The Greek for "beware" is that of "see" or "observe". The meaning of "concision" from the Latin and the original Greek is not clear.

One possibility here is that, in addition to any other meanings, Paul may be making a play on words in the form of a "solecism". Let use investigate.

Paul does this a lot in general and a lot in Philippians in particular.

Whatever the meaning translated as "concision" it appears that Paul intended to connect "concision" with "circumcision" in the next verse.

However there were no spaces in the original Greek. Nor were there much in the way of accents or other punctuation. Much of this came later. Let us look at the second verse.

Literal translation: We for we are the circumcision ...

• "ημεις" ≈ "we".
• "γάρ" ≈ "for, since" (never the first word in a sentence or phrase).
• "εσμεν" ≈ "we are".

Greek verbs do not need the "we" as a separate word as that is part of the verb conjugation. Thus, the first "we" is not needed!

Without analyzing every verse, here are the matches (by verse) in the GNT and LXX (Septuagint) combined for various combinations of these words.

• «ημεις εσμεν» : 6 times (we we are)
• «εσμεν» and «ημεις» : 28 times (we are and we)
• «εσμεν» but not «ημεις» : 68 (we are but not we)
• «εσμεν» : 96 times (we are)

Scholars will point out that it can be added for special emphasis. It can also be used, when needed, for play on words or puns. That may be the case here. Scholars tend not to like puns as puns require that grammar and spelling rules be suspended or otherwise ignored.

Aristotle points out that breaking some of these rules are accepted in practice and can be used for the purposes of deception.

Let us put together the end of verse 2 and the beginning of verse 3 and see what might happen.

Scholars may have too much "idle time" as in "leisure" - the original meaning of the word "school".

More: Back to being idle at school

• «την κατατομην ημεις» (as written)
• «την κατα το μηνημεις» (spaces changed)

The «το» as neuter definite article indicates a possible solecism. There appear to be (at least) two good candidates for similar sounding words as in a pun or play on words.

• "μνησθης" ≈ "rememberest" (as in Matthew 5:23) (switch "μην" to "μνη")
• "μῆνις" ≈ "rage, wrath" (with omission of "m" as "μ")

The second one might be read (as a secondary meaning as a pun) "see the corresponding rage/wrath".

The ancient Greek word "μῆνις" ≈ "rage, wrath" and often has a connotation of being from the gods.

An alternative Greek form (Doric, Aeolic) is the ancient Greek word "μᾶνις" ≈ "rage, wrath" leads some to make a connection to the ancient Greek word "μανία" ≈ "madness, frenzy".

More: A mania for confusing commotions

More: Pun: Antiochus Epiphanies

Some (Beekes) disagree and claim it is a pre-Greek religious word.

In his Sophistic Refutations, Aristotle gives some examples of solecisms that can or had been used for deceptive purposes. Interestingly, he uses four words as examples and one is "μῆνις" ≈ "rage, wrath" that may be the one Paul had in mind.

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English from Loeb#400, p. 77: What solecism is has already been stated. It is possible to commit it, and not to commit it, yet to seem to do so, as well as to commit it, yet seem not to do so. If, as Protagorus used to say, μῆνις (wrath) @CZ(t=[ and πήλης (helmut) ]) are masculine, according to him ... (when wrath is feminine)

From what Aristotle says (in many examples), spoken speech had a far greater variation in gender and endings, etc., while still being understood, than formal written works.

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English from Loeb#400, p. 77: Almost all apparent solecisms occur owing to the word "this" or "it" where the inflection denotes neither the masculine nor the feminine but the neuter.

Epaphroditus is a "fellow soldier" of Paul, appears to be from Philippi, is writing the letter down for Paul, and is delivering the message. He would likely been the one reading the message.

One can almost imagine Epaphroditus and Paul getting more and more carried away with subtle puns, even using the name Epaphroditus as "beautiful" or "charming" in contrast to Timothy as "honoring God".

With such "inside information", and used to following orders as a soldier, Epaphroditus could hesitate, mis-speak certain lines (for pun purposes) and then quickly correct himself, slide the pronunciation, etc. When asked he could "play dumb" or just give a twinkle in his eye.

The synergy of two people working together can create more interesting ideas than one person working alone. The ancient Greek word "συνεργός" ≈ "coworker" and is the source of the English word "synergy".

• "σύν" ≈ "together" as in "synthesis", "synergy", etc.
• "ἔργον" (er-gon) ≈ "work" is the source of the physics term "erg" for work and is related to many other PIE (Proto Indo-European) words for "work".



More: An opus on the workings of work

The modern Greek word "συνεργός" (see-nehr-GOS) ≈ "coworker, working together".

Paul uses the Greek word for "working together", as in "synergy", in the both the first and second half of the book of Philippians.