Philippians 3:2
New International Version
Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh.

New Living Translation
Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved.

English Standard Version
Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

Berean Standard Bible
Watch out for those dogs, those workers of evil, those mutilators of the flesh!

Berean Literal Bible
Beware of the dogs! Beware of the evil workers! Beware of the false circumcision!

King James Bible
Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.

New King James Version
Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!

New American Standard Bible
Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision;

NASB 1995
Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision;

NASB 1977
Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision;

Legacy Standard Bible
Beware of the dogs! Beware of the evil workers! Beware of the mutilation!

Amplified Bible
Look out for the dogs [the Judaizers, the legalists], look out for the troublemakers, look out for the false circumcision [those who claim circumcision is necessary for salvation];

Christian Standard Bible
Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evil workers, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Watch out for “dogs,” watch out for evil workers, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh.

American Standard Version
Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision:

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Beware of dogs; beware of evildoers; beware of the circumcisers.

Contemporary English Version
Watch out for those people who behave like dogs! They are evil and want to do more than just circumcise you.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.

English Revised Version
Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision:

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Beware of dogs! Beware of those who do evil things. Beware of those who insist on circumcision.

Good News Translation
Watch out for those who do evil things, those dogs, those who insist on cutting the body.

International Standard Version
Beware of the dogs! Beware of the evil workers! Beware of the mutilators!

Literal Standard Version
Look out for the dogs! Look out for the evil-workers! Look out for the mutilation!

Majority Standard Bible
Watch out for those dogs, those workers of evil, those mutilators of the flesh!

New American Bible
Beware of the dogs! Beware of the evil-workers! Beware of the mutilation!

NET Bible
Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh!

New Revised Standard Version
Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh!

New Heart English Bible
Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision.

Webster's Bible Translation
Beware of dogs, beware of evil-workers, beware of the concision.

Weymouth New Testament
Beware of 'the dogs,' the bad workmen, the self-mutilators.

World English Bible
Beware of the dogs; beware of the evil workers; beware of the false circumcision.

Young's Literal Translation
look to the dogs, look to the evil-workers, look to the concision;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Righteousness through Faith
1Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2Watch out for those dogs, those workers of evil, those mutilators of the flesh! 3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—…

Cross References
Psalm 22:16
For dogs surround me; a band of evil men encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet.

Psalm 22:20
Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of wild dogs.

2 Corinthians 11:13
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.

Galatians 5:15
But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.

Revelation 22:15
But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.


Treasury of Scripture

Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.

of dogs.

Proverbs 26:11
As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.

Isaiah 56:10,11
His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber…

Matthew 7:6,15
Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you…

evil.

Philippians 3:19
Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

Psalm 119:115
Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God.

Matthew 7:22,23
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? …

the.

Philippians 3:3
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Romans 2:28
For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:

Galatians 2:3,4
But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised: …

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Philippians 3
1. He warns them to beware of the false teachers;
4. showing that himself has greater cause than they to trust in the righteousness of the law;
7. which he counts as loss, to gain Christ and his righteousness;
12. acknowledging his own imperfection and pressing on toward the goal;
15. He exhorts them to be thus minded;
17. and to imitate him,
18. and to decline carnal ways.














(2) Beware of (the) dogs.--In Revelation 22:15 "the dogs" excluded from the heavenly Jerusalem seem to be those who are impure. In that sense the Jews applied the word to the heathen, as our Lord, for a moment appearing to follow the Jewish usage, does to the Syro-Ph?nician woman in Matthew 15:26. But here the context appropriates the word to the Judaising party, who claimed special purity, ceremonial and moral, and who probably were not characterised by peculiar impurity--such as, indeed, below (Philippians 3:17-21) would seem rather to attach to the Antinomian party, probably the extreme on the other side. Chrysostom's hint that the Apostle means to retort the name upon them, as now by their own wilful apostasy occupying the place outside the spiritual Israel which once belonged to the despised Gentiles, is probably right. Yet perhaps there may be some allusion to the dogs, not as unclean, but as, especially in their half-wild state in the East, snarling and savage, driving off as interlopers all who approach what they consider their ground. Nothing could better describe the narrow Judaising spirit.

Of evil workers.--Comp. 2Corinthians 11:13, describing the Judaisers as "deceitful workers." Here the idea is of their energy in work, but work for evil.

The concision.--By an ironical play upon words St. Paul declares his refusal to call the circumcision, on which the Judaisers prided themselves, by that time-honoured name; for "we," he says, "are the true circumcision," the true Israel of the new covenant. In Ephesians 2:11 (where see Note) he had denoted it as the "so-called circumcision in the flesh made by hands." Here he speaks more strongly, and calls it a "concision," a mere outward mutilation, no longer, as it had been, a "seal" of the covenant (Romans 4:11). There is a still more startling attack on the advocates of circumcision in Galatians 5:12 (where see Note). . . .

Verse 2. - Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. The connection is, as given in ver. 3, Rejoice in the Lord, not in the flesh; have confidence in him, not in the ceremonies of the Jewish Law. Compare the same contrast in Galatians 6:13, 14. There is certainly something abrupt in the sudden introduction of this polemic against Judaizing, especially in writing to Philippi, where there were not many Jews. But there may have been circumstances, unknown to us, which made the warning necessary; or, as some think, the apostle may have written this under excitement caused by the violent opposition of the Jewish faction at Rome. Beware; literally, mark, observe them, to be on your guard against them. The dogs. The article must be retained in the translation. The Jews called the Gentiles "dogs" (comp. Matthew 15:26, 27; Revelation 22:15), i.e. unclean, mainly because of their disregard of the distinction between clean and unclean food. St. Paul retorts the epithet: they are the dogs, who have confidence in the flesh, not in spiritual religion. Evil workers; so 2 Corinthians 11:13, where he calls them "deceitful workers." The Judaizers were active enough, like the Pharisees who "compassed sea and land to make one proselyte;" but their activity sprang from bad motives - they were evil workers, though their work was sometimes overruled for good (comp. Philippians 1:15-18). The concision (κατατομή, cutting, mutilation); a contemptuous word for "circumcision" (περιτομή). Compare the Jewish contemptuous use of Isbosheth, man of shame, for Eshbaal, man of Baal, etc. Their circumcision is no better than a mutilation. Observe the paronomasia, the combination of like-sounding words, which is common in St. Paul's Epistles. Winer gives many examples in sect. lxviii.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
Watch out for
Βλέπετε (Blepete)
Verb - Present Imperative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 991: (primarily physical), I look, see, perceive, discern. A primary verb; to look at.

those
τοὺς (tous)
Article - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

dogs,
κύνας (kynas)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 2965: A dog, universally despised in the East. A primary word; a dog.

those
τοὺς (tous)
Article - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

workers
ἐργάτας (ergatas)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 2040: A field-laborer; then: a laborer, workman in general. From ergon; a toiler; figuratively, a teacher.

of evil,
κακοὺς (kakous)
Adjective - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 2556: Bad, evil, in the widest sense. Apparently a primary word; worthless, i.e. depraved, or injurious.

those
τὴν (tēn)
Article - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

mutilators of the flesh!
κατατομήν (katatomēn)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 2699: A mutilation, spoiling. From a compound of kata and temno; a cutting down, i.e. Mutilation.


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NT Letters: Philippians 3:2 Beware of the dogs beware (Philipp. Phil. Php.)
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