[B-Greek] Phil 2:6 Concessive or causal participle

brainout brainout at comcast.net
Mon Oct 20 22:32:35 EDT 2008


Isn't Paul making soundplay on both hUPARCWN  and hARPAGMON?  When I saw the
first email on this and read the verse, my thought was, "aha, He Who was Always
the Beginning Never Considered", plus 1Tim2:5.  So it hit me like a stressed
declaration of Godness, neither concessive nor causal.  That was my gut
reaction, though, and I have no credentials to back it up.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dr. Don Wilkins" <drdwilkins at verizon.net>
To: "Norman Wood" <nandk.wood at blueyonder.co.uk>
Cc: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 3:52 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Phil 2:6 Concessive or causal participle


| To his credit, Wallace does not try to conceal the significance of
| theology in his interpretation, though he may be trying to downplay
| it. But I think his argument for the concessive meaning in ftnote 56
| (p. 635) with hARPAGMON as "something to be grasped for" is forced.
| It could even be risky from a theological viewpoint, given his
| explanation that Christ either "did not attempt to become equal to
| God" or "did not fell compelled to maintain his equality...."
| Doctrinally, Christ is always equal to God. I have not read O'Brien,
| but it seems to me that the causal interpretation basically is "since
| he already had it, he did not consider it something to be obtained."
| As Plato might say, one does not need or lack what one already
| possesses. As Wallace points out, the concessive interpretation goes
| well with hARPAGMON as "something to be retained," so long as you
| take MORFHi QEOU to refer to one of the benefits (for want of a
| better word) of deity that was suppressed by the incarnation.
|
| But you need to sort out the difference between MORFHi QEOU and TO
| EINAI ISA QEWi. For the concessive view, consider taking the former
| to be more specific and the latter to be something like "equality in
| all respects," including MORFHi (with hARPAGMON as "retained"). For
| the causal, consider both to refer essentially to the same thing, but
| the latter to be more of an abstraction, as if it could be placed in
| quotes within the text (taking hARPAGMON as "grasped for").
|
| Don Wilkins
|
| On Oct 20, 2008, at 4:24 AM, Norman Wood wrote:
|
| > Hi,
| >
| > Phil 2:6 has
| > "hOS EN MORFH QEOU hUPARCWN OUC hARPAGMON hHGHSATO TO EINAI ISA QEOU"
| >
| > Wallace describes this occurence of hUPARCWN as concessive
| > p634Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics.
| > However O'Brien (NIGTC)p 214 argues that this ought not to be
| > rendered as concessive, but as causal. Could someone offer
| > suggestions on how to approach this problem?
| >
| > Best Wishes
| > Norman Wood
| > Scotland
| > ---
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