. . . the emphasis on Christ’s full
participation in the human condition—his genuinely entering into a human
identity or nature—appears also when we reflect further on the sartorial
language. The phrases “taking the form of a slave (μορφην δουλου
λαβων)” (v. 7b) and “being found in figure (σχηματι) as a human” (v. 7d) suggest theatrical costume.
But in Phil 2:6-11, these phrases denote an act of genuine divine self-transformation,
and they slight the self-appointed thespians Caligula and Nero for their
attempted (temporary and superficial) assimilations to the gods. These phrases
mean on two levels: firstly, they denote a personal act of total divine
self-transformation. Secondarily, the connote, thereby, a critique of
the faux, staged, divinity of Rome’s emperors (and all those other rulers,
following Alexander, who had dressed up as the gods to self-identity with
them).
The divine self-transformation sense of
the language in verse 7 is obviously primary because it is used to describe a
whole life, not moments during a human life. Christ took servile form and human
figure. He was born and really did hang on a cross. There is no desire to say
here (or anywhere else in the early Chrisitan literature corpus) that the man
Jesus of Nazareth dressed up to become something other than what he was. (In
the gospel tradition he is remembered for his acerbic criticism of some in
positions of civic leadership—the “hypocrites”—who only played their parts as
an actor would). The real “dressing up” was done by the divine Christ in the
very act of his becoming human. (Crispin Fletcher-Louis, The Divine Heartset:
Paul’s Philippians Christ Hymn, Metaphysical Affections, and Civic Virtues [Eugene,
Oreg.: Pickwick Publications, 2023], 148-49)