This article was published in JBL 140/1 (2021) 187–206, copyright © 2021 by the Society of Biblical Literature. To purchase copies of this issue or to subscribe to JBL, please contact SBL Customer Service by phone at 866-727-9955 [toll-free in North America] or 404-727-9498, by fax at 404-727-2419, or visit the online SBL Store at www.sbl-site.org. Epaphroditus and Archippus, Paul’s Fellow Soldiers: Reexamining Paul’s Rhetorical Use of συστρατιώτης συστρατιώτης nathan leach nathanaleach.leach@utexas.edu University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 This article examines Paul’s use of the term συστρατιώτης (“fellow soldier”) in Phil 2:25 and Phlm 2. Commentators have typically explained Paul’s two uses of the term, applied to Epaphroditus and Archippus, as either a synonym for “fellow worker”—applicable in theory to any fellow worker—or as specific applications of a more general Christians-as-soldiers metaphor prevalent throughout the canonical corpus of Pauline letters. In this article, I distinguish between the occurrences of military metaphors in Paul’s authentic and larger canonical cor- puses, arguing that Paul’s authentic use of the metaphor is less common and more limited than the expansions of it in later canonical Pauline material. I then exam- ine Paul’s limited use of “soldiering” metaphors and his specific use of συστρα τιώτης alongside uses of the same metaphor and terminology in Greek and Roman moral-philosophical discourses and ancient letters. Against the common explanations of συστρατιώτης, I argue that Paul’s use of the term cannot be taken as indicating a general similarity between Christians and soldiers but, rather, is prompted in each case by distinctive elements in the circumstances of the person and relationship to which he applies the term and his broader rhetorical moves in the letters. In Phil 2:25 and Phlm 2, Paul refers to Epaphroditus and Archippus each as his συστρατιώτης (“fellow soldier”). Perhaps because Paul uses the term only these two times in his extant corpus, commentators have dedicated little space to explain- ing it. Instead, commentators have typically opted either to write it off as a synonym for συνεργός (“fellow worker”), to interpret it as a particular class of fellow workers, or to explain it as just one of many military metaphors that pop up all over Paul’s JBL 140, no. 1 (2021): 187–206 https://doi.org/10.15699/jbl.1401.2021.9 187 Thank you to both L. Michael White and Steven J. Friesen for their helpful feedback on earlier versions of this article.