[B-Greek] Philippians 2:6 - "ISA" as a "weakened" adverbial form

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Tue Mar 31 06:04:44 EDT 2009


On Mar 31, 2009, at 1:16 AM, Murray Hogg wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> There is a well rehearsed debate over "TO EINAI ISA QHEWi" (τὸ  
> εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ) (Phil 2:6) which even had some airplay  
> on B-Greek a while back (I searched the archives!) but the  
> discussion wandered off into theological musings and doesn't help me  
> understand the adverbial use of ISA (ISOS) in this context.
>
> Moisés Silva states (apparently uncontroversially) that ISA 'can be  
> described grammatically as a "weakened" adverbial form of the  
> adjective' ("Philippians", ECNT Commentary Series, Baker, 2005, p. 
> 114).
>
> I've been trying to work out why this is so, and reasoned my way to  
> the following;
>
> Making a rote application of the grammatical rules I learned in  
> college I arrive at the following forms;
>
> ISOS = "like" (adjective)
>
> ISWN = "like" (adverb)
>
> ISON = "more like" (comparative)
>
> ISA = "most like" (superlative)
>
> What I note is that "most like" does not necessarily entail "exactly  
> like".

There are a couple serious problems with these morphological and  
semantic hypotheses:
(1) The adverbial form of the adjective ISOS/H/ON is ISWS; the  
comparative adverb, if there were one, would be ISOTERON (neuter sg.  
accusative) or ISOTERA (neuter pl. accusative). Even in the positive  
degree, it is not uncommon to use the neuter singular (ISON) or neuter  
plural (ISA) in an adverbial sense (:"equally" or "on a par" or "on  
equal terms").
(2) Ordinarily we wouldn't really talk about "equality" in any strict  
sense as admitting a comparative or superlative degree. Is 3 "more  
equal to 2" than 4? Perhaps if we use it in the sense of "roughly  
equivalent."

LSJ does show that a comparative and superlative form of ISOS/H/ON has  
been employed within the literary history of ancient Greek:
=====
Comp. ἰσαίτερος E.Supp.441, Th.8.89, X.HG7.1.14: Sup.  
ἰσότατος Timo 68; ἰσαίτατος Ph.1.462. Adv. ὡς  
ἰσαίτατα Pl.Lg.744c, but ὡς ἰσότατα SIG531.30  
(Dyme). [ῑ in early Ep. (exc. Hes.Op.752), cf. Sol.24.1: ῐ first in  
Thgn.678, Sapph.2.1 (but ἶσος Ead.91 s.v.l.), B. 5.46 (but  
ἶσον 1.62, Fr.2.2), and always in Pi. (exc. in compd.  
ῑσοδαίμων) and Trag. (A.Fr.216 is dub. l.) exc. in compd.  
ῑσό-θεος (q.v.); dub. in ἰς-όνειρος. Both quantities  
are found in later poetry, sts. in same line, ἔχοισαν ἴσον  
κάτω, ἶσον ἄνωθεν Theoc.8.19; πρέσβυν ἴσον  
κούροις, ἶσον ἁδόντα κόραις APl.4.309.]
=====

But LSJ also shows that the neuter sg. accusative and neuter pl.  
accusative of the adjective have been used adverbially by Greek  
writers -- as early as Homer -- and note that ISA QEWi in Iliad 5.7:
=====
  Adv. ἴσως (v. sub voc.): but also,
neut. sg. and pl. from Hom. downwds. (v. sub init.), ἶσον . .  
ἀπήχθετο κηρὶ μελαίνῃ even as Death, Il.3.454;  
ἶσον ἐμοὶ βασίυε be king like me, 9.616; ἶσον  
γάρ σε θεῷ τίσουσιν Ἀχαιοί ib. 603; ἶσον  
ἐμῇ κεφαλῇ 18.82; τὸν . . ἶσα θεῷ . .  
εἰσορόωσιν Od.15.520; ἶσα φίλοισι τέκεσσι  
Il.5.71, cf. 13.176, Od.1.432, 11.304, etc.: later abs., alike,  
δείλαιε τοῦ νοῦ τῆς τε συμφορᾶς ἴσον  
S.OT1347; τὴν Σάμον καὶ Ἡρακλέας στήλας  
ἴσον ἀπέχειν Hdt.8.132: c. dat., ἴσον ναοῖς  
θεῶν E.Hel.801; ἴσον ἄπεσμεν τῷ πρίν equally  
as before, Id.Hipp.302 (v.l. τῶν πρίν); ἴσα τοῖς  
πάνυ D.C.Fr.70.6; ἴσα καί . . like as, as if, S.OT  
1187(lyr.), E.El.994 (anap.), Th.3.14; ἴσον ὡς . . E.Ion1363;  
ὥσπερ . . S.El.532; ὥστε . . E.Or.882; ἅτε . .  
Id.HF667(lyr.); ὅσονπερ . . D.15.1.
=====

> A strict translation of "TO EINAI ISA QHEWi" would thus be "the  
> state of being most equal to God" with the strength of "most equal"  
> being open to some degree of interpretation according to one's  
> theological lights.
>
> There is thus an exegetical decision to be made as to whether one  
> takes ISA in a strong sense (i.e. "very nearly like" or "exactly  
> like") or in a weakened sense (i.e. "more like than anything else").
>
> I'd appreciate if folks could comment on the validity (or otherwise)  
> of the above reasoning.

There remain real exegetical problems in Philippians 2:6 but I would  
look for them in the exact intended meanings of MORFH and hARPAGMON  
rather than in the substantive phrase TO EINAI ISA QEWi, which pretty  
clearly means "being on a par with God" or "being on a basis of  
equality with God."


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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