Septuagint
The morphē of an object or
person is the outward appearance. Gideon’s brothers were like him: they had the
“appearance, form (eidos, morphē) of sons of kings” (Judg. 8:18); their
physical features—build, handsomeness of face, and such-like, identified them
as being of superior or aristocratic birth. Nebuchadnezzar was filled with
anger, and “the form (morphē) of his face was distorted” (Dan 3:19).
Tobit says that when he was taken into exile in Nineveh, unlike his compatriots
he refused to eat the bread of the nations “because I was mindful of God with
my whole soul.” However, God gave him “favor and morphēn” before Enemessaros,
and he was made the king’s buyer of provisions (Tob 1:12-13). Interpreters
often give the word a more abstract sense here, such as “status”; but morphē
is still a reference to the appearance of Tobit. Like Daniel and his
friends, who refused to eat the king’s food (Dan 1:15), he looked no worse for
his abstemiousness and was rewarded with advancement. (Cf. Moulton and Milligan,
Vocabulary, s.v. μορφη, 417) Parents’ “impress upon the tender nature of a child
a remarkable likeness both of soul and of form (morphēs)”
(4 Macc. 15:4). The children are not mistaken for their parents, but they have
something of their “form” or outward appearance, as well as a psychological
likeness. A piece of wood is given the “form” of a man by a craftsman (Isa 44:13).
Sometimes the form cannot be seen. Describing the plague of darkness that came
upon the Egyptians, the author of Wisdom of Solomon says that the Egyptians
could hear the voice of God’s “holy ones” (that is, the Israelites), for whom
there was a great light, but could not see their ”form” (morphēn) (Wis
18:1-2). Some things are form-less: Job’s friend Eliphaz says that a “spirit”
came upon his face at night, when things are difficult to see anyway, and his
fair and flesh quivered; he heard a breeze and a voice, but the presence had no
visible “form” (morphē) (Job 4:16). (Andrew Perriman, In the Form of
A God: The Pre-existence of the Exalted Christ in Paul [Eugene, Oreg. Cascade
Books, 2022], 66-67)
