Not only must the Philippians take into account all that is generally considered good and worthy, they must put into practice what the apostle has exemplified in his words and deeds.
There are considerable differences of opinion as to the connection and arrangement of this verse. There are four verbs (“learned … received … heard … saw”), each preceded by the conjunction normally translated “and.” We must decide first how to translate the conjunctions. Grammatically, they can be taken in two basic ways. First, the obvious one is to take them as a series of conjunctions. But since the first one cannot be taken as “and” (as it does not stand between grammatical elements of the same type), it can be left untranslated (Revised Standard Version) or be rendered “also” (Moffatt). Secondly, it is possible to take the four conjunctions as forming two pairs of “both … and.” Variation of this basic pattern can be seen in dropping either the first “both” (Good News Translation Phillips) or in dropping both of them (New American Bible Bruce). In either case the underlying meaning remains the same.
The second question, related to the first, has to do with understanding the relation of the four verbs. It is possible to leave the question open by stringing all the verbs together (King James Version Revised Standard Version). However, one can understand the first three verbs as referring specifically to Paul’s teaching and the last to his example in life—thus Goodspeed: “Do the things that you learned, received, and heard from me, and that you saw me do” (cf. also La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). For translations that understand the conjunctions as consisting of “both … and” pairs, two possible renderings are possible. The first is to take the first pair as referring to Paul’s teachings and the second pair to his example, thus: “You must keep putting into practice the lessons you have learned from me, the instruction you have received from me, and the example I have given you in speech and in action” (Barclay). The second possibility is suggested by Good News Translation, that is, to take what the Philippians heard and saw as the content of what they learned and received, thus what you learned and received from me, both from my words and from my actions (cf. also Phillips Bruce New American Bible).
Notice again the word order. In Greek the order is “what you learned and received from me … these things put into practice.” However, since the main verb and therefore the focus is on “put into practice,” a number of translations, including Good News Translation, restructure the order by beginning the sentence with the main verb.
The verb rendered put into practice is in the present imperative and indicates continuous action, so it can be rendered “you must keep putting into practice” (Barclay).
The verb rendered received is a technical term used for receiving a tradition (1 Cor 11.23; 15.3). Before the writing of the New Testament books and their acceptance by the church as authoritative Scripture, the teachings were handed down from a teacher to his disciples. Christian tradition in the New Testament generally consists of certain facts about Christ, interpretations of them, and ascribed Christian conduct based on them (1 Cor 11.23; 15.3 ff.; Gal 1.9; 2 Thes 2.15).
Put into practice is often rendered simply as “do,” and the verbal doublet learned and received may be best rendered in some languages simply as “learned,” since in this type of context received can only refer to what was actually learned from Paul. It is possible to render received in such a way as to suggest an implied tradition, for example, “what you learned, that I passed on to you.” In other languages it may be more natural to restructure the whole clause as “what I taught you and passed on to you” (cf. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).
The words from me are not in the Greek, but are understood from the phrase “in me” in the following clause.
Both from my words and from my actions (literally, “you both heard and saw in me”) is another way of saying “what you heard me say and what you saw me do” (Moffatt).
And the God who gives us peace will be with you is literally “and the God of peace will be with you.” As in 4.7, the conjunction and again points to what follows, and can therefore be rendered “and so” or “as a result.” “God of peace” obviously does not mean a peaceful God. In the Bible the emphasis in not upon the qualities of God but upon his acts. In this case, God is the one who gives us peace (cf. Rom 15.33; 16.20; 1 Thes 5.23). Us here is inclusive. The focus here is on “God who gives peace,” not on “peace which comes from God” as in 4.7 (see the discussion there). In this context it would seem appropriate to understand this phrase in the sense of “the God who causes us to rest in our hearts,” “… who frees us from anxieties,” or “… erases our worries.”
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 .