LSJ 9 entry
c stirling bartholomew
cc.constantine at worldnet.att.net
Wed Apr 24 01:31:15 EDT 2002
> on 4/23/02 5:17 PM, jburke at sprint.com.au wrote:
>
> The word MORFH may indeed mean 'essential nature'
The exact words "essential nature" are quoted from J.B. Lightfoot in PT
O'Brian's (Phil. NIGTC, p.207) long discussion of EN MORFHi QEOU.
Lightfoot, following patristic exegesis tried to establish semantic
connections between MORFH, OUSIA and FUSIS. So the patristic use of MORFH as
an equivalent for OUSIA most probably arose from exegesis of Phil 2:6ff. For
that reason it cannot serve as evidence for the meaning of the word in the
NT.
Other attempts at solving the EN MORFHi QEOU included equating it to DOXA or
EIKWN. The DOXA solution sounds good, it makes MORFH QEOU the manifestation
of the divine DOXA. However, there is little lexical semantic support for
making the MORFH = DOXA equation.
The Adam Chirstology school of thought (J.D.G. Dunn and several others) have
attempted to link MORFH in Phil 2:6ff with EIKWN:
GEN. 1:27 KAI EPOIHSEN hO QEOS TON ANQRWPON KAT' EIKONA QEOU
This position has many problems, not the least of which is the lack of
lexical semantic support for making the MORFH = EIKWN equation. It has other
serious problems but they are off topic for b-greek.
If nothing else, the information above shows why I suspected that your
question had to do with Phil 2:6ff.
After looking over the discussion in PT O'Brian I am currently leaning
toward the DOXA position since it seems to have the least problems. Some of
the more sophisticated solutions which I didn't try to explain, seem to
suffer at the hands of Occum (the man with a razor).
greetings,
Clay
--
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062
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