MEANING OF MOP[Phi]H IN PHILIPPIANS 2:6-7, THE

As before, one could argue for the functional identity of this construal of ... in Phil 2:6-7 with the ... = ... interpretation. For if the ... ... is equivalent to the ..., and the Lord will give his glory to no other (Isa 42:8; 48:11), then it might appear that Christ's ... ... would entail his essential deity.22 It seems, however, that an interpreter of Phil 2:6-7 who identified ... in this context as Erscheinungsform could reconcile Paul's ascription to Christ of existence ... with a denial of Christ's ontological divinity in at least two ways. First, such a person could claim that Paul means to identify Christ with the ... in Behm's sense of the term and thus relegate Christ to the status of a visible manifestation of divine glory, a divine body as it were.23 second, an exegete who advocated the ... = Erscheinungsform position could consistently argue that a being of lesser dignity than the Father could exist ... ... if by this phrase one means, "in the realm of the effulgence of God's glory."24 To the extent that the ... = Erscheinungsform hypothesis lends support to such understandings of Christ's ..., therefore, it seems advisable to treat this hypothesis as an alternative to, rather than a variant of, the Augustinian interpretation.

1. Arguments in favor. Supporters of the ... = Erscheinungsform hypothesis appeal to three principal arguments in defense of their position.

a. The philological argument. First, these scholars note, the root ...appears to bear this sense in the great majority of the NT, Septuagint, and extrabiblical texts in which it appears. ... itself (Mark 16:12) and ... (2 Tim 3:5), for instance, appear in the NT in the sense of "external appearance," while ... in Matt 17:2 and Mark 9:2 refers to the transfiguration precisely of Christ's appearance.25 The word ..., likewise, seems to bear the meaning, "external appearance," in six of the seven instances in which the LXX employs it (Judg 8:18; Isa 44:13; Job 4:16; Dan 3:19; Wis 18:1; Tob 1:13; 4 Mace 15:4).26

In the extrabiblical literature of Paul's era, moreover, authors Jewish and Gentile employ the term ... in the sense of "external appearance." Josephus, for instance, uses ... to signify the visible characteristics of the youthful high priest Aristobulus, of Joseph's brothers, and of the angel who appeared to Gideon in Ophrah (Ant. 15.51; 2.102; 5.213). Philo deplores Gaius's placement of ... in the synagogues of Alexandria (Legat. 346) and relates how the human body came into existence when the divine artificer took clay and molded a ... (Opif. 135; cf. Migr. 3). Strabo describes the Germans' ... as similar to the Celts' in every respect, excepting that the Germans are blonder, taller, and more savage (Geog. 7.1.2); and Epictetus likens calling someone with a human ..., but without humane principles (...) a human being, to calling an apple of wax a bona-fide fruit (Arr., Epict. diss. 4.5.19-20). As these examples, which could be multiplied numerous times, attest, ... bears the sense of Erscheinungsform in many, if not most, of its usages in post-classical Greek.