Passage

Philippians 2.6

"who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped," (Philippians 2:6, NASB95)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (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; 8. and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross." (Philippians 2:4-8, ASV)

WEB (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. 8. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross." (Philippians 2:4-8, WEB)

KJV (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: 8. 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}" (Philippians 2:4-8, KJV)

YLT (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, 8. and in fashion having been found as a man, he humbled himself, having become obedient unto death, death even of a cross," (Philippians 2:4-8, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Paul the Apostle, writing from imprisonment
Audience: the Philippian church, the first European church Paul planted (Acts 16:11-40)
Location: prison cell (Rome or Ephesus); recipients in Philippi (Macedonia)
Time period: composed c. AD 60-62 (Roman imprisonment) or c. AD 54-57 (Ephesian imprisonment, minority view)

Theological reading

Philippians 2:6 is the opening line of the Philippians Christ-hymn (2:6-11), one of the highest-christology texts in the Pauline corpus and a load-bearing christological proof for the patristic tradition (Nicaea, Chalcedon). The verse asserts Christ's pre-incarnate existence "in the form of God" (μορφῇ θεοῦ, morphē theou) and his equality with God (τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ, to einai isa theō), which he did not regard as a thing to be grasped or clung to. In Hellenistic philosophical usage, μορφή denotes essential nature, not mere outward shape; the parallel μορφὴν δούλου (morphēn doulou, "form of a servant") in v. 7 is unambiguously substantive (Christ really did become a servant), so by symmetry μορφῇ θεοῦ in v. 6 must be equally substantive: Christ really was God.

The Greek ἁρπαγμός (harpagmos, "grasping", "robbery", "thing to be seized") has been the subject of major scholarly debate. The two principal readings are:

Res rapienda ("a thing to be seized"), Christ did not grasp at equality with God because he did not yet possess it. (Arian, Socinian, and Watchtower-adjacent reading; rare in modern critical scholarship.)
Res rapta / res retinenda ("a thing already possessed, not to be clung to"), Christ, already possessing equality with God, did not exploit it for selfish advantage but emptied himself. (The standard patristic and modern reading; Roy Hoover's 1971 Harvard Theological Review lexical study of harpagmos in Hellenistic usage settled the field in this direction.)

The reading the context demands is option 2. The exhortation in v. 5, "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus", is paraenetic, urging the Philippians to imitate Christ's self-renunciation. A self-renunciation requires something possessed to renounce; an Arian Christ who never had equality with God provides no model for renouncing it. The verse is therefore load-bearing for the deity of Christ (against Arian and Witness Christologies) and for the kenotic-incarnational pattern (the Son's voluntary self-emptying for the sake of humanity). The Watchtower New World Translation renders the verse to flatten its high-christology force; modern Greek scholarship outside the Watchtower does not support that rendering.

See Christs Deity and Trinity vs Oneness vs Modalism vs Arianism for the full christological deployment, and Necessity of the Incarnation for the argumentative payload of pre-existence-plus-condescension.

Key words

G3444 - morphe, morphē (Strong's G3444), form, essential nature. The contested key word; the morphē theou / morphē doulou symmetry is the load-bearing exegetical point.
harpagmos (Strong's G725), grasping, thing-to-be-seized. The Hoover 1971 study established the res retinenda reading. Lexicon entry not yet built.
isos (Strong's G2470), equal. The substantive claim, equality with God, not similarity. Lexicon entry not yet built.

Theological themes

Pre-existence of Christ. "Existing in the form of God" before the incarnation; not a created being who became divine.
Deity of Christ. Equality with God on the standard reading; load-bearing against Arian, Witness, and Socinian Christologies.
Kenosis. The Son's voluntary self-emptying (v. 7); the pattern Paul names as the mind of Christ believers are to imitate.
Trinitarian Christology. Distinguishable from the Father (the Son does not grasp at what is already his by sharing the divine nature) yet equal in nature.
Paraenetic Christology. Paul deploys the highest possible Christology not in a polemical context but in an ethical one: imitate the self-renunciation of the One who had everything to renounce.

Cross-references

Philippians 2.5-11, the full Christ-hymn this verse opens.
Philippians 2.7, the kenosis verse immediately following (rich hub).
Philippians 2.8, the obedience-unto-death continuation.
John 1.1, the johannine Logos prologue's parallel pre-existence statement.
John 8.58, "before Abraham was, I AM", Jesus's pre-existence in his own words.
Colossians 1.15-20, the parallel Pauline Christ-hymn.
Hebrews 1.8, the Father addressing the Son as God.

Quoted in

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.