There's a fair bit of day-light between "at least in some way, equal to God" and "was actually God".Ben C. Smith wrote:I am, yes. I believe that, for Paul as for other very early Christians, Jesus = Yahweh in some way. Prerogatives and powers which in the Hebrew scriptures belonged to Yahweh now belong to Jesus (to the extent that, where the LXX applied "the Lord" to Yahweh, Christians now apply "the Lord" to Jesus). So Jesus is, at least in some way, equal to God.robert j wrote:To your suggestion, if the author’s intention was to characterize Jesus here as “was a slave” using the term morphe, wouldn’t it follow that the author’s intention would be the same with God? That is, was actually God. Are you willing to apply that same connotation of morphe with God here?
Are you saying that in Philippians 2:6, Jesus Christ was being described as "a god", but not as the God (2:9), not as Father God (2:11) ?Ben C. Smith wrote:Bear in mind that θεὸς can mean either God (the God) or god (a god), and that the definite articles can make a difference:Bernard Muller wrote:I think the servant/slave in Philippians 2:7 is to be understood as servant/slave of God, humbling himself & obedient unto death to God (2:8), even if Christ was in position to be equal to God (2:6).
It’s easy to get caught up in the semantics of Trinitarian language, hypostasis, multiple personality disorder, and angels dancing on the head of a pin. Regardless ---
I have no problem with seeing Jesus Christ in Paul’s system as a divine aspect of God the Father --- as an agent of God and conduit to God --- but not as a unity with God, not in the sense of being one, not as one-and-the-same.
Paul’s Jesus Christ is a separate aspect and actor. He had his own work to do. Perhaps at some beginning of time, there was a unity in Paul’s system. But if so, Paul does not reveal such a beginning unity in his letters (that I am aware of). It would make for a neat symmetry though, because Paul does provide a unity at “the end”.
In 1 Corinthians 15:22-28, “at His coming”, for those of Christ “all will be made alive”. “Then the end”. Christ hands the kingdom over to “the God and Father”, abolishes all dominion, authority and power, abolishes death, and subjects all things including the Son Himself to the Father --- so that God might be “all-in-all”. An apparent unity.