2:6 8 who though he existed in the form of God 9
did not regard equality with God
as something to be grasped,
2:7 but emptied himself
by taking on the form of a slave, 10
by looking like other men, 11
and by sharing in human nature. 12
1 tn Grk “And as.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
2 tn Here the preposition ἐν (en) plus the dative articular aorist infinitive has been translated as a temporal clause (ExSyn 595).
3 tn Or “the appearance of his face became different.”
4 tn Or “became bright as a flash of lightning” (cf. BDAG 346 s.v. ἐξαστράπτω); or “became brilliant as light” (cf. BDAG 593 s.v. λευκός 1).
5 tn Although συσχηματίζεσθε (suschmatizesqe) could be either a passive or middle, the passive is more likely since it would otherwise have to be a direct middle (“conform yourselves”) and, as such, would be quite rare for NT Greek. It is very telling that being “conformed” to the present world is viewed as a passive notion, for it may suggest that it happens, in part, subconsciously. At the same time, the passive could well be a “permissive passive,” suggesting that there may be some consciousness of the conformity taking place. Most likely, it is a combination of both.
6 tn Grk “to this age.”
7 sn The verb translated test and approve (δοκιμάζω, dokimazw) carries the sense of “test with a positive outcome,” “test so as to approve.”
8 sn This passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.
9 sn The Greek term translated form indicates a correspondence with reality. Thus the meaning of this phrase is that Christ was truly God.
10 tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 1:1.
11 tn Grk “by coming in the likeness of people.”
12 tn Grk “and by being found in form as a man.” The versification of vv. 7 and 8 (so also NRSV) is according to the versification in the NA27 and UBS4 editions of the Greek text. Some translations, however, break the verses in front of this phrase (NKJV, NASB, NIV, NLT). The same material has been translated in each case; the only difference is the versification of that material.