Sermon Tone Analysis

2:5a.

among yourselves.

en hymin (dat.

pl.); see NOTE on 1:6 among you; emphasis on “you all” at Philippi (1:7 bis, 8, 25).

Some (Heriban 89–90) urge (1) an individual sense, parallel to “in Christ Jesus” as an individual (Joüon 91–93; Lft.

110 “in your hearts”; Edart 181–83); or (2) a social sense, one to another, reciprocally, Moule 1970:265 “towards one another”; or (3) an ecclesial sense, cf.

5b en Christō[i] Iēsou (the community in Philippi, “saints in Christ” 1:1).

Losie: “Set your mind on this confession, in your mutual relations, on which also you set your mind when you came to be ‘in Christ Jesus’ (at your baptism)” (Senses 2 and 3, a community of the baptized).

The TRANSLATION agrees with RSV, NABRNT, REB.

2:5b. it is the way you also think “in Christ Jesus.”

Neut.

sg.

rel.

pron.

(ho), “which” (KJV, RSV) or “that” (NRSV), referring back to touto, “this (mind, attitude).”

Since touto = in this way, since 5b introduces a further relationship “in Christ Jesus,” of Philippian Christians with each other (Schenk 175–77, 185), it is has been added, ho rendered as the way, and a parallel vb. to 5a, you … think (phroneite, indic.)

supplied (see below).

kai = also (KJV, NABRNT); [N]RSV, NIV, REB omit.

Silva 107, an intensive, “which indeed”; Caird 118, id est: “the disposition which must govern your common life, i.e., your life in Christ Jesus, because he.…” ZBG 156 omits kai; “in Christ Jesus” = the “mystical body” of Christ (disputed by Fee 200–1 n 32).

Much depends on the vb.

supplied in 5b.

Traditionally (1) ēn (imperf., eimi, “be”), KJV, the mind “which was also in Christ Jesus” (NRSV-txt); justified from “the narrative that follows” (Fee 200 n 29).

Or “is” (Bockmuehl 123–24; RSV 1971; NABRNT).

(2) a 2nd pl., as in 5a: “which you have” (RSV 1946–59; NRSV-mg); “what you find” (REB); Loh.

Phil.

91.

(3) Some form of the vb. in 5a, “which he thought (in himself)” (Lft.

110; Ellicott 54; Plummer 41).

(4) Käsemann 1950:83–84: “in the realm of Christ” + “as is fitting” (prepei) (Gnilka 109) or “as you think” (phroneite, Thüsing 1965:50) or “as it is necessary to think” (phronein dei).

BDAG phroneō 3, “develop an attitude based on careful thought, be minded/disposed … have the same thoughts among yourselves as you have in your communion with Christ Jesus (so CDodd, The Apost[olic] Preaching ’37, 106f.)”;

NEB-txt, “Let your bearing for one another arise out of [phroneisthō] your life in Christ Jesus.”

Orientation to Christ determines relations to each other in Christ’s community.

Koenig 147: “Have this mind among yourselves … which indeed is your new life in the realm of Christ Jesus.”

Final decision depends on overall conclusions (is 2:6–11 about how Christ thought?) and immediate context; see COMMENT B.3.

en Christō[i] Iēsou.

See NOTES on 1:1, 13, and 26 in Christ Jesus; 2:1 in Christ.

Traditionally here pre-temporal existence (as logos asarkos) and/or earthly life (logos ensarkos); Ewald 103–4 = Wohl.

114–15.

For some, the historical Jesus, a model for Christians, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” (NIV); cf.

[N]JB, GNB, CEV.

Heriban 92–95 lists four senses: (1) Ethical-paraenetic (Hawth.

75, “This way of thinking must be adopted by you … the way of thinking adopted by Christ Jesus”; Moule).

(2) “Christological-soteriological” (Käsemann; Bornkamm 1959a:112; Martin 1967:291, “Become … the type of persons who, by that kenosis, death, and exaltation of the Lord of glory, have a place in His body, the Church”).

(3) Ecclesial, “in Christ” = his body, the church; (Bultmann 1951 [INTRO.

X Bibl.] 311); “as members of His Church” (Grayston 1967:91; “in the company of Christ’s people,” Martin 1967:71; Son 16).

(4) Mystical, Deissmann ([1] Bibl.

Paul) 1927 ed.:147–57, 193–94, 297–99; Martin 1967:70–71.

Käsemann’s sense has been assailed by those advocating solely an ethical one (O’B 200–1).

At 2:5b reference to the story about Jesus Christ in vv 6–11 (inclusio with the Lord is Jesus Christ at 11b, and/or in Christ in 2:1) is difficult to avoid.

The communal, ecclesial aspect reflects the persons addressed (among you 5a).

No “Christ mysticism” or ethical paradigm need be seen in the phrase itself in 5b.

2:5a continues the impvs. of vv 2–4; 5b recalls the bases in 2:1 for such admonitions and anticipates the narrative in vv 6–11 that grounds these and the impvs.

in 2:12–14.

2:5a is about the Philippians’ relations with each other; 5b, the relationship they have “in Christ” under his lordship.

They do think this way about Christ, for they wrote vv 6–11 (see COMMENT B.1, 2); hence the kai.

Paul applies their message to conduct among themselves.

2:6a.

who, while living in the sphere of God.… hos, who (KJV-[N]RSV), “the one who,” Christ Jesus (2:5b), as at Col 1:15, 1 Tim 3:16.

hyparchōn, masc.

nom.

sg.

pres.

act.

ptc., “being” (KJV, NIV), agrees with hos.

en morphē[i] theou, “in the form” (KJV-[N]RSV) or “very nature” of God (NIV-txt).

The vb. archō (“rule”; m. “begin”) + hypo means (1) exist, be present (3:20); (2) in Hellenistic Gk., for eimi, “be” (BDAG).

Does it imply (BDF #414.1)

“ ‘exist originally’ ”? “continuity with a previous state” (MM 650)?

“ ‘prior existence,’ but not necessarily ‘eternal existence’ ” (Lft.

110)?

Connection with archē, “origin,” is sensed by Binder 1987:236; Kuschel 258–59.

NEB, “was his from the beginning.”

But such a sense “gradually … faded in later Greek” (MM 650).

Pres.

tense, in contrast to aors. in vv 7–8 (labōn, genomenos (bis), heuretheis), thus “continuing to be” (divine) during actions in the “form of a slave” and death?

Collange 98; like an imperf.

alongside the aors.

(B.

Weiss 147 n 1).

Is the ptc.

concessive (“though,” [N]RSV); GGBB 220, 634–35; or causal (“precisely because he was … he recognized what it meant.…,”

Moule, in Wright 1991:83 n 110).

To press tense and hyparchōn as causal usually accompanies a traditional view, Christ as “truly God” (CEV, cf.

LB), but need not, depending on how morphē theou is taken.

hyparchōn en + dat.

suggests to some “be wrapped or clothed in” (TDNT 4:751 n 52; cf.

Luke 7:25; Nagata 210 and others).

Ernst 65, cf.

77, used “living”; so the TRANSLATION, to avoid ontological language of “being” and remain open to varied possible backgrounds.

in the sphere of God.

theou, see NOTE on 1:2 God; cf.

2:6c.

morphē theou is to be treated with morphē doulou 7b, homoiōmati anthrōpōn 7c, and schēmati … hōs anthrōpos 7d (cf.

Lft.

127–33).

morphē occurs only here in the NT (+ Mark 16:12).

Compounds include symmorphoumai, symmorphos at 3:10, 21.

Word studies: J. Behm, TDNT 4:742–59; G. Braumann, NIDNTT 1:703–10, with eidos; W. Pöhlmann, EDNT 2:442–44; TLNT 520–25; Heriban 234–47.

Most church fathers saw the divine nature of the preexistent logos; a few (Ambrosiaster, Pelagius; later, Luther), the incarnate Son in his human nature (B.

Weiss 145–46).

Lft.

110, 127–33 (cf.

below, [14] NOTE on 3:21a will change): “form,” as in the Gk.

philosophers, esp.