The “voice of a god” and the “form of a god”

I think that something quite straightforward is going on when Paul writes that Jesus was en morphē theou—literally, “in form of god” (Phil. 2:6). English translations usually render this “in the form of God” or perhaps something like “in the nature of God.” But if there’s one thing that the Jewish God does not have, it’s a “form.” Only pagan gods have forms; statues of the gods, idols, have forms. So I argue that the statement captures a pagan perspective on the baffling career of the earthly Jesus.

One piece of literary evidence in support of this reading comes from Luke’s account of the death of Herod Agrippa in Acts 12:20-23.

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