One recent
interpretation takes morphē as an allusion to the “image” of Gen 1:26-27
and reads “emptied himself” as a reference to the earthly life of Jesus. That
is, in his incarnation the Son took on the image of God by assuming human
nature, but he refused to succumb to the temptation of Adam and Eve, to grasp
for equality with God “(You will be like gods,” Gen 3:5). That understanding
may resonate with the idea of Jesus as the new Adam, which appears in other
letters of Paul (e.g., Rom 5:12-21), but it does not really fit the language of
this poem. If the Christ hymn had intended an allusion to Gen 1:26-27, it would
have used eikon, the Septuagint’s word for the “image” of God in Gen
1:26-27, not morphē (“form”). Moreover, the tempter in Eden promises Eve
that the couple will be “like gods,” not that they will be “equal to God.” (Dennis
Hamm, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon [Catholic Commentary on Sacred
Scripture; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2013], 99-100 n. 3)
