Philippians 2:6 - Equal to God? Seizing equality with God?
There are two main ways that this verse is usually translated, a very Trinitarian way, and a very Unitarian way.
Both are probably wrong.
The Trinitarian way is to translate it like this:
…being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.
In other words, this way of translating it sounds like Jesus doesn’t think that it’s wrong for him to be a co-equal to God.
The Unitarian way is to translate it as saying something like:
…being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be seized.
In other words, this way of translating implies that Jesus never even considered trying to be co-equal to God.
Not only are both of these translations entirely contradictory, but they are likely both wrong and purely motivated by sectarian bias.
The Greek term here for ‘equal’ (ίσα / eesa) refers to being of the same substance, amount, or quality. In other words, when two objects are made of the same thing, this word is used, or when two measurements are the same number, this word is used also. In the same way that two men can be the same height or the same weight, this word is used — but one man could be a king, and the other a slave!
Therefore, the verse is neither stating that Jesus is at the same level as his Father, nor that he was refusing to seize the opportunity to become so.
It’s talking about something else entirely: being in the same form as God, that is, being a divine spirit creature (‘God is spirit’ — John 4:24).
The Aramaic text confirms this, as the phrasing is literally, this is equal belongs-to-God, or this is equal of-God’s or as we would say in English, the same as God’s.
Yes, Aramaic, the word for God is actually in the possessive form.
So it’s not saying equal to God or the same as God, but the same as God’s [something]. The same as God’s what? Well, the form that was referred to earlier.
Even the word for equal or the same shows this; it’s the word (ܦܚܡܐ / phem), which can mean equal or a copy, but also a comparison of one thing with another, a likeness, or even an analogy.
So yes, it’s referring to Jesus having the same equal form as God, being a spirit creature.
Putting all this together, we translate it like this:
…while being in the same form as God (and he didn’t think it was wrong to for this to be the same as God’s), he still gave up everything, took the form of a servant, and became a human!
This harmonizes with the rest of the chapter, the rest of the Bible, the historical context, and the lexicon definitions in both languages.