If Couchoud is right, and he is probably right, then the Philippians hymn, to use the Bob Price's words,
Bob Price does from this the following inference: during the his presumed (but mythical) earthly sojourn, "Jesus" was the gnostic deity X, the Jewish archangel Y, (add here a list of other not-historical candidates) before he received the name "Jesus" by the pre-pauline authors of the hymn.
But why was he called "Jesus", then, if he was already known with a lot of other names, for example Melkizedech, Seth, Illuminator,...
Then the god of the powers is disturbed and says, “What is the power of this person who is higher than we are?” Then he brings a great wrath against that person. And glory withdraws and lives in holy houses it has chosen for itself. The powers do not see it with their eyes, nor do they see the illuminator. They punish the flesh of the one over whom the holy spirit has come.
http://gnosis.org/naghamm/adam-barnstone.html
If there was a deity saviour among a lot of Gnostic pre-christian sects,
And if some Jews wanted for themselves this Gnostic saviour,
Then they had only to specify that this saviour gave the his salvation not in the name of the supreme god of the Gnostics (usually identified by the Gnostics themselves as an enemy of YHWH) but in the name of YHWH.
Hence, the Gnostic saviour X,Y, Z, etc, became only one saviour, sent by only one god: "YHWH-Saves".
This explains why Paul was tremendously silent about the earthly sojourn of "Jesus" on the earth:
That "Jesus" was not called "Jesus" during his earthly sojourn. He had the various Gnostic names, meaning that the earthly "Jesus-who-was-not-called-Jesus" was famous to be author of great miracles and exploits on earth... ...only, against YHWH.
Paul, being an adorer of YHWH, had to ignore what Jesus did on the earth under the names of other Gnostic deities. Because otherwise he had to concede, against the his will, that the Gnostic saviour was sent not from YHWH but from a different god: the enemy of YHWH.