as for what is left: a signpost word that turns the sentence toward whatever remains, whether the time still ahead, the last thing left to say, or one more point to add
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
This is the adjective for "the rest" (λοιπός) frozen into a signpost. Greek could take the neuter form of that adjective and set it loose on its own, with or without "the" in front, to mean "as for what is left". Once a writer does that, the word stops describing anything and starts steering the sentence. What is left over may be time, or the last stretch of an argument, or one more item on a list, and that is why the same short word turns up in English Bibles wearing such different clothes.
So the senses below are one gesture aimed at four different leftovers:
the time still ahead, as in "sleep on for what is left" and "from now on there is a crown laid up"
the last part of a letter, as in the "finally, brothers" that opens Paul's closing sections
one more thing to add, as in "besides, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else"
the conclusion left standing, when days of storm and darkness strip away all hope
Because it points rather than describes, the word brings no weight of its own to a sentence. That is worth remembering when Paul writes "finally", because he is not promising to stop soon: he is turning to what is left, and what is left can still run for two more chapters. Readers who hear a strict announcement of the ending have sometimes concluded that Philippians must be two letters stitched together, when the word may be saying no more than "and now, moving on".
Nuances
1afrom now on, for the time that is left: pointing to the stretch of time still ahead
TranslatabilityApproximate
Mat 26:45*Mrk 14:41*1Co 7:29*2Ti 4:8*Heb 10:13
1bfinally, and now: marking a writer's turn to the last part of what he has to say
CertaintyContested
2Co 13:11Php 3:1*Php 4:81Th 4:1*2Th 3:1
Php 3:1
Whether the word here announces the close of the letter ("finally") or is only a transition to a new topic ("and now, further"), and so whether Philippians shows a seam between separate letters.
majorityA transitional marker moving to a further matter, not a signal of closing, so no seam need be inferred.; Margaret E. Thrall, Greek Particles in the New Testament: Linguistic and Exegetical Studies; C. F. D. Moule, An Idiom Book of New Testament Greek; Peter T. O'Brien, The Epistle to the Philippians (New International Greek Testament Commentary); Gordon D. Fee, Paul's Letter to the Philippians (New International Commentary on the New Testament)
minorityA genuine concluding formula, so the section it opens reads as the end of a letter.; BDAG, s.v. λοιπός
1cbesides, beyond that: adding one more item to what has already been said
TranslatabilityApproximate
1Co 1:161Co 4:2*
1dso then, at last: drawing a line under what has just happened
Turns to whatever is left, which may be a long stretch of the letter rather than its last few lines.Php 3:11Th 4:1
Can point to leftover time rather than a leftover topic, so the very same word means "from now on".Heb 10:132Ti 4:8
Both
Both can introduce the last main thing a speaker wants to say.2Co 13:112Th 3:1
Only finally
English "finally" promises that the end has arrived, so a reader hears a broken promise when the writer keeps going.
It also carries a note of relief or impatience, as in "finally, the bus came", which the Greek word does not supply on its own.
“from now on”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“henceforth”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“besides”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“moreover”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“so then”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How loipon differs from similar Greek words
λοιπόςthe adjective this form grew out of: it names the remaining people or things themselves, while this form has hardened into a signpost pointing at what is left of the time or of what there is to say
Points at the time that is left rather than at any group of people, so it comes out as "from now on" or "for the rest of the time": sleep on now, the crown is waiting from here to that day, the King sits and waits until his enemies are put under his feet.Mat 26:452Ti 4:8Heb 10:13
Marks the turn to the last stretch of a letter, the signal a reader hears as "finally" before the closing round of appeals.2Co 13:11Php 3:1Php 4:81Th 4:12Th 3:1
Tacks on one more remark or one more requirement, close to English "besides" or "beyond that": Paul cannot recall baptizing anyone else, and what is asked of a steward beyond his job is that he be trustworthy.1Co 1:161Co 4:2
Fixes the moment when a situation has run its course and nothing further can be expected, which is why English versions reach for "now" or "at last": on the storm-driven ship all hope of rescue was gone by then.Act 27:20
Both
Both look back at a whole that has already been partly dealt with and turn attention to the leftover part. What is left differs: with one it is the people or things still unnamed, with the other it is the time or the words still to come.Rev 20:51Co 7:29
English Bibles often reach for the same phrase, "the rest", for either one, so the translation alone will not tell a reader whether the writer meant the remaining items or the remaining time.1Co 11:341Co 7:29
Names the actual people left over once part of a group has been accounted for: the other bridesmaids who arrive late, the apostles standing with Peter, the dead who do not rise yet.Mat 25:11Act 2:37Rev 20:5
Sorts humanity into the believers being addressed and everybody else, so it becomes a quiet word for outsiders: the people the Pharisee thanks God he is not like, the ones who grieve without hope, the ones who stay asleep.Luk 18:111Th 4:131Th 5:6Eph 2:3
Sits next to a noun and means "the other ones of that same kind": the other churches, the other nations, the other writings that make up Scripture.2Co 12:13Eph 4:172Pe 3:16
Works just as well for things as for people, gathering up whatever else belongs on the list: the other kinds of seed, the remaining matters Paul will settle in person, the other desires that choke the word.1Co 15:371Co 11:34Mrk 4:19
οὖνdraws a conclusion out of what came before, where this word simply turns to whatever is left over
Looks ahead to the time that is still left, closer to "from now on" than to "therefore": a crown is waiting for Paul for whatever life remains, Christ waits until his enemies are put under his feet, the shortened time changes how believers hold their marriages and property, and the sleeping disciples are left to whatever rest is still on the clock.2Ti 4:8Heb 10:131Co 7:29Mat 26:45Mrk 14:41
Turns to whatever the writer has left to say and simply hands it over, arguing nothing from what came before, which is why English versions render it "finally" as a letter swings toward its last block of instructions.2Co 13:11Php 3:1Php 4:82Th 3:1
Can mean nothing more than "as for the rest", gathering up the leftover items of a subject or the point at which nothing further was left to try: Paul cannot recall who else he baptized, he adds the one remaining requirement for a steward, and the sailors give up hope once every other resort is gone.1Co 1:161Co 4:2Act 27:20
Both
Both sit at the front of a sentence as a hinge that carries the reader on to the next thing, and English versions render either one "then" or "finally", so the difference is easy to miss. Paul stacks the two in a single phrase when he moves to his instructions on how to live, one word naming what is left to cover and the other tying it back to what he has already taught them.1Th 4:1
Draws a conclusion out of what was just said, so the sentence it opens rests on the reasoning in front of it: because the Father gives good gifts, ask him; because the coin carries Caesar's image, pay Caesar; because God is complete in his goodness, be complete yourselves.Mat 7:11Mat 22:21Mat 5:48
Presses someone's own claim to the answer it forces, in questions shaped like "if that is true, then what follows?", a move that needs a preceding argument to push against.Mat 12:26Mat 22:43Mat 22:45
Also works as a plain "so" that keeps a story stepping from one action to the next, a use John leans on constantly: so Jesus sat down at the well, so the woman left her water jar, so the people came out of the town to him.Jhn 4:6Jhn 4:28Jhn 4:30
ἔτιsays that something is "still" or "yet" going on, while this word looks ahead to the time that is left
It signals that the writer is turning to the last thing he has to say, the point where a letter starts to wrap up, and English versions usually render it "finally". This is a move in the writing itself rather than a statement about time.2Co 13:11Php 3:1Php 4:81Th 4:12Th 3:1
It turns to how things stand from this point on, once the situation has settled into something new: all hope of rescue slipping away from then on, the time shortened so that married people are to live differently now, the crown waiting from here on out.Act 27:201Co 7:292Ti 4:8
It can gather up whatever else is left of a subject, meaning "beyond that" or "as for the rest": beyond the households already named the writer cannot recall who else he baptized, and beyond the point just made there is one further thing required.1Co 1:161Co 4:2
Both
Both can measure off a short stretch of time that is left before an appointed hour arrives, and a translator can reach for the same English there. The disciples are told to sleep and rest for the time remaining just as the hour comes, and the martyrs are told to rest a little while longer until the number is complete.Mat 26:45Mrk 14:41Rev 6:11
Both can sit in a scene of waiting for the end, marking the interval before it comes. Within one chapter of Hebrews, one word has the exalted Christ waiting out what is left until his enemies are put under his feet, and the other has the reader waiting a very little while until the coming one arrives.Heb 10:13Heb 10:37Jhn 7:33
It says that something is still going on at the very moment being described, most often that a person is still speaking or still alive when the next thing breaks in. This is a look at what continues right now, not at what is left ahead.Mat 12:46Mrk 5:35Mat 27:63Rom 5:8
It counts what is still on hand or still missing, adding one more to what is already there: room still open at the table, one thing still lacking, many things still left to say, one more shaking of the earth to come.Luk 14:22Mat 19:20Jhn 16:12Heb 12:26
Put with a negative, it announces that something has stopped for good, rendered "no longer" or "never again". This is the word behind the promises that death, pain, and remembered sin will not be there any more.Rev 21:4Rev 7:16Rev 22:3Heb 8:12Luk 20:36
loipon in the other biblical languages
עוֹדHebrew“still”the Hebrew word for "still" or "any longer", which matches only the time edge of the Greek word; Hebrew has no single word that turns a letter toward its closing section
Marks the turn toward the last part of a letter, the place where the writer gathers up his closing requests to the people he is writing to. English versions reach for "finally" here, and the Hebrew word has nothing that does this job.2Co 13:11Php 3:1Php 4:81Th 4:12Th 3:1
Can cover what is left of a subject rather than what is left of time: the remainder of a list, or the one point still to be made. Paul uses it to add that beyond the households he has just named he cannot recall whom else he baptized, and to state the one thing that is left to ask of a manager.1Co 1:161Co 4:2
Both
Both can measure the time that has not run out yet, the stretch still left before something arrives. The Hebrew word counts off the days or years yet to come, and the Greek word names the remaining time a person has to live through.Gen 7:4Gen 45:61Co 7:29Heb 10:13
Reports that something is still the case at the moment of speaking. Over and over it asks or answers whether a father is still alive, notes that a man is still standing where he was, or observes that the daylight is still holding.Gen 43:7Gen 43:28Gen 18:22Gen 29:7
Counts a repeat: one more of the same thing, happening over again. It gives Bilhah a second son, adds another seven days of waiting for the dove, and lays another seven years of service on Jacob.Gen 30:7Gen 8:10Gen 29:27
Paired with a negative it shuts a door for good, saying that something will never happen anymore. God will not curse the ground again, no flood will destroy the earth again, and Abram will never be called by that name again.Gen 8:21Gen 9:11Gen 17:5
What scholars say about loipon
The form is the accusative singular neuter of λοιπός used adverbially, articular or anarthrous (τὸ λοιπόν / λοιπόν), a construction attested in classical and Hellenistic Greek and frequent in the papyri, where later Koine develops an inferential force ("so, therefore"). BDAG and LSJ divide the New Testament data along four lines: temporal, "from now on, for the future" (Matt 26:45;Mark 14:41;1 Cor 7:29;Heb 10:13;2 Tim 4:8); transitional or concluding, "finally, as for the rest" (2 Cor 13:11;Phil 3:1; 4:8; 1 Thess 4:1;2 Thess 3:1); additive, "beyond that, in addition" (1 Cor 1:16; 4:2); and inferential or culminative (Acts 27:20). Whether the articular form differs systematically from the anarthrous is disputed, and the New Testament distribution does not settle it: Phil 3:1, 4:8, 2 Thess 3:1 and Heb 10:13 are articular while 1 Thess 4:1,2 Cor 13:11 and Acts 27:20 are not, yet the transitional and temporal uses appear on both sides. Thrall argued that in Phil 3:1 and comparable openings the word functions as a transitional particle rather than a marker of conclusion, a reading taken up by Moule and by most recent commentators on Philippians (O'Brien, Fee); it removes one of the main planks of the partition theories that treat Philippians as a compilation of separate letters. At 1 Cor 4:2 the text is divided between ὧδε λοιπόν and ὃ δὲ λοιπόν, with little exegetical consequence.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. λοιπόςlexicon
LSJ, s.v. λοιπόςlexicon
Blass, Debrunner and Funk, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literaturegrammar
C. F. D. Moule, An Idiom Book of New Testament Greekgrammar
Margaret E. Thrall, Greek Particles in the New Testament: Linguistic and Exegetical Studiesmonograph
EDNT, s.v. λοιπόςdictionary
Peter T. O'Brien, The Epistle to the Philippians (New International Greek Testament Commentary)commentary
Gordon D. Fee, Paul's Letter to the Philippians (New International Commentary on the New Testament)commentary