After surveying the use of μορφη in the Septuagint, Josephus, Philo, and the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Andrew Perriman offered the following conclusion:
Conclusion
All the evidence considered here points
in the same direction: in the extant literature of Hellenistic Judaism, morphē,
when it is not used metaphorically, signifies the outward visible shape and
appearance of a being or object. This is in agreement with wider Greek usage.
There are certain characteristic emphases that may have a bearing on the interpretation
of the word in a passage such as Phil 2:6-8. The “form” of a being may indicate
status or physical condition, it may misrepresent his or her status or condition,
but morphē still means only “outward appearance.” The word is often used
in contexts where the relation between underlying or prior reality and outward
appearance is at issue, but it does not on that account also signify the
essence of the thing. There is a pervasive interest in the visible form taken
by things—gods, angels, spirits, demons, ideas—that might otherwise be hidden
or obscure. But the notion that the one God of Jewish belief might have a morphē
is never positively entertained; indeed, it is expressly denied. (Andrew Perriman,
In the Form of A God: The Pre-existence of the Exalted Christ in Paul [Eugene,
Oreg. Cascade Books, 2022], 72)
