Thursday, April 18, 2024

Crispin Fletcher-Louis on Philippians 2:6a

  

However, we still arrive at the conclusion that Christ is somehow identified with, or as, God in verse 6a when we pay careful attention to the lexical data for GK and the word’s likely meaning in this Jewish and scripturally-grounded passage. Philippians 2:6-11 describes the actions of the one God and his Messiah (the “Christ”—v. 11). In the case of a divine being, especially the one God of scriptural revelation, the expression μορφη θεου “form of God” must refer, then, to a divine identity. That is so because, given the usual meaning of μορφη, the expression evokes the external appearance of the one God that scriptural texts often call his Glory (Heb. כבוד, Gk. δοξα). Crucially, in Israel’s scriptures, the one God does not have an external character or appearance (a “form”) that is not also truly a manifestation of himself. On the contrary, the glory of God is “the outward form of God’s inner unknowable essence, the vehicle by which he chooses to reveal himself to his creatures.” The appearance of God’s glory, as such, is a phenomenon in passages in the Pentateuch (e.g., Exod 24:10, 16; 33:18; 40:34; Lev 9:6), in the Prophets (esp. Isa 6:1-3; Ezek 1:26-28; 43:2), in historical books (1 Kgs 8:110, and in the Psalms (e.g., Pss 26:8; 63:2; 72:19). The apocalypses and later mystical texts also exhibit a keen interest in the possibility that visionaries might encounter God’s glory as the goal of an ascent to heaven (e.g., 1 En. 14:8-24; 2 En. 22:1-3; Test. Levi 5:1).

 

Furthermore, the expression “who being in (ος εν . . . υπαρων) the form” has been compared to a similar expression for royal courtiers in Luke 7:25: οι εν ιματισμω ενδοξω . . . θπαρχοντες “those who are dressed in spending clothing.” If the language of “being in the form of God” is analogous to “being dressed in splendid clothing” then the word GK probably has in view the sign of the pre-incarnate Christ in the garments of glory in which God is typically clothed in his theophany (Isa 6:1; Dan 7:9; 1 En. 14:20; cf. Ps 104:3).

 

In any case, these observations mean that, although on its own the Greek word μορφη does not refer to a (divine) essence, nature, or identity, in a Jewish text like this one the expression εν μορφη θεου υπαρχων implies an existence in the very identity of God. For Paul himself, and for biblically literate readers, verse 6a most likely has in view the (sometimes bodily) glory of God (the Glory) seen by Israel’s visionaries and heroes of old (esp. Isa 6:1-3; Ezek 1:26-28; Dan 7:9; cf. 1 En. 14:19-24). Indeed, reference specifically to the glory of God in visionary texts in Phil 2:6 is fitting because the passage begins by describing Christ in his pre-incarnate state in heaven, before he comes to earth, and the glory of God is usually located in heaven, or comes from heaven, where it appears around or above the angelic throne-contact, beyond ordinary earthly time and space, and perception.

 

So, with good reason, most now conclude that verse 6a describes “the visible divine beauty and appearance which Christ had in his pre-incarnate state.” In view of the contrast with “taking the form of a slave” in verse 7b, verse 6a seems to refer to “the splendor of the divine glory in heaven contrasted with the human form on earth.” The phrase recalls other NT phrases that express a similar Christology: Christ is the eternal “image of God” (2 Cor 4:4; Col 1:15) and the eternal Son (Rom 8:29), who is the radiance of God’s glory (Heb 1:2-3). On this view, Phil 2:6a anticipates 3:21 where Christ has a “body of glory” to which believers, being transformed, will be conformed (συμμορφον).

 

Echoes of scriptural theophanies also mean that the opening words of the passage are meant to call to mind not just a transcendent, divine identity, but also one that already before the taking up of an individual human life (vv. 7-8), has a recognizably human-like appearance or form. When God appears in such theophanies he typically has a human-like form (Ezek 1:26-27: “upon the likeness of the throne a likeness in the appearance of a man [דמות כמראה אדם, ομοιωμα ως ειδος ανθρωπου] . . . from the appearance of his waist,” cf. Isa 6:1; 1 En. 14:20-25; 2 En. 22:1-2). Perhaps, then, when it says Christ was “in the form of God,” verse 6a has in mind the human-like form of God’s glory. In any case, although the expression “form of God” is not found in Israel’s scriptures, verse 6 strongly identifies Christ with the one God of Israel’s scriptures. It is not necessarily a statement about divine “nature”—with all the philosophical connotations that implied in late patristic interpretation, but it seems to be one that somehow ascribes to Christ a divine identity. (Crispin Fletcher-Louis, The Divine Heartset: Paul’s Philippians Christ Hymn, Metaphysical Affections, and Civic Virtues [Eugene, Oreg.: Pickwick Publications, 2023], 16-18)