In Phil 2:9, we learn that Jesus was given the name that is above every
name. Some have argued that the "name" is "Jesus." However,
the best exegetical case can be made that the "name" is that of YHWH
(which is the meaning behind κυριος "Lord" in many NT texts). As G.
Walter Hansen notes:
Some have proposed that the name given is the
name Jesus. Moule suggests that “God,
in the incarnation, bestowed upon the one who is on equality with him an
earthly name which, because it accompanied that most God-like self-giving, has
come to be, in fact, the highest of names, because service and self-giving are
themselves the highest of divine attributes. Because of the incarnation, the
human name ‘Jesus’ is acclaimed as Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Moule,
“Further Reflexions on Philippians 2:5-11,” 270). The view that the name Jesus is the name given by God appeals
to the support of the next line: in the
name of Jesus. Advocates of this view point out that the name Jesus is truly a name, not a title, such
as the title Lord.
Solid evidence, however, leads most
interpreters to advocate the view that the name that God gave Jesus is the name
Lord. The narrative sequence of the
hymn points to the name that was given at the exaltation: at the incarnation the
name Jesus was given; when God exalted Jesus he then gave him the name Lord. The name of a person can have the sense of a title that “is rightfully
borne and encodes what a person really is” (BDAG, 713). The sense of title
applies especially to the divine names that express “qualities and powers”
(BDAG, 712). The hymn dramatically postpones the announcement of the divine
name given to Jesus until the last line, which declares that every tongue will
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
The echo this line gives of Isaiah 45:17-24 confirms that the divine name Lord is the name that is above every
name:
“Before me every knee will bow;
by me every tongue will swear.
They will say of me, ‘In the LORD alone are righteousness
and strength.’”
Isaiah 41-45 stresses the uniqueness of the
divine name LORD (Yahweh): “I am the
LORD your God” (41:13); “I am the LORD; that is my name” (42:8); “I, even I, am
the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior” (43:11); “This is what the LORD
says—Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and the
last; apart from me there is no God” (44:6); “I am the LORD, and there is no
other” (45:18). By quoting Isaiah 45:23 in Philippians 2:10-11, the hymn
appropriates the unique divine name LORD for Jesus. The parabolic shape of the
hymn can be followed by tracing the names or titles of Jesus: the one existing
in the form of God goes down to the lowest part by taking the form of slave and back up to the highest place
when God gives Jesus the name that is
above every name so that every tongue will confess that he is Lord.
Consideration of the context for Paul’s
letter to the Philippians provides another reason for the view that the name Lord is the name that God gave Jesus. In
a Roman colony, Philippians would hear the acclamation that Jesus is Lord as a
shocking allusion to the declaration of the Roman imperial cult that Caesar is
Lord. In the ideology of the imperial cult, Jupiter and the gods gave divine
authority and divine names to August Caesar. In the theology of the hymn of
Christ, God gave the divine name to Jesus so that he will be the LORD acclaimed
and worshipped by all. By quoting this hymn, Paul presents the exaltation of
Jesus as Lord in language that reflects and subverts the Roman imperial cult. (G.
Walter Hansen, The Letters to the
Philippians [The Pillar New Testament Commentary; Nottingham: Apollos,
2009], 162-63)
On the use
of Isa 45 in Phil 2, see
BlakeOstler on Paul's Use of the Old Testament in Philippians 2
