Ralph Klein combines meticulous and creative scholarship in the study and teaching of the Old Testament with a strong interest in both the social issues facing the church and our social context. For example, in the 1960s he, along with others, spoke out so strongly against the Vietnam war that a very conservative colleague suggested to me that Ralph was "pink"--and he did not mean it as compliment. In recent years he has spoken and written about homosexuals in the church. This article picks up the language of the ancient Roman urban environment in tribute to him. In Philippians Paul uses extensive political language, language at home in the environment of a Greek polis and/or a Romans urbs. Much of this language is unique to Philippians. For example, Paul uses the terms [pi] [omicron] [lambda] l [tau] [member of] [upsilon] [member of] [sigma] [theta] [alpha] i and [pi] [omicron] [lambda] i [tau] [member of] [upsilon] [mu] [alpha] only in Philippians (1:27 and 3:20). The term [pi] [omicron] [lambda] i [tau] [mu] [alpha] denotes the political group to which one belongs. (1) Paul's describing the Christians in Philippi as a [pi] [omicron] [lambda] i [tau] [member of] [upsilon] [mu] [alpha] may account for his omission of the term ['.member of] [k] [k] [lambda] [eta] [sigma] i [alpha] in the praescript of the letter, even though it is a standard term for the voting body of citizens in a Greek city. The term is used of Jews in Alexandria in that sense in Pseudo-Aristeas, Ad Philokrates 310. (2) The Roman army veterans (settled in Philippi by Mark Antony after the Battle of Philippi in 42 B.C.E. and again by Octavian (later Caesar Augustus) after his sea victory in the Bay of Action) had ius Italicum. i.e., they were citizens of Rome, their [pi] [omicron] [lambda] i [tau] [member of] [upsilon] [mu] [alpha], even though resident in Philippi. And their descendants inherited this citizenship; their [pi] [omicron] [lambda] i [tau] [member of] [upsilon] [mu] [alpha] too was Rome. But Paul implies that the Philippian christians are a heavenly, eschatological colony inside Philippi. They thus hold a loyalty that differs from the people about them. He defines them with a political term.
