ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Philippians 2.6-7

Book: Philippians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

4. not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. 5. Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

6. who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7. but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men;

  1. and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. 9. Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; (Philippians 2:4-9, ASV)
WEB

4. each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. 5. Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus,

6. who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7. but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.

  1. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross. 9. Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name; (Philippians 2:4-9, WEB)
KJV

4. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. 5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

6. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7. But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

  1. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. fashion: or habit 9. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: (Philippians 2:4-9, KJV)
YLT

4. each not to your own look ye, but each also to the things of others. 5. For, let this mind be in you that [is] also in Christ Jesus,

6. who, being in the form of God, thought [it] not robbery to be equal to God, 7. but did empty himself, the form of a servant having taken, in the likeness of men having been made,

  1. and in fashion having been found as a man, he humbled himself, having become obedient unto death, death even of a cross, 9. wherefore, also, God did highly exalt him, and gave to him a name that [is] above every name, (Philippians 2:4-9, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Paul the Apostle, writing with Timothy named as co-sender (Phil 1:1).
  • Audience: The church at Philippi, a Roman colony in Macedonia and the first congregation Paul planted in Europe (Acts 16:11-40). The letter names overseers and deacons at 1:1 and thanks the church for repeated financial support.
  • Location: Written from imprisonment. Paul refers to his bonds and to "Caesar's household" (Phil 1:13, 4:22); the traditional identification is Roman custody, with Ephesus and Caesarea proposed as alternatives.
  • Time period: c. AD 60-62 on the traditional Roman-imprisonment dating.

Theological reading

The two verses are the hinge of the Christ-hymn (2:6-11) and the most contested pair in the letter.

"In the form of God." En morphē theou hyparchōn. Morphē is not outward shape but the form that expresses what a thing actually is, and the participle hyparchōn denotes existing already, antecedently. The clause asserts a state Christ was in before the action the sentence goes on to describe.

Harpagmos, the disputed noun. "Counted it not a thing to be grasped" renders ouch harpagmon hēgēsato to einai isa theō. The noun is rare and admits two main senses: a thing seized (res rapta), or a thing to be clutched and exploited (res retinenda). On the first reading, equality with God was not something He snatched at, because it was already His. On the second, He did not treat what He already possessed as a prize to be used for His own advantage. Both readings presuppose the equality; they differ on what He declined to do with it. Roy Hoover's study of the idiom argued for the exploitation sense, and it is now the majority view.

Ekenōsen, "emptied himself." The decisive grammatical observation is that the verb takes no object. Paul does not say what was emptied out. The participles that follow supply the manner: labōn, having taken the form of a servant, and genomenos, having become in the likeness of men. The emptying is therefore accomplished by addition, not by subtraction, which is why kenotic Christologies that read it as the surrender of divine attributes are reading in an object the sentence withholds. See Kenosis.

The parallel forms. Morphē theou in verse 6 and morphē doulou in verse 7 are deliberately matched. Whatever morphē means in one it means in the other, so anyone weakening it in verse 6 to "appearance" must weaken the servanthood to appearance too, which no one wants.

Why the hymn is here. The passage is not an excursus in speculative Christology. It is grounded at 2:5, "have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," and it serves the appeal to humility begun at 2:3. The doctrine is deployed as an ethic, which is why the highest Christology in the Pauline corpus arrives in a passage about not being self-seeking.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.