fellow believers have more confidence in the Lord.”
The exact relation of the phrase in the Lord to the context is debated. In Greek it lies between “the brothers” and “having confidence,” and it is therefore grammatically possible to connect it with either. King James Version and American Standard Version connect it with “the brothers.” New English Bible favors this construction by rendering “fellow Christians” (Goodspeed “Christian brothers”; New American Bible “brothers in Christ”). But this exegesis is questionable. In 2.24 Paul uses the same verb with “in the Lord.” Besides, whenever he speaks of “brethren” he always means “Christians,” and so to add “in the Lord” is really redundant. Consequently, to connect in the Lord with confidence, as Good News Translation does, makes better sense (cf. Moffatt; Phillips “taking fresh heart in the Lord”). The Lord is the basis of confidence and hope. That being the case, in a number of languages this relation must be expressed as one of cause, for example, “are more confident because of the Lord,” or even of agency, “the Lord has caused them to be more confident.”
They grow bolder may be expressed negatively as “they do not fear so much,” or “they fear less and less.” The fundamental change expressed in grow bolder all the time must be rendered in some languages as “becoming bolder constantly,” or “are constantly more and more bold.”
To preach the message is literally “to speak the word.” The earliest manuscript reading supports the Good News Translation rendering without adding “of God” after “the message” (but see Revised Standard Version New English Bible New American Bible “the word of God”). The fact that the genitive qualifier “of God” appears in different positions in various manuscripts and the fact that it has a variant reading “of Lord” suggest that it was not in the original.
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 .