Theilman:

Bonnie Beattie Thurston; Judith Ryan:

• Also, Raymond E. Brown, Adolf Deissmann, G. S. Duncan, Robert Jewett, Wilhelm Michaelis, and Jerome Murphy-O’Connor assume an Ephesian location.

G. Walter Hansen:

1. Ephesus receives strong support as the origin of Philippians (See G. S. Duncan, Paul’s Ephesian Ministry: A Reconstruction with Special Reference to the Ephesian Origin for the Imprisonment Epistles (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1929); Murphy-O’Connor, Paul: A Critical Life, 220; Brown, Introduction, 495-96; Thielman,19-2o; Thielman, “Ephesus and the Literary Setting of Philippians,” in New Testament Greek and Exegesis: Essays in Honor of Gerald Hawthorne (ed. Amy M. Donaldson and Timothy B. Sailors; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 205-23. Koester, Paul and His World: Interpreting the New Testament in Its Context (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), 72-75; Carson and Moo, Introduction, 5036; Paul J. Achtemeier, Joel B. Green, and Marianne Meye Thompson, Introducing the New Testament: Its Literature and Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), 402-3; Gnilka, 20-25; Collange, 33-34; Muller, 16-23; Martin and Hawthorne, xxxix-1.). Since the distance between Ephesus and Philippi was only about a hundred miles, all of the trips mentioned in the letter would have been relatively short and easy compared to the trips between Rome and Philippi or Caesarea and Philippi. In fact, some of the trips mentioned in Philippians may be mentioned in Acts and Paul’s letters as well. Acts and 1 Corinthians (if Timothy was sent to Corinth by way of Macedonia) indicate that Paul sent Timothy to Macedonia while he stayed in Ephesus (Acts 19:22; cf. 1 Cor 16:1o; Phil 2:23). And Acts and the letters to the Corinthians state that Paul went to Macedonia after his time in Ephesus (Acts 20:1; 1 Cor 16:5; 2 Cor 1:16; 2:13; 7:5; cf. Phil 2:24). Of course, the task of connecting Paul’s letters with Acts is notoriously difficult, but these connections present a plausible way to solve the puzzle of relating Paul’s travel plans in Philippians and the evidence for his journeys in Acts and his other letters.
2. [4:28 PM]Neither Acts nor Paul’s letters record that Paul was imprisoned in Ephesus. But Acts describes a major riot in the city as a result of Paul’s evangelistic work there (Acts 19:23-20:1). And Paul’s letters speak of a serious threat to Paul’s life while he was in Ephesus (1 Cor 16:8; 2 Cor 1:8- 1o: “we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death”). Ephesus is certainly a good candidate for inclusion in Paul’s reference to his numerous imprisonments (2 Cor 11:23). In Paul’s time, Ephesus was the third largest city in the Roman Empire after Rome and Alexandria and the center of Roman military control, the Roman proconsul’s headquarters, the Romans’ communications network, and the Roman judicial courts for all of Asia.88 First-century Latin inscriptions point to the presence of the palace guard and members of Caesar’s household in Ephesus.89 All of this evidence allows for Ephesus to be an excellent prospect for the place where imperial military and administrative forces heard the gospel while Paul was in chains (Phil 1:12-13). Another line of reasoning in support of Ephesus as the place of Paul’s imprisonment when he wrote Philippians traces the literary affinities between Philippians, Galatians, and 1 Corinthians.90 In Philippians, Paul harshly warns against the influence of Jewish Christians who circumcise Gentile Christians and bring them under the Jewish law: “Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh” (3:2). In Galatians, Paul issues a similar warning: “Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all” (Gal 5:2). In both letters, Paul recounts his own conversion from Judaism to Christ (Phil 3:4-8; Gal 1:13-17) as a way to break the influence of the Judaizers. And both letters contrast righteousness that comes from law and righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith (Phil 3:6-9; Gal 3:10-14).

1. For those who argue for an imprisonment in Ephesus during which Paul wrote “prison Epistles” (people like EP Sanders or NT Wright), the argument goes that both the reference to “praetorium” and “Caesar’s household” can also be used more generally for a “general’s tent”/”governor’s dwelling” (the former), and any privately owned property by Caesar (the latter), of which there would have been many in large cities, such as Ephesus, the capital of the province of Asia. See EP Sanders:

In fact the first meaning of the Latin word praetorium (without “cohort”) is this: “the general’s tent” (if in an army camp) or “the governor’s residence” (in a province). Thus there were a lot of praetoria in the empire. … Similarly, when Paul wrote to the Philippians that “the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s house” (4:2), he did not mean that he was personally acquainted with the relatives and confidants of Nero. Rather, he knew some Christians who worked in the residence of the governor, who was the emperor’s representative. It is possible that “Caesar’s house” has a more specific meaning than “government house.” Besides the proconsul who was appointed by the Senate to serve as governor in a major city or province, each place of importance also had one or more “procurators,” who were responsible to look after the emperor’s private domains—and the emperors inherited from previous systems of government a lot of private domains. These procurators, with their staffs of slaves and freedmen, would quite naturally be called “Caesar’s household.” Thus it is possible that Paul distinguished between “government house” (praitōrion, 1:13), ruled by the proconsul, whose employees knew that he was imprisoned for the sake of Christ, and “Caesar’s house,” the emperor’s private domain managed by the procurators (at the time there were two in Ephesus), some of whose employees were Christians (“saints,” 4:22). Sanders, E. P.. Paul (pp. 585-586). Fortress Press. Kindle Edition.