But what early hymn has been so difficult to interpret? One writer, Karl Bornhauser,

has observed that when there has been gathered all that has been written and issued on

these verses, one has a library! Yet, as we have before stated, the passage must have

been such that the Philippian believers could understand it, at least in a measure,

otherwise it would have been of little value to them. And so, we take heart, believing

that, if we notice very carefully what has been written, and avoid either adding ideas of

our own or subtracting from the Divine record, we can receive such an understanding

ourselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

For those who are capable of deep study, and who have an up-to-date background of

N.T. Greek, the writings of J. Lightfoot and E. H. Gifford may be consulted, together

with other Biblical scholars of the Victorian period. The twentieth-century writers such

as Barth, Lohmeyer, F. W. Beare, Dibelius, Jeremias, M. R. Vincent, among many

others, give a different view point and should be weighed over in the light of Scripture.

One recent monumental work is R. P. Martin's Carmen Christi, but this is a work

chiefly for advanced students. Mr. 100: H. Welch's The Prize of the High Calling is an

obvious choice for those who value a rightly divided exposition, although Mr. Welch

would never claim that what he has advanced is the last word on this Philippian passage.

However, his deep insight into the truth made known through Paul's epistles, must

always command respect and should never be ignored.

There are a number of points we must carefully consider in the exposition of

Phil. 2: 5-11; (1) Being in the form of God. (2) The meaning of morphe, form.

(3) Robbery harpagmos. (4) To be equal with God, to einai isa Theo. (5) He made

Himself of no reputation, literally, He emptied Himself. (6) He took upon Him the form

of a slave (servant).  (7) He was made in the likeness of men.  (8) Being found in

fashion as a man He humbled Himself even to the death of the cross.

If we can get a

Scriptural conception of these eight points, we are well on the way to understanding what

lies behind this profound passage.

The word "being" is not the verb "to be" but huparchon "existing", though we must

remember that this word had a weakened sense, almost equivalent to einai, to be, in N.T.

times, as the grammarians such as Liddell--Scott--Jones, Moulton--Milligan, Bauer--

Arndt--Gingrich, and A. T. Robertson, testify.  Cognate with huparcho is huparxis

(Acts 2: 45 "goods") and huparchonta, the participle used as a substantive, also translated

a number of times "goods", thus being practically identical with "I have". Note Peter's

use of huparcho in Acts 3: 6, "silver and gold have I none".

Huparcho can denote an original or fundamental possession as I Cor. 11: 7 testifies.

Man is the image and glory of God, not by acquirement, but in virtue of his original

creation by God (Gen. 1: 27). Whatever morphe consists of, it was Christ's original

possession. Very little is revealed in the Scriptures of the Lord's pre-incarnate state, and

we need to be very careful in dealing with or accepting all the statements of the creeds.

One would have thought that all careful students of the Bible would have insisted that, if