Philippians 2:8

King James Version

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
he humbled himself by being fully obedient to God, even when that caused his death—death on a cross.

Revised Standard Version
And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
and was founde in his aparell as a man. He humbled him silfe and became obediet vnto ye deeth even the deeth of the crosse.

Hebrew Names Version
And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

New American Standard Bible
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross.

New Century Version
And when he was living as a man, he humbled himself and was fully obedient to God, even when that caused his death—death on a cross.

Update Bible Version
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient [even] to death, yes, the death of the cross.

Webster's Bible Translation
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.

English Standard Version
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

World English Bible
And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.

Weymouth's New Testament
And being recognized as truly human, He humbled Himself and even stooped to die; yes, to die on a cross.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
He mekide hym silf, and was maad obedient to the deth, yhe, to the deth of the cross.

English Revised Version
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.

Berean Standard Bible
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross.

Contemporary English Version
Christ was humble. He obeyed God and even died on a cross.

Amplified Bible
After He was found in [terms of His] outward appearance as a man [for a divinely-appointed time], He humbled Himself [still further] by becoming obedient [to the Father] to the point of death, even death on a cross.

American Standard Version
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.

Bible in Basic English
And being seen in form as a man, he took the lowest place, and let himself be put to death, even the death of the cross.

Complete Jewish Bible
he humbled himself still more by becoming obedient even to death — death on a stake as a criminal!

Darby Translation
and having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and [that the] death of [the] cross.

International Standard Version
And lived in all humility,Matthew 26:39,42; John 10:18; Hebrews 5:8; 12:2;">[xr] Death on a cross obeying.

Etheridge Translation
and in fashion was found as a man, and humbled himself, and was obedient unto death, but the death of the cross.

Murdock Translation
and he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

King James Version (1611)
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himselfe, and became obedient vnto death, euen the death of the Crosse.

New Living Translation
he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross.

New Life Bible
After He became a man, He gave up His important place and obeyed by dying on a cross.

New Revised Standard
he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.

Geneva Bible (1587)
He humbled himselfe, and became obedient vnto the death, euen the death of the Crosse.

George Lamsa Translation
And, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And, in fashion, being found, as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient as far as death, yea, death upon a cross.

Douay-Rheims Bible
He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
He humbled hym selfe, made obedient vnto death, euen the death of the crosse.

Good News Translation
He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death— his death on the cross.

Christian Standard Bible®
he humbled himself by becoming obedientto the point of death—even to death on a cross.

Lexham English Bible
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, that is, death on a cross.

Literal Translation
and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, having become obedient until death, even the death of a cross.

Young's Literal Translation
and in fashion having been found as a man, he humbled himself, having become obedient unto death -- death even of a cross,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and was founde in his apparell as a man: he humbled himselfe, and became obedient vnto the death, euen vnto the death of the crosse.

Mace New Testament (1729)
and his whole exterior showing nothing more than a meer man, he abased himself, and carried his submission so far as to die, even the death of the cross.

New English Translation
He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death —even death on a cross!

New King James Version
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Simplified Cowboy Version
He humbled himself in obedience to God and rode all the way to the cross. He died like a criminal so you could live like a king.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Legacy Standard Bible
Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Contextual Overview

¹ If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, ² Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. ³ Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. ⁴ Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. ⁵ Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: ⁶ Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: ⁷ But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: ⁸ And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. ⁹ Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: ¹⁰ That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

in: Matthew 17:2, Mark 9:2, Mark 9:3, Luke 9:29

he: Proverbs 15:33, Acts 8:33, Hebrews 5:5-7, Hebrews 12:2

and became: Psalms 40:6-8, Isaiah 50:5, Isaiah 50:6, Matthew 26:39, Matthew 26:42, John 4:34, John 15:10, Hebrews 5:8, Hebrews 5:9, Hebrews 10:7-9

the death: Deuteronomy 21:23, Psalms 22:16, John 10:18, John 12:28-32, John 14:31, Galatians 3:13, Titus 2:14, Hebrews 12:2, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Peter 3:18

Reciprocal: Genesis 7:5 - all that Genesis 22:9 - bound Deuteronomy 21:3 - an Judges 16:30 - So the dead 1 Samuel 18:4 - stripped himself 2 Samuel 6:20 - glorious 1 Chronicles 17:17 - hast regarded Psalms 8:5 - thou Psalms 109:21 - But do Psalms 113:8 - General Isaiah 52:13 - my servant Isaiah 53:12 - will I Daniel 10:16 - like Matthew 3:15 - for Matthew 11:29 - for Mark 9:12 - set Mark 14:36 - nevertheless Luke 2:21 - eight Luke 22:27 - General John 6:38 - not John 19:30 - and he Romans 15:3 - Christ 1 Corinthians 3:23 - and Christ 2 Corinthians 13:4 - he was Hebrews 2:14 - he also Hebrews 2:17 - it Hebrews 4:15 - we have Revelation 1:13 - like

Cross-References

Genesis 2:8
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Genesis 2:9
And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 3:24
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Genesis 4:16
And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord , and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

Genesis 13:10
And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord , like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.

2 Kings 19:12
Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar?

Isaiah 51:3
For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord ; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

Ezekiel 27:23
Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants.

Ezekiel 28:13
Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

Ezekiel 31:16
I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And being found in fashion as a man,.... Not that he had only the show and appearance of a man, but he was really a man; for "as" here, denotes not merely the likeness of a thing, but the thing itself, as in Matthew 14:5, ως here, answers to the Hebrew

כ, which is sometimes by the Jews k said to be כף הדמיון, and signifies likeness, and sometimes כף האמתות, and designs truth and reality; which is the sense in which the particle is to be taken here: though he was seen and looked upon as a mere man, and therefore charged with blasphemy when he asserted himself to be the Son of God, he was more than a man; and yet found and known by men in common to be no more than a man, than just such a man as other men are; and so far is true, that his scheme, his habit, his fashion, his form, were like that of other men; though he was not begotten as man, but conceived in an extraordinary manner by the power of the Holy Ghost, yet he lay nine months in his mother's womb, as the human foetus ordinarily does; he was born as children are, was wrapped in swaddling bands when born, as an infant is; grew in stature by degrees, as men do; the shape and size of his body were like other men's, and he was subject to the same infirmities, as hunger, thirst, weariness, pain, grief, sorrow, and death itself, as follows:

he humbled himself: by becoming man, and by various outward actions in his life; as subjection to his parents, working at the trade of a carpenter, conversing with the meanest of men, washing his disciples' feet, c. and the whole of his deportment both to God and man, his compliance with his Father's will, though disagreeable to flesh and blood, his behaviour towards his enemies, and his forbearance of his disciples, showed him to be of a meek and humble spirit he humbled himself both to God and man:

and became obedient unto death, or "until death"; for he was obedient from the cradle to the cross, to God, to men, to his earthly parents, and to magistrates; he was obedient to the ceremonial law, to circumcision, the passover, c. to the moral law, to all the precepts of it, which he punctually fulfilled and to the penalty of it, death, which he voluntarily and cheerfully bore, in the room and stead of his people:

even the death of the cross; which was both painful and shameful; it was an accursed one, and showed that he bore the curse of the law, and was made a curse for us: this was a punishment usually inflicted on servants, and is called a servile punishment l; and such was the form which he took, when he was found in fashion as a man: this is now the great instance of humility the apostle gives, as a pattern of it to the saints, and it is a matchless and unparalleled one.

k Vid. Kimchi in Josh. iii. 4. l Lipsins de Cruce, l. 1. c. 12.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And being found - That is, being such, or existing as a man, he humbled himself.

In fashion as a man - The word rendered “fashion” - σχῆμα schēma - means figure, mien, deportment. Here it is the same as state, or condition. The sense is, that when he was reduced to this condition he humbled himself, and obeyed even unto death. He took upon himself all the attributes of a man. He assumed all the innocent infirmities of our nature. He appeared as other people do, was subjected to the necessity of food and clothing, like others, and was made liable to suffering, as other men are. It was still he who had been in the “form of God” who thus appeared; and, though his divine glory had been for a time laid aside, yet it was not extinguished or lost. It is important to remember, in all our meditations on the Saviour, that it was the same Being who had been invested with so much glory in heaven, that appeared on earth in the form of a man.

He humbled himself - Even then, when he appeared as a man. He had not only laid aside the symbols of his glory Philippians 2:7, and become a man; but when he was a man, he humbled himself. Humiliation was a constant characteristic of him as a man. He did not aspire to high honors; he did not affect pomp and parade; he did not demand the service of a train of menials; but he condescended to the lowest conditions of life; Luke 22:27. The words here are very carefully chosen. In the former case Philippians 2:7, when he became a man, he “emptied himself,” or laid aside the symbols of his glory; now, when a man, he humbled himself. That is, though he was God appearing in the form of man - a divine person on earth - yet he did not assume and assert the dignity and prerogatives appropriate to a divine being, but put himself in a condition of obedience. For such a being to obey law, implied voluntary humiliation; and the greatness of his humiliation was shown by his becoming entirely obedient, even until he died on the cross.

And became obedient - He subjected himself to the law of God, and wholly obeyed it; Hebrews 10:7, Hebrews 10:9. It was a characteristic of the Redeemer that he yielded perfect obedience to the will of God. Should it be said that, if he was God himself, he must have been himself the lawgiver, we may reply that this rendered his obedience all the more wonderful and all the more meritorious. If a monarch should for an important purpose place himself in a position to obey his own laws, nothing could show in a more striking manner their importance in his view. The highest honor that has been shown to the Law of God on earth was, that it was perfectly observed by him who made the Law - the great Mediator.

Unto death - He obeyed even when obedience terminated in death. The point of this expression is this: One may readily and cheerfully obey another where there is no particular peril. But the case is different where obedience is attended with danger. The child shows a spirit of true obedience when he yields to the commands of a father, though it should expose him to hazard; the servant who obeys his master, when obedience is attended with risk of life; the soldier, when he is morally certain that to obey will be followed by death. Thus, many a company or platoon has been ordered into the “deadly breach,” or directed to storm a redoubt, or to scale a wall, or to face a cannon, when it was morally certain that death would be the consequence. No profounder spirit of obedience can be evinced than this. It should be said, however, that the obedience of the soldier is in many cases scarcely voluntary, since, if he did not obey, death would be the penalty. But, in the case of the Redeemer, it was wholly voluntary. He placed himself in the condition of a servant to do the will of God, and then never shrank from what that condition involved.

Even the death of the cross - It was not such a death as a servant might incur by crossing a stream, or by failing among robbers, or by being worn out by toil; it was not such as the soldier meets when he is suddenly cut down, covered with glory as he falls; it was the long lingering, painful, humiliating death of the cross. Many a one might be willing to obey if the death that was suffered was regarded as glorious; but when it is ignominious, and of the most degrading character, and the most torturing that human ingenuity can invent, then the whole character of the obedience is changed. Yet this was the obedience the Lord Jesus evinced; and it was in this way that his remarkable readiness to suffer was shown.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 8. And being found in fashion as a man — Και σχηματι εὑρεθεις ὡς ανθρωπος. This clause should be joined to the preceding, and thus translated: Being made in the likeness of man, and was found in fashion as a man.

He humbled himself — Laid himself as low as possible:

1. In emptying himself-laying aside the effulgence of his glory.

2. In being incarnate-taking upon him the human form.

3. In becoming a servant-assuming the lowest innocent character, that of being the servant of all.

4. In condescending to die, to which he was not naturally liable, as having never sinned, and therefore had a right in his human nature to immortality, without passing under the empire of death.

5. In condescending, not only to death, but to the lowest and most ignominious kind of death, the death of the cross; the punishment of the meanest of slaves and worst of felons.

What must sin have been in the sight of God, when it required such abasement in Jesus Christ to make an atonement for it, and undo its influence and malignity!