Hi Maurice, > There are three occurrences of MORFH in the New Testament: Mk. 16:12 Phil 2:6,7 > Yes, and there is also METAMORFOW in Romans 12:2. > The Louw-Nida lexicon assigns the Markan example to the domain 58.15 [ defined as >> a visual form of something - `visual form, appearance.' `he appeared in a different form' Mk 16.12.<<< ] > Yes, and I think that this is obviously correct from the context of the text. The question is, why does Louw-Nida assign a completely different meaning for the Philippians passage, and which examples from Greek literature does Louw-Nida provide for the meaning it gives for the occurrence in Philippians? I note that LSJ 9 assigns the conventional meaning of 'visual form, appearance, shape' to the instance of MORFH in Philippians. > whereas the examples from phil. are assigned to 58.22 >>> the nature or character of something, with emphasis upon both the internal and external form - `nature, character.<< > Where is this word 'nature' coming from? The word 'character' I can understand, but why 'nature'? > and, given the primary purpose of this lexicon as an aid to translators, adds: >>> In view of the lack of a closely corresponding lexical item such as `nature,' it may be necessary to restructure the form of Php 2.7 as `he became truly a servant.' << That seems to match fairly closely what " has been represented to me", don't you think? > Actually, it demonstrates to me that even Louw-Nida acknowledges that the word does not mean 'essential nature', and provides no evidence that the definition 'essential nature' is within the semantic range of the word. Furthermore, I find no evidence that hOS EN MORFHi QEOU hUPARXWN should be translated 'he always had the very nature of God', especially since the word MORFH does not mean 'very nature'. I would like to see if Louw-Nida (or any other lexicon for that matter), provides any evidence that the word MORFH contained within its semantic range the meaning 'essential nature'. Evidence from actual Greek texts would be helpful. I have found none thus far. Jonathan Burke. --- B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [jwrobie@mindspring.com] To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-327Q@franklin.oit.unc.edu To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu