Philippians 3:2

World English Bible (2000)

Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Βλέπετε τοὺς κύνας, βλέπετε τοὺς κακοὺς ἐργάτας, βλέπετε τὴν κατατομήν.

Transliteration

Blepete the kynas, blepete the kakous ergatas, blepete the katatomēn.

Grammar Details

• *blepete*: imperative, present, active, 2nd person plural - look at/beware of
• *kynas*: accusative, masculine, plural - dogs
• *kakous*: accusative, masculine, plural, adjective - evil/bad
• *ergatas*: accusative, masculine, plural - workers
• *katatomēn*: accusative, feminine, singular - mutilation/cutting

Word Meanings

• *blepete*: look at/watch out for/beware of
• *kynas*: dogs [derogatory term]
• *kakous*: evil/bad/wicked
• *ergatas*: workers/laborers
• *katatomēn*: mutilation/cutting [wordplay contrasting with *peritomē* (circumcision)]

Referenced Verses

• 2 Cor 11:13 : 13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ's apostles.
• Gal 5:15 : 15 But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don't consume one another.
• Ps 22:16 : 16 For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet.
• Ps 22:20 : 20 Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.
• Isa 56:10-11 : 10 His watchmen are blind, they are all without knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they can't bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. 11 Yes, the dogs are greedy, they can never have enough; and these are shepherds who can't understand: they have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.
• 2 Tim 3:1-6 : 1 But know this, that in the last days, grievous times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; 5 holding a form of godliness, but having denied its power. Turn away from these, also. 6 For some of these are people who creep into houses, and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,
• Titus 1:16 : 16 They profess that they know God, but by their works they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.
• Rev 22:15 : 15 Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
• Rom 2:28 : 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh;
• Rev 21:8 : 8 But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."
• 2 Pet 2:18-20 : 18 For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error; 19 promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
• 2 Tim 4:3-4 : 3 For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts; 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside to fables.
• 2 Tim 4:14-15 : 14 Alexander, the coppersmith, did much evil to me. The Lord will repay him according to his works, 15 of whom you also must beware; for he greatly opposed our words.
• Jude 1:4 : 4 For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ.
• Jude 1:10-13 : 10 But these speak evil of whatever things they don't know. What they understand naturally, like the creatures without reason, they are destroyed in these things. 11 Woe to them! For they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in Korah's rebellion. 12 These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn leaves without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; 13 wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.
• Matt 7:6 : 6 "Don't give that which is holy to the dogs, neither throw your pearls before the pigs, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
• Matt 7:15 : 15 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.
• Matt 7:22-23 : 22 Many will tell me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?' 23 Then I will tell them, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.'
• Phil 3:3 : 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;
• Phil 3:19 : 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.
• 1 Tim 1:19 : 19 holding faith and a good conscience; which some having thrust away made a shipwreck concerning the faith;
• Gal 2:3-4 : 3 But not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. 4 This was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who stole in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage;
• Gal 5:1-3 : 1 Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don't be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 2 Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
• Gal 5:6 : 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love.
• Gal 5:13 : 13 For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don't use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another.
• Matt 24:10 : 10 Then many will stumble, and will deliver up one another, and will hate one another.
• Ps 119:115 : 115 Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God.
• Prov 26:11 : 11 As a dog that returns to his vomit, so is a fool who repeats his folly.
• Rev 2:9 : 9 "I know your works, oppression, and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
• Rev 3:9 : 9 Behold, I give of the synagogue of Satan, of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.
• 2 Pet 2:22 : 22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, "The dog turns to his own vomit again," and "the sow that has washed to wallowing in the mire."