In addition to the direct appeal to these two women, a third person is requested to help them work out a reconciliation. Paul addresses this person as my faithful partner, literally “true yokefellow” (Revised Standard Version). A number of commentators suggest that is possible to take the word partner as a proper name, Syzygos, and the accompanying adjective to mean “true to his name” or “rightly so called.” On the basis of this interpretation Paul would be playing on the meaning of the name. In effect he would be saying: “I ask you, Syzygos, as your name suggests, a faithful partner, …” (Jerusalem Bible “I ask you, Syzygos, to be truly a ‘companion’ ”). It is better, however, to follow the majority of modern translations, including Good News Translation, and to take this expression as a description of an unidentified Christian colleague of Paul (New English Bible “loyal comrade,” Goodspeed “true comrade,” New American Bible “dependable fellow worker”). My faithful partner may be rendered as “you who have joined with me so constantly in the work,” “you have worked with me so well,” or “you on whom I depend so much to help me.”
To help these women (literally, “to help them”) obviously means to assist Euodia and Syntyche to reconcile their differences, and it may be useful (perhaps even necessary) to indicate clearly the expected result of what this faithful partner would do to help these women, for example, “to help these women to agree,” “… to throw away their contrary words,” or “… to forget their arguments.”
For they have worked hard with me to spread the gospel translates a Greek relative clause, literally “inasmuch as they labored with me in the gospel,” giving the reason why they deserve help. The compound word rendered have worked hard appears elsewhere in the New Testament only in 1.27, where it is translated fighting together. It is a word normally used of fighting in war or of a contest in an athletic arena. This metaphorical sense is reflected in several translations, for example, “was fighting to defend” (Jerusalem Bible), “shared my contests” (Bruce). In any case, the basic connotation is hard and strenuous work. The phrase “in the gospel” should be taken in the sense of “for the gospel” (Phillips), “in the cause of the Gospel” (New English Bible), “in promoting the gospel” (New American Bible), or, more explicitly, to spread the gospel (Good News Translation Goodspeed Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). It may be impossible in some languages to speak of “spreading the gospel.” It is, however, almost always possible to say “telling more and more people about the good news.”
Clement, otherwise unknown in the New Testament, is evidently another of Paul’s fellow workers at Philippi (as also Epaphroditus; see 2.25). Together with Clement and all my other fellow workers must be expressed in some languages as a complete sentence, to show clearly that Clement and the other fellow workers were also engaged in spreading the gospel. This sentence may take the form of “Clement and all the other persons who worked with me also told many people about the good news.”
The relative pronoun whose should refer to all those who have been mentioned in verse 3, including the two women (Euodia and Syntyche), Clement, and the other fellow workers. To make this quite clear it may be useful to render this final relative clause as a separate sentence, for example, “The names of all these persons who helped me are in God’s book of the living.” If one does not add the phrase, “those who helped me,” a reader might assume that the reference is to those who heard the good news rather than to those who were so faithful in telling others about the good news.
God’s book of the living is literally “book of life.” The figure may be taken from the ancient practice by which cities kept an official register in which names of its citizens were recorded. It is a common Old Testament symbol for God’s record of the covenant people (cf. Exo 32.22; Psa 69.28; Isa 4.3; Ezek 13.9; Dan 12.1), and so Good News Translation renders explicitly that it is God’s book. In later Judaism and in the New Testament, the expression is used predominantly of the book of the life to come, that is, eternal life, as can be seen in Aramaic phrases of the Hebrew Bible on Isa 4.3 and Ezek 13.9 (see also Rev 3.5; 13.8; 17.8; 20.12, 15; etc.). The same idea is expressed in Luke 10.20 in different words. The word “life” here is not a reference to the abstract principle of life but to the living. The reference may or may not imply that Clement and other fellow workers of Paul are already dead. In either case, the translation is not affected.
A literal rendering of whose names are in God’s book of the living might suggest that this is merely a book of those Christians who were alive at the time since book of the living would be literally translated in many languages as “book concerning those who are alive,” or “book in which the names of those who are living are written down.” In some languages a more satisfactory wording would be “book of those who possess real life,” “book with the names of those who really have life” or “… have true life.” The use of a phrase such as “to have true life” would help to suggest the quality of life which is characteristic of those having so-called “eternal life.” This particular quality of life is expressed in some languages as “have life from God,” “who have been made alive by God,” or “who have come to have a new life through 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 .