Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Philippians 3:2

"Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision:" — Philippians 3:2 (ASV)

The verses that follow warrant the identification of these opponents with the Judaizers—those who dogged the trail of the apostles and endeavored to compel Gentile converts to submit to circumcision and other Jewish practices in order to be saved. Three epithets designate them. (1) “Dogs” denotes the wild, vicious, homeless animals that roamed the streets and attacked passersby. Used figuratively, it was always a term of reproach (cf. Dt 23:18; 1 Samuel 17:43; 1 Samuel 24:14; Proverbs 26:11; Isaiah 56:10–11; Matthew 7:6). Paul castigates the Judaizing teachers with the very term they probably used of others. (2) “Men who do evil” is literally “the evil workers.” If the word workers is stressed, the epithet may emphasize their energetic labors and perhaps their concentration on performing deeds of law rather than trusting in God’s grace for salvation. (3) By “mutilators of the flesh,” Paul deliberately parodies the Judaizers’ insistence on circumcision by sarcastically calling it mutilation. For those who had lost the significance of circumcision and insisted on it as a rite for Christians, it was nothing more than a mutilation of the flesh.