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Philip

Philip heads the second group of four in every list of the Twelve, and John gives him more dialogue than most of the others put together. What that dialogue shows is a practical man being repeatedly stretched past what practicality can handle.

Key Takeaways

(This section follows the Key Takeaways format — see that page for what each part is for.)

Lessons about Jesus

Jesus asked Philip a question he already knew the answer to — "he said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do" (John 6:6). The test was not to obtain information but to expose the size of the gap between the need and Philip's resources, right before filling it.

Memory verse

✝️ John 14:9 (ESV)

9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?"

Be transformed

Philip's answer to a hungry crowd was a costing exercise: two hundred denarii, and still not enough. He was not wrong — he was just answering a different question than the one being asked. Notice where you are doing careful arithmetic on a problem God has not asked you to fund.

Prayer

Lord, we calculate when you ask us to trust, and we ask to see when you are already standing in front of us. Open our eyes to what is actually in the room. You have shown us the Father; help us to recognise him.

The name

Φίλιππος (Philippos, FIL-ip-poss, G5376), from φίλος (philos, G5384, "loving, friend") and ἵππος (hippos, G2462, "horse") — "lover of horses." Like Andrew's, it is a purely Greek name; those two are the only such names among the Twelve.

Do not confuse him with Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven appointed in Acts 6 — the man who explains Isaiah to the Ethiopian official (Acts 8) and later hosts Paul at Caesarea with his four prophesying daughters (Acts 21:8-9). Two different men. Some later traditions about "Philip" blur them, which is a good reason to hold those traditions loosely.

Background

From Bethsaida, "the city of Andrew and Peter" (John 1:44). Nothing is recorded about his trade.

He is the first person Jesus is described as directly recruiting: "he found Philip and said to him, 'Follow me'" (John 1:43). Philip's immediate response was to go and find Nathanael — and when Nathanael objected that nothing good comes out of Nazareth, Philip did not argue. He said, "Come and see" (John 1:46).

What Scripture records

  • The catering test. Facing five thousand people, Jesus turns to Philip: "Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?" (John 6:5). John immediately tells the reader this was a test. Philip's answer is a budget: "Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little" (John 6:7) — roughly two-thirds of a year's wages for a labourer, and by his reckoning still insufficient.
  • The Greeks. At the feast, Gentile worshippers approach Philip with their request to see Jesus; Philip goes to Andrew, and the two go together (John 12:20-22). The two apostles with Greek names are the ones the Greek-speakers approach. The text does not say this is why, and the detail can't carry more weight than that.
  • "Show us the Father." In the upper room, Philip asks for one thing that would settle everything: "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us" (John 14:8). The reply is one of the sharpest things Jesus says to any of the Twelve — not because the request was impious, but because the answer had been standing in front of him for three years.

What tradition says

Later tradition connects Philip with ministry in Phrygia and with the city of Hierapolis, where he is said to have died. The early evidence here is genuinely tangled: second-century references to a "Philip" at Hierapolis may well concern Philip the Evangelist and his prophesying daughters (Acts 21:9) rather than the apostle, and the confusion is old rather than modern. Accounts of the manner of his death are late and vary.

Takeaway

Philip is the disciple of reasonable answers. He costed the bread correctly and missed the point; he asked to see the Father while looking at him. He is in the New Testament for everyone whose faith keeps getting outrun by their own competence.

References

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the English Standard Version (Crossway). Etymology from Strong's Greek Dictionary (public domain), G5376. The denarius as a day's wage for a labourer follows the parable of Matthew 20:2.