VI - His Choice (verse 6b, c)

Summary

οὐχ ἁρπαγμὸν ἡγἡσατο τὸ ∈ἶναι ἴσα Θ∈ῷ

(verse 6 b, c)

The term ἁρπαγμός poses one of the most thorny questions in the whole field of New Testament exegesis. There is, on the one hand, the need to ascertain the precise connotation of the word; and, on the other hand, the task of interpreting in the most satisfactory way the peculiar significance of the Pauline phrase οὐχ ἁρπαγμὸν ἡγήσατο in relation to the Christological thought of the passage.

The assignment of discovering the true meaning of ἁρπαγμός is no new enterprise. Commentators and exegetes in the early centuries of the Church's life were busy in this matter. Nor is the confession of perplexity a recent one. Oecumenius admits to uncertainty when he writes of the term: ἐν αἰνίγματι γέγραπται. A modern commentator shares the same difficulty in his confession, ‘There is hardly a more famous word in the whole of the New Testament’.

There is no help available from contemporary usage of the word. It is hapax legomenon in the New Testament; and is not found at all in LXX. It is very rarely used in Greek literature generally, and such occurrences as there are shed very little light on the Biblical use. Its attestation is strongest in Plutarch who employs it in the sense of ‘robbery’. We shall see shortly that this meaning in the Philippians ii. 6 context is next to impossible.