William Kelly · Bible Treasury Volume N1, p. 319. August 1897

A. Nothing but pedantry. The verb as a secondary meaning is used for "saluting," and so for "farewell"; but this sense is in narrow contextual bounds, as Matthew 26:49, Matthew 27:29, Matthew 28:9; Mark 15:18; Luke 1:28; John 19:3; Acts 15:23, Acts 23:26; James 1:1, and 2 John 10,11. Everywhere else it means "rejoice," or "be glad," and emphatically so in the Epistle to the Philippians, where it is an evident keynote, as in Philippians 1:18, Philippians 2:17-18, 28, Philippians 3:1, and Philippians 4:4, 10. What would be the sense of "Farewell in the Lord alway"? Yet this is long after Philippians 3:1, where "farewell" would be therefore unnatural. Then we have also to take account of the kindred "joy" (χαρὰ) in the same Epistle, as in Philippians 1:4, 25, Philippians 2:2, 29, and Philippians 4:1, which it is impossible to mistake. But the verb ought not to be confounded as the A.V. does with καυχάομαι, "I boast" as in Romans 5:2, 11, Philippians 3:3, James 1:9, James 4:16. It may surprise one that so profound a scholar as the late Bp. Lightfoot should express the opinion on Philippians 3:1 that the word conveys both meanings here, referring also to Philippians 2:18, Philippians 4:4. Spiritual perception is another thing, and indispensable for the right rendering of scripture.