Paul on Humility

·       Eve-Marie Becker (Translated by Wayne Coppins).

·       Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2020

What must face many authors is reading another book rich with meaning and importance for what is about to be published, but not being able to stop the press, as it were, in order to include new insights into their book. That’s what I faced when I came upon Eve-Marie Becker’s book looking at Paul and his use of the Greek word for humility. I was able to add only a brief paragraph into the manuscript but I couldn’t expand on it as it would have affected the pagination of the rest of the book. In what follows here I can expand on the ideas that are to her found in Becker’s important work on “Paul on Humility”.

First of all: This is what I could squeeze into Paul Found in His Letters on page 93:

 "In another letter, Paul used a version of the word humble but coined a new word in Phil 2:3 in reference to a community practice (tapeninophrosune) namely practiced humbling themselves and in 2:8 described Jesus who “humbled [etapeinosen] himself.” In reference to community Paul took the word tapeinos [what is low, poor, undistinguished], consequently “lowly,” or “despised” and combined it with the Greek word phronesis (in Phil 2:3) which meant a practice or a virtue. Eve Marie Becker who has written a marvelous book on this one word translates it, somewhat awkwardly perhaps, as “the practice of low-disposition.” This is what Paul endorsed for himself and his community living the story of Christ crucified."

 What I want to do with this review is a more extended commentary on Becker’s book. I found it extremely helpful in regard to what I perceived was a reality for Paul. A theme throughout my book is that Paul intentionally placed himself alongside the most marginal and least valued in his world. That meant a particular regard that he had for slaves as legitimate members of Jesus followers. You will find that Is articulated in Chapter 10 “Paul Slave of Christ.” Another theme throughout the book is Paul’s regard for women as equal partners in the gospel.

Becker considers the world of the first century and whether it was the Greek word tapeiv  or the Latin words humil or humilitas, we are confronting people who were not to be admired or followed. They are those considered “weaker, insignificant, inferior.” [p. 27] It was after all a vertical world of privilege and only a small number ever made it to the top of that world. As I note in the book Paul was consistently resisting those in communities he founded who wanted to emulate that world.

 What Becker points out is that up until Paul wrote Philippians no one had ever combined the Greek word for humility, i.e. tapeiv, with the word for something to be practiced or considered, namely phronesis. [In Latin the word is prudential] For Aristotle it was an intellectual virtue which meant having practical wisdom. No one until the Paul had ever put the two words together! This is what led Becker to translate tapeninophrosune (Phjil 2:3) as “the practice of low-disposition.”

 So what is tapeninophrosune? If we look again at Paul’s admonition in Philippians it is represented by having a higher regard for the interests of others, instead of your own interests. Becker notes that Bultmann hit the nail on the head, when he considered this word, as a “special manifestation of Christian agape.” [p. 112] Becker takes it a step further as an example of “the establishment of the justice of God.” [p. 114]

 Most important in understanding what Paul was asking for from the Philippians was not something to be considered a virtue for individuals, but as a practice to be founded in community. There are so many other places in Paul’s letters where that is also spelled out. Think about Paul’s call for the Agape to be welcoming of all, and not just for those of wealth and leisure who went ahead of others. (1 Cor 11:17-33) What are they to do? They are “to wait for one another.” (1 Cor 11:33)

 This idea of the “practice of low-disposition” is clearly connected to the central theological concept Paul had for being in Christ.