Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

KENOSIS

The importance of kenosis (“emptying”) arises from its use in an ancient hymnlike text found in Phil. 2:5-11. According to Phil. 2:7 Christ Jesus “emptied himself,” an action which contrasted to equality with God. During the 19th century W. F. Gess and Gottfried Thomasius taught that this emptying meant Jesus surrendered certain or all divine attributes during the Incarnation. British theologians Charles Gore and P. T. Forsyth varied this idea by asserting that some of Christ’s divine attributes became only potential rather than actual during the Incarnation.

Three participles, which depend on the verb ekénōsen, define the verb’s meaning in this context. Christ emptied himself by “taking” the form of a servant, “becoming” in the likeness of a human, and “being found” in the form of a human. The parallel phrase “he humbled himself” in Phil. 2:8 further helps to clarify the meaning of kenosis as Jesus’ self-emptying, by becoming human, in order to die on the cross in obedience to the Father. Speculation about lost or negated attributes has no textual support.

Linda Oaks Garrett

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

KENOSIS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)