‘The Being that is in a Manner Equal with God’ (Phil. 2:6C): A Self-Transforming, Incarnational, Divine Ontology

This article challenges the consensus that τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ (Phil. 2:6c) means ‘equality with God’ and denotes a status. Linguistic analysis, contextual considerations, and a thorough investigation of an inventory of 149 extant Greek references to divine equality (ἴσος /ἴσα + θεός) show that Phil. 2...

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主要作者: Fletcher-Louis, Crispin H. T. (Author)
格式: 電子 Article
語言:English
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Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
出版: 2020
In: The journal of theological studies
Year: 2020, 卷: 71, 發布: 2, Pages: 581-627
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Bibel. Philipperbrief 2,6 / 注釋 / / 基督論 / 本体 (信息科学)
IxTheo Classification:HC New Testament
NBC Doctrine of God
NBF Christology
在線閱讀: Presumably Free Access
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實物特徵
總結:This article challenges the consensus that τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ (Phil. 2:6c) means ‘equality with God’ and denotes a status. Linguistic analysis, contextual considerations, and a thorough investigation of an inventory of 149 extant Greek references to divine equality (ἴσος /ἴσα + θεός) show that Phil. 2:6c means ‘being (that is) in a manner equal with God’. Although it evokes well-known language for the status of rulers who received ‘honours equal to the gods’, it has a distinct, rarely attested, but Homeric syntax (cf. Iliad 5:441-2; 21:315), for which the closest parallel is Homeric Hymns 5, line 214. As such, it denotes a dynamic ontology, a mode of being expressed, or actualized, in Christ’s incarnational self-transformation (vv. 7-8). The words also serve a creative affirmation and subversion of the middle Platonic distinction between ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ (as that was expressed in Plutarch and Philo): Christ exists and acts from ‘being’ (ὑπάρχων … τὸ εἶναι v. 6) and is misperceived in the realm of ‘becoming’ (γενόμενος … γενόμενος vv. 7-8). But, against the Platonists, he has a divine ‘being’ that ‘becomes’.
ISSN:1477-4607
Contains:Enthalten in: The journal of theological studies
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/jts/flaa096