Re: The semantics of morphe in Phil 2:6

lakr (lakr@netcom.com)
Thu, 6 Mar 1997 08:42:58 -0800 (PST)

> At 10:08 PM 3/6/97 +1300, Timothy Mora wrote:
>
> >I'm looking for clarification on the meaning of morphe in Phil 2:6. I have
> >understood it of late to refer to the essential essence or nature of
> >something as opposed to Schema which is concerned more with outward
> >appearances. Is this so and does it have ramifications for our understanding
> >of the incarnation?
>
> >I'm doing a bible study on this next week so thought I would just ask to try
> >out the waters of this forum.

I have been searching high and low for a use of morphe in the Koine
Greek outside the context of pagan religious literature and have
come to the conclusion that one does not exist. If anyone knows
of one, I would greatly appreciated the reference.

I found the following reference enlightening.

Moulton and Mulligan, "The Vocaulary of New Testament Greek". The copy
I quote is from 1952. ' Kennedy (ad Phil 2:6 in EGT) has shown from
the LXX usage that "the word had come, in later Greek, to receive
a vague, general meaning, FAR REMOVED from the accurate, metaphysical
content which belonged to it in writers like Plato and Aristotle."
And then Moulton adds ' Hence the meaning must _NOT_ be
over-pressed in the NT occurrences." (e.a.)

Sincerely,
Larry Kruper