The Being that is in a Manner Equal with God’ (Phil. 2
(6C): A Self-Transforming, Incarnational, Divine Ontology
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11860497 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Crispin Fletcher-Louis (University of Gloucestershire, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 71 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 581-627 |
| Publication date | 2020-07-13 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Theological Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-5185 • E-ISSN: 1477-4607 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jts/flaa096 |
| OpenAlex | W3118706436 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
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’
Art · Epistemology · Extant taxon · Linguistics · Literature · Ontology · Realm · Syntax · Theology · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · History · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2024 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |