Does Philippians 2 Support a Trinitarian View of God?
Okay … whether we are trinitarian or not, we have traced through the flow-of-thought of this section of scripture. So, let’s return to examination the controversial phrase that needs to be placed back into the following scripture section:
who,
although he was existing in God’s form
[ ... an omitted very controversial
phrase goes here ... ]
he
emptied himself
and
.
.
.
So … let’s look at a few representative translations:
NWT: “who, although he existed in God’s form,
he gave no consideration to a seizure,
namely, that he should be equal to God.”
KJV: “who,
being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God:”
ESV: “who though he was in the form of God,
did not count equality with God
a thing to be grasped”
So the Greek word of interest is: harpagmon. It has a verb form associated with the act of taking something, usually in context of the spoils of a conquered enemy, or that of robbery. It also has a noun form, associated with something that one hold onto tightly, something someone does not want to let go of.
Whether one is a trinitarian or not, hopefully it can be seen that the first definition seems oddly out of place in this discussion, while the second definition fits nicely and logically into the developed context of the paragraph.
Paul shows that the instructions he was giving is spiritually correct by pointing to the example of Christ’s life. His instructions were to consider the spiritual well-being of others as being more important than our own, and to live with this attitude — the same attitude displayed by Christ Jesus. He then shows how Christ demonstrated this in detail. Christ Jesus sacrificed things rightfully His in order to look out for our best interest. It simply doesn’t make sense for Paul to say, consider Jesus, who did not entertain the temptation to rob God, but instead He considered us. That idea would seem like a scribal gloss, it would seem highly out of place — it would be very foreign to the context of the paragraph. The people at Philip-pi were not struggling with the temptation of robbing each other.
So, the context of the paragraph itself suggests the correct translation of harpagmon. The definition that best fits into the discussion would be to hold onto something tightly. Christ did not consider Himself first, and grasp tightly onto His equality with God, something rightfully His, but instead, He laid even this down to accomplish a work for us, looking after our best interest. And we are encouraged to think about this, and to adopt this same mind in our heart towards fellow believers that He has brought into a right standing before God.