This chapter establishes the principal religious and cultural thought-world of Phil 2:6–8: divine transformation, or metamorphosis, of gods and goddess into human and other forms. It is not just that commentators since Wettstein (1752) have been right to observe the language of such stories in the text’s description of Christ’s divine and human “form (μορφή)” (vv. 6a, 7b). It would have been obvious to Paul’s Gentile readers that all of vv. 6a, 7b–8a uses language (“form,” “form of a slave,” “likeness,” “likeness of a human,” “becoming,” “schema”) that was typical of stories of the pagan gods’ self-transformations. From Homer onwards, tales of divine metamorphosis appear in diverse forms of literature, and were both dramatized in the theatre and regularly depicted in private and public art. One of their most telling linguistic features was the verb γί(γ)νομαι: the gods “become,” just as Christ “becomes” (v. 7).
Paul himself would have been fully cognizant of the theme and its distinctive language. Jewish texts (e.g., 1 Enoch 19:1–2, Tobit 5–12, Aristobulus 2:10, Philo Questions on Genesis 1:92, Josephus Against Apion 2:244–45, 247) reveal a variety of responses to such stories and indicate a centuries-old conversation that prepared the way for the distinctive, creative, use Paul makes of the motif in Philippians.
The Primary Narrative told in 2:6–11 and its sequel at 3:20–21 is therefore one of divine self-transformation. The hymn’s other themes (explored in future chapters) are attached to and give peculiar Christological definition to that Primary Narrative. Besides the linguistic points of connection, there are also several thematic indications that Paul’s letter invites readers to think about the core content of the gospel in relation to pagan stories of metamorphosis. Firstly, in many of the pagan stories, and especially in collections of such stories, accounts of a god’s self-transformation are combined with stories of the transformation, by the gods, of mortals (into some other species, inanimate form, or to an exalted divine or astral identity). Philippians similarly combines these two types of transformation: the divine self-transformation (Phil 2:6–8) anticipates a future transformation of believers, that will be the work of the returning divine Christ (3:20–21). Secondly, in the pagan stories, there is often a narrative sequence in which a deity’s self-transformation entails a disguise that is subsequently removed in a moment of revelation. Such a sequence may be evident also in Phil 2:6–11, where the one with the divine form in pre-existence is only “found” (v. 7d) to be a human being during his earthly life, but after his death and exaltation he is fully and universally recognized for his divine identity (vv. 10–11).
Generically, Philippians 2:6–8 is like the few preserved texts that combine the theme of the gods’ self-transformations with belief in a human ruler’s divine identity. It is particularly close to Horace Odes 1.2, in which Octavian is depicted as Mercury self-transformed. Analysis of the extent and history of texts that speak of rulers as gods who have come from heaven shows that this was a recognizable literary form in Paul’s day. However, that form was marginal in the first century Roman world. The dominant political model, developed by Cicero and others, was deification—or imperial apotheosis—as a response to powerful deeds, benefactions, and character, either posthumously or during the ruler’s life. Phil 2:6–11 advocates a minority view of the divine ruler, that appears primarily in poetry and that appealed to some popular religious and political sentiment.
In several ways, the divine self-transformation of Christ is quite unlike those of the pagan gods. In particular, the “docetic” character of the gods’ self-transformations is challenged by the unparalleled language of self-emptying (ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσεν) (v. 7a) and the humble obedience unto death in v. 8. Christ’s is a fully human, incarnational, self-transformation. In turn, the transformation of believers in 3:20–21 is also distinctive. Through the subtle application of the language of Ps 8, Paul says the future transformation of believers will be both a kind of deification (of conformity to Christ’s divine glory) and also a humanification, in fulfilment of a scriptural vision for humanity.
All this has implications for much-debated issues in the text’s syntax and semantics. It means the “being in the form of God” must be, in part, causal: Christ is able to transform himself because he has this divine identity. But the connections to the stories of the god’s self-transformations also tell against any notion that Christ’s incarnation means a full giving up of a pre-existent divine identity. The repetition of the divine “becoming (γενόμενος)” in vv. 7–8 implies that Christ continued to have a divine identity and capacity during his earthly life. This reading of the first half of the hymn also tells against the view that in his posthumous exaltation Christ receives a new, divine, identity, not just a divine status.