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Bible Dictionaries
Philip
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or PHILIP (φίλιππος, ‘lover of horses’).
1. Philip the Apostle.—For the little that we know regarding him, beyond the mere mention of his name in the lists of the Twelve (Matthew 10:3, Mark 3:18, Luke 6:14), we are wholly dependent upon a few scattered notices in the Fourth Gospel.
(1) The first of these tells the story of his call, which took place on the day after the call of Andrew and John with their respective brothers (John 1:43 ff.). And the fact that it is expressly mentioned that Philip, like these men, belonged to Bethsaida, would seem to point to a certain amount of friendship as having already existed between them, while his Greek name (a peculiarity which among the Apostles he shared with Andrew) makes it at least possible that he himself was originally of Greek descent. This accords entirely with what we know of the mixed Gentile population of Bethsaida. Whether, however, this was so or not, Philip would seem to have belonged to the growing class of devout souls throughout the land who were ‘waiting for the consolation of Israel,’ even if he had not, along with the previously named disciples, been an open follower of John the Baptist. For when Jesus ‘finds’ him—evidently not by accident but as the result of a deliberate search—and addresses to him the first direct call which, so far as we know, He addressed to any man, ‘Follow me,’ Philip immediately responds, and once and for all throws in his lot with his new Master. So complete indeed is his surrender, that though as yet his knowledge of Jesus is very imperfect (cf. John 1:45 ‘the son of Joseph’), he shows himself endued with the genuine missionary spirit in proceeding in his turn to ‘find’ Nathanael, that together they may rejoice in the discovery of the promised Messiah. The very precision and minuteness of the terms, moreover, in which Philip announces that discovery, bring before us another aspect of his character, for they show him to have been a man of an anxious and careful turn of mind, asking for no conviction on the part of others until he has been first convinced himself, and ever ready to submit all doubts and prejudices to the test of actual experience (John 1:46 ‘Come and see’).
(2) Of this latter trait of the Apostle’s character we have further confirmation, from a somewhat different point of view, in the next incident in which he is specially mentioned. For at the feeding of the Five Thousand in the wilderness it was to Philip that Jesus addressed the question, ‘Whence are we to buy bread, that these may eat?’ (John 6:5). Some have thought that the reason of this was that Philip had charge of the commissariat of the Apostolic band, just as Judas acted as their treasurer; but of this there is no proof, and St. John expressly adds that Jesus said this to ‘prove’ him. The Master knew His disciple’s cautious and deliberate disposition, and how little he had yet shown himself able to make any of the bolder efforts of faith. And He evidently hoped that on this occasion Philip would rise from the manifest inadequacy of the existing material resources to the thougnt of the unseen powers which He (the Christ) had at His command. But the hope was to be disappointed. Philip was so occupied with his own careful calculations as to what the actual feeding of the multitude meant, that he could think of nothing else. And even the matter-of-fact Andrew showed more imagination when, after the mention of the lad’s little store, he at least hazarded the suggestion, ‘But what are they amongst so many?’
(3) The case is similar when we turn to another occasion when we find the two Apostles together. It is in entire accord not only with Philip’s (possible) Greek origin, but with his sympathetic, inquiring disposition, that the Greek visitors to the Temple should select him as their ambassador to Jesus (John 12:20 ff.). But it is equally characteristic that, as he realized the greatness and significance of the request, coming as it did from pure Gentiles, he should hesitate to act upon it on his own responsibility. He would do nothing until he had consulted Andrew. And even when Andrew had approved, it was only in conjunction with him, and leaving him to occupy the foremost place (‘Andrew and Philip’), that Philip went to tell Jesus.
(4) This ‘faith without confidence’ is even more marked in the last glimpse which St. John gives us of his brother Apostle. When, in His farewell discourse to the Twelve, Jesus announced that He was going to the ‘Father,’ and that no one could come to the ‘Father’ except by Him, it was left to Philip to say, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us’ (John 14:8). With him ‘seeing’ was ‘believing.’ He could not believe that any real knowledge of the Father was possible except such as resulted from an actual theophany; and so proved how blinded he had been to that higher manifestation of which he had for so long been witness in the words and the acts of the Son.
(5) With the pathetic personal appeal to him which this dulness of spiritual vision called forth (John 14:9), Philip disappears from the Gospel story. And we hear nothing more of him in the NT except for the mention of his name amongst the Apostles who assembled in the upper room at Jerusalem after their Lord’s Ascension (Acts 1:13). Various traditions have, however, gathered round his memory.
The most interesting of these is the account preserved by Clement of Alexandria (Strom, iii. 4, § 25), which identifies him with the unknown disciple who, when the Lord’s call came to him, asked that he might first go and bury his father—an identification at least in keeping with what we have seen of Philip’s character. The apocryphal Journeyings of Philip the Apostle (3rd cent.) represent him as travelling through Lydia and Asia, and finally settling in Hierapolis. And it was there, according to Polycrates (bishop of Ephesus c. 190 a.d.), that he was ‘buried’ ‘along with his two aged virgin daughters’ (Eus. Historia Ecclesiastica iii. 31; cf. Lightfoot, Colossians 2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] , p. 45 ff.). The same authority adds that another daughter who ‘lived in fellowship with the Holy Spirit’ was huried at Ephesus—a circumstance that may perhaps point to Philip’s own residence there for a time, and consequently to a renewed intercourse with his old friend the Apostle John. If so, we have an additional reason why St. John should have introduced Philip’s name so freely in the ‘memoirs’ on which at the time he was engaged. Of the later connexion with Hierapolis already alluded to we have now interesting confirmation in the discovery of an inscription showing that the church there was dedicated to the memory ‘of the holy and glorious Apostle and theologian Philip’ (τοῦ ἀγίου κὲ ἑνδεξου ἀποστόλου κἑ θεολόγου Φιλίππου: see Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, i. p. 552 f.).
In the West, St. Philip’s Day is observed along with that of St. James the Lesson May 1st. In the East, St. Philip’s Day is Nov. 14th, St. James’, Oct, 23rd.
Literature.—In addition to what has been noted above, see Westcott, The Gospel of St. John, p. lxxiii f.; A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve (see ‘Philip’ in the Index); H. P. Liddon, University Sermons, 2nd ser., i. ‘Prejudice and Experience’ (John 1:46); J. B. Lightfoot, Cambridge Sermons, p. 129 ff. ‘Show us the Father’ (John 14:8-9); R. C. Trench, Studies in the Gospels, p. 68; A. Maclaren, A Year’s Ministry, ii. 155; J. D. Jones, The Glorious Company of the Apostles, p. 109; R. H. Lovell, First Types of the Chr. Life, p. 514; and the present writer’s The Twelve Apostles (Dent), p. 49 ff.
2. Herod Philip.—See vol. i. p. 722b.
George Milligan.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Philip'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/p/philip.html. 1906-1918.
