Philippians 2:6
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
Study Note
Study Note
'Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God' — the opening of the Carmen Christi (Philippians 2:6–11) states a prior divine status — 'form of God' (morphē Theou) and 'equal with God' — that the Son possessed before the kenōsis of verse 7. The key interpretive debate centers on 'robbery' (harpagmos): whether the pre-existent Christ did not count equality with God as something to be grasped-and-held or as something to be seized by self-assertion. Either way, the verse establishes that the Incarnation was a voluntary divine self-emptying by one who already possessed full divine status, not an ascent from lesser to greater — a cornerstone text in patristic controversies about divine-human natures.
Other Translations
who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,
who, being in the form of God, thought <FI>it<Fi> not robbery to be equal to God,
To whom, though himself in the form of God, it did not seem that to take for oneself was to be like God;
Cross References
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