BTW- the OT verses you quoted, I think are Christophanies because God is an invisible Spirit and no one has ever seen God. John 4:24, 1 John 4:12
vs 6 who (referring Christ Jesus), being in the form of God, (Morphe-1) the form by which a person or thing strikes the vision 2) external appearance. This is from Bible.org. The 'form of God' would be the man, Christ Jesus. He is a visible form that can be seen. Heb 1 speaks of the Son as being the express image of God.
...taking the form of a bondservant (this is the type of man Christ Jesus came as even a slave when he took on the likeness of men)
Okay, you can call them Christophanies (which is odd for a Oneness...BUT I don't want to bunny trail this...Oneness in general say many things that seem to be at odds with their stated core beliefs). So these "Christophanies" have a morphe...and it is worth noting that Isaiah says, "For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts." Daniel says, "I watched until...the Ancient of Days was seated." Ezekiel says, "This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord." This last one is especially noteworthy as orthodox Trinitarians would tell you that Philippians 2:6-7 explains how the Son was able to appear to us without His glory...because human nature/beings do not inherently possess divine glory. I know you do not accept this so there is no point in us going back and forth on this for fifty posts.
I will point out that many people in the Bible say they say God, including some I just quoted. In fact, Hebrews 11 says this about Moses:
Hebrews 11:27 (NIV2011)
27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.
The NASB translates it this way:
Hebrews 11:27 (NASB77)
27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.
We all know the story of Moses and I just wanted to point out that the word "invisible" that you see in the NT can actually mean simply "unseen" as in "hidden." At any rate, whatever these appearances are they are "visually striking and incredible" to the one seeing (unless of course you don't think these have anything to do with God at all). And I so think you may be confusing morphe with eidos, or homoiōm, or schema. It is generally accepted that "morphe" generally has, shall we say, a "deeper" meaning. In Jn 5.37, Jesus tells them they have never seen the Father's "shape/eidos," He doesn't say "the Father doesn't have a shape to be seen." Notwithstanding, here in Phil 2.6-7 the "morphe of God" is to be contrasted with "the morphe of a servant/slave." Not the morphe of a "human" (though it goes on to point out that He accomplished taking the morphe of a slave by beginning to exist in the "likeness/homoiom" of human beings). This is the contrast made here. Again, if you disagree then we will leave it at that, I will pursue this no further.
I was curious about something you said, not really a point of contention. You said you got your above quote from Bible.org...where at Bible.org. The only thing I could find in googling this, i.e. Bible.org morphe of God was this:
"Before His Incarnation Jesus Christ was ''in the form of God'' (vs. 6). From the beginning He had the nature of God, He existed (or subsisted) as God, and that essential Deity which He once was could never cease to be. If He seems Divine, it is only because He is Divine. He is God."
If you want to look that up it is in an article titled "Why God became man" and this is under a section discussing Phil. 2 no less. Anyway, just curious as I wanted to read that quote of yours in context and see who wrote it.
Can you explain where you got "becoming" and "human being" in verse 7?
Sure, pick your translation, here's the NKJV. And I wish all the questions were this easy, but surely you could have looked at an interlinear yourself.
Philippians 2:7 (NKJV)
7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant,
and coming in the likeness of
men.
So the word you see as "coming" is also translated "born," and "being made," and so on. Here is the word:
gínomai; (strongs 1096) fut. genésomai, 2d aor. egenómēn, perf. part. gegenēménos, 2d perf. gégona, 2d pluperf. egegónein, aor. pass. egenéthēn for egenómēn. This verb is mid. deponent intrans. primarily meaning to begin to be, that is, to come into existence or into any state; and in the aor. and 2d perf. to have come into existence or simply to be. Thus egenómēn, egenéthēn, and gégona serve likewise as the past tenses of to be
Complete Word Study Dictionary, The - New Testament.
In Phil 2.7 this is a verbal participle/aor/mid/nom. So I made it a participle in the middle voice "beginning to exist." In addition, Jesus is the doer as the participles explain how he accomplishes the verb ekenosen (which is active).
The second word you ask about is "men" which is:
ánthrōpos; gen. anthrópou, masc., fem. noun. Man, a generic name in distinction from gods and the animals. In the NT, used to make the distinction between sinful man, whose conduct, way, or nature is opposed to God, male or husband.
(I) A man or woman, an individual of the human race, a person.
Complete Word Study Dictionary, The - New Testament.
I will not argue this either, it is a straightforward fact. If you don't accept it...then you don't.
A wonderful thing for sure!
Amen! and yes, thank you. It answered my question and more!
Good, because I have spent more time here than I ever intended to.
TheLayman