Editing Epistle to the Philippians (section)

===Christ poem (2:5–11)===
Chapter 2 of the epistle contains a famous poem describing the nature of Christ and his act of redemption:

{{blockquote|Who, though he was in the form of God,<br/>
:Did not regard being equal with God
:Something to be grasped after.<ref>Most translations would render this line as 'something to be used to his own advantage' (NIV) or 'something to be exploited' (NRSV) instead of 'something to be grasped after'. See below on the debate about this passage.</ref>
But he emptied himself<br/>
:Taking on the form of a slave,
:And coming in the likeness of humans.
And being found in appearance as a human<br/>
:He humbled himself
:Becoming obedient unto death— even death on a cross.

Therefore God highly exalted him<br/>
:And bestowed on him the name
:That is above every name,
That at the name of Jesus<br/>
:Every knee should bow
:Of those in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth.
And every tongue should confess<br/>
:That Jesus Christ is Lord
:To the glory of God the Father.|Philippians 2:5–11, translated by [[Bart D. Ehrman]]<ref name="ehrman">{{cite book |last=Ehrman |first=Bart D. | authorlink= Bart D. Ehrman|title=How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee |year=2014 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dmspAgAAQBAJ |publisher=HarperOne |isbn=978-0-0617-7819-3 |chapter=7. Jesus as God on Earth: Early Incarnation Christologies }}</ref>}}

Due to its unique poetic style, [[Bart D. Ehrman]] suggests that this passage constitutes an early Christian poem that was composed by someone else prior to Paul's writings, as early as the mid-late 30s AD and was later used by Paul in his epistle. According to Oxford scholar [[John Barton (theologian)|John Barton]], "it may have been a poem, a hymn, or a creed, known already in the churches and quoted by Paul."<ref>{{cite book |last= Barton|first= John|author-link= John Barton (theologian) |date= 1998|title= The Complete Bible Handbook|url= |location= London; New York|publisher= DK Publishing|page= 432|isbn= 0-7894-8154-5|access-date=}}</ref>

While the passage is often called a "hymn", some scholars believe this to be an inappropriate name since it does not have a rhythmic or metrical structure in the original Greek.<ref name="ehrman"/> This theory was first proposed by German Protestant theologian [[Ernst Lohmeyer]] in 1928, and this "has come to dominate both [[Biblical exegesis|exegesis]] of Philippians and study of early [[Christology]] and [[List of Christian creeds#Biblical creeds|credal]] formulas".<ref>{{cite book|last=Murray | first= Robert |chapter = 69. Philippians | title=The Oxford Bible Commentary | editor-first1=John| editor-last1=Barton | editor-first2=John| editor-last2= Muddiman |editor-link2= John Muddiman | publisher = Oxford University Press |edition= first (paperback) | date = 2007 | pages = 1180 | isbn = 978-0199277186 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZJdVkgEACAAJ| access-date=February 6, 2019}}</ref>

The [[Frankfurt silver inscription]], the oldest known reliable evidence for Christianity north of the [[Alps]] (dating from between 230 and 270), quotes a Latin translation of Philippians 2:10–11.<ref name="GoetheUni_12Dec2024">{{Citation|url=https://aktuelles.uni-frankfurt.de/en/english/frankfurt-silver-inscription-oldest-christian-testimony-found-north-of-the-alps/|title="Frankfurt silver inscription" – Oldest Christian testimony found north of the Alps|publisher=[[Goethe University Frankfurt]]|language=en|date=12 December 2024|access-date=13 December 2024}}</ref>

==== Incarnation Christology ====
Some find the Christ poem significant because it strongly suggests that there were very early Christians who understood Jesus to be a pre-existent celestial being, who chose to take on human form, rather than a human who was later exalted to a divine status.<ref name="martin">{{cite book |last=Martin |first=Ralph P. | authorlink=Ralph P. Martin |title=Philippians 2:5–11 in Recent Interpretation & in the Setting of Early Christian Worship |year=1997 |edition=2nd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xwvi00xlTCEC |publisher=InterVarsity Press |location=Downers Grove, IL |isbn=0-8308-1894-4 |pages=vii-ix }}</ref><ref name="ehrman"/>

While the author of the poem apparently believed that Jesus existed in heaven before his physical incarnation, there is some debate about whether he was believed to be ''equal'' to [[God the Father]] prior to his death and resurrection. This largely depends on how the Greek words ''morphe'' (μορφή) and ''harpagmon'' ({{lang|grc|ἁρπαγμόν}}, [[accusative case|accusative]] form of {{lang|grc|ἁρπαγμός}}) are understood.

Scholars such as English theologian [[J. B. Lightfoot|J.B. Lightfoot]] have argued that ''morphe'' should be understood in the [[Aristotelianism|Aristotelean]] sense of "essential nature", but more recent scholarship by [[Robert B. Strimple]] and [[Paul Feinberg|Paul D. Feinberg]] has questioned whether a first century Jewish author would have had Aristotelean philosophy in mind, preferring instead the plainer translation of the word ''morphe'' as simply "appearance". In this view, the text does not state that Jesus ''is'' God, but merely that he had the ''appearance'' of a god (v. 6) but was revealed to be a man (v. 8). Strimple writes, "For years I tried to maintain the view of Lightfoot that Paul here uses ''morphe'' with the sense it had acquired in Greek philosophy, particularly Aristotelian... But I have had to conclude that there is really very little evidence to support the conclusion that Paul uses ''morphe'' in such a philosophical sense here."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Strimple |first=Robert B. |authorlink=Robert B. Strimple|date=1978 |title=Philippians 2:5–11 in Recent Studies: Some Exegetical Conclusions |journal=Westminster Theological Journal |volume=41 |pages=247–68}}</ref> Likewise, Feinberg cautions, "the attractiveness of the Greek philosophical interpretation of ''morphe'' is that it gives the theologian about as strong an affirmation of the deity of Christ as is possible... One must, however, be careful that he does not read his theological convictions into the text when they are not there."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Feinberg |first=Paul D. |authorlink=Paul Feinberg |date=1980 |title=The Kenosis and Christology: An Exegetical-Theological Analysis of Phil. 2:6–11 |journal=Trinity Journal |volume=1 |pages=21–46}}</ref>

The Greek word ''harpagmon'' translated in verse 6 ("Something to be grasped after / exploited") is also a subject of some debate. Some scholars, such as Bart D. Ehrman, following Samuel Vollenweider, have proposed that the word should be translated as "something to be grasped after", implying that the author of the hymn thought that Jesus was ''not'' equal to God before his resurrection.<ref name="ehrman" /> However, others scholars, such as R.W. Hoover, [[Gordon Fee]], [[Michael J. Gorman]], and [[N. T. Wright|N.T. Wright]] have supported the more standard notion that ''harpagmon'' represents an idiom meaning "taking advantage of" as more likely and more sensical within the hymn's theology.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bird |first=Michael F. |title=How God Became Jesus: The real origin of belief in Jesus' divine nature |last2=Evans |first2=Chris A. |last3=Gathercole |first3=Simon J. |last4=Hill |first4=Charles E. |last5=Tilling |first5=Chris |publisher=Zondervan |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-310-51959-1 |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |pages=146}}</ref><ref>[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians%202%3A6&version=NTFE Phillippians 2:6] in N.T. Wright's ''[[Modern English Bible translations#Partial translations|New Testament for Everyone]]'' translation reads: "Who, though in God's form, did not regard his equality with God as something he ought to exploit."</ref>

Following this interpretation of ''harpagmon,'' scholars such as [[James Dunn (theologian)|James D.G. Dunn]] and [[Oscar Cullmann]] suggest the author may be drawing a parallel between [[Adam]] and Jesus, who in other Pauline literature is called the [[Last Adam]]. The first Adam was made in the "image of God" (Genesis 1:26) but sinned by trying to grasp equality with God (Genesis 3:5). In contrast, Jesus, also made in the image of God (Phil. 2:5) did ''not'' try to grasp equality with God, but instead, humbled himself in obedience to God. Dunn sees the hymn as an archetypal parallel to Genesis: "The Philippians hymn is an attempt to read the life and work of Christ through the grid of Adam theology... the hymn is the epochal significance of the Christ-event, as determinative for humankind as the 'event' of Adam's creation and fall... Christ by his life, death, and resurrection has so completely reversed the catastrophe of Adam, has done so by the acceptance of death by choice rather than as punishment, as has thus completed the role of dominion over all things originally intended for Adam... It was Adam who was 'in the form of God'... the language was used... to bring out that Adamic character of Christ's life, death, and resurrection. So archetypal was Jesus' work in its effect that it can be described in language appropriate to archetypal man and as a reversal of the archetypal sin."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dunn |first=James D.G. |authorlink = James Dunn (theologian) |title=Christology in the Making: An Inquiry into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation |publisher=SCM Press Ltd |year=1980 |isbn=9780802842572 |edition=2nd |location=London |publication-date=1980 |pages=xix, 120}}</ref>

Similarly, Cullmann also notes the parallel between "form of God" in Phil. 2:5 and "image of God" in Genesis 1:26, "The expression ''morphe'' firmly establishes the connection between Jesus and the creation story of Adam... this Greek word corresponds to the Hebrew 'image' of Genesis 1:26... ''morphe'' in Phil. 2:6 is immediately related to the concept ''eikon'' (image) since the Semitic root word or its synonym can correspond to either of the two Greek words. This means that v. 6 does not refer to Jesus' divine 'nature' but rather to the [[image of God]] which he possessed from the beginning."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cullmann |first=Oscar |authorlink = Oscar Cullmann |title=The Christology of the New Testament |publisher=The Westminster Press |year=1959 |isbn=9780664243517 |edition=Revised |location=Philadelphia |pages=176}}</ref>

Although scholars remain divided on the question of the pre-existent Christ's equality with God, it is widely agreed by interpreters that the Christ poem depicts Jesus as equal to God ''after'' his resurrection. This is because the last two stanzas quote Isaiah 45:22–23:<ref>{{Bibleverse|Isaiah|45:22–23|NRSV}}</ref> ("Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess"), which in the original context clearly refers to God the Father.<ref name="ehrman" /> Some scholars argue that Philippians 2:6–11 identifies Jesus with God from his pre-existence on the basis that allusions to Isaiah 45:22–23 are present all throughout the poem.<ref>{{cite book |title=Paul and the Trinity: Persons, Relations, and the Pauline Letters |last=Hill |first=Wesley |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-8028-6964-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xastBgAAQBAJ |page=96}}</ref>