Philippians has been called the "laughing letter", because, perhaps more than any of his other writings, this one is redolent with joy. Given what Paul had suffered in Philippi (a flogging, torture in the stocks, and imprisonment), and that when he wrote the letter he was in prison again (probably in Rome), awaiting a death sentence, its joyful tone is astonishing. But Paul had been released from his Philippian incarceration by a mighty earthquake,...