Greek word · G725
ἁρπαγμός
harpagmos
something to grasp
From harpazō, "snatch, seize, carry off." As a noun of action it means "a seizing, robbery, carrying off." The closely related harpagma means "booty, a prize, something seized." In the set phrase "to regard X as a harpagma/harpagmos," it came to mean treating something as a windfall or as...
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
ἁρπαγμός, οῦ, ὁ
(ἁρπάζω);
1. prop., accusative, to the rule of its formation (Bl., § 27, 2), actively, the act of seizing, robbery (Plut., Deu Puer. Educ., p. 12A), Philippians 2:6, AV (Waterland, Works, II, 108; Cremer, 649 f.; Meyer, in l; cf. also JThS, July, 1909, April, 1911; MM, see word).
2. Passively = ἅρπαγμα (Ezekiel 22:25, of a lion's prey, ), a thing seized, hence, a prize: Phi, l.with, RV (Lft., Ellic., ICC, in l; Donaldson, NCrat., 450 ff.; and esp. Gifford, The Incarnation, 59-71, and reff. in DB, ii, 835 B). The lexical data favour the active meaning, but as they also admit the possibility of the alternative, most modern expositors have accepted the latter as seeming to suit the logic of the passage better. The lexical difficulty, however, remains (MM, see word, esp. the last ref.). As to the usage of St. Paul, he seems inclined to adopt the -μα form where it is appropriate (e.g. Romans 11:9, where cf. LXX; 1 Corinthians 13:9, 2 Co 19), and there is certainly a presumption in favour of the active meaning here from the fact that he does not use the LXX ἅρπαγμα. Suggestions looking to a fresh exegesis are given in JThS, ll with†
(AS)
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
From the study of Philippians 2:6
- Range of meaning
From harpazō, "snatch, seize, carry off." As a noun of action it means "a seizing, robbery, carrying off." The closely related harpagma means "booty, a prize, something seized." In the set phrase "to regard X as a harpagma/harpagmos," it came to mean treating something as a windfall or as something to make the most of for oneself.
- Against the English
KJV/YLT "robbery" makes a modern reader think of theft. "Something to be grasped" (BSB, WEB, ESV) is ambiguous: reaching for something he lacked, or clutching something he had? "Cling to" (NLT) chooses the second. "Use to his own advantage" (NIV 2011) and "exploited" (NRSV) follow the idiom reading.
- How it drifted
The Latin Vulgate translated it rapinam ("robbery, plunder"), and the KJV followed with "robbery." English "robbery" now means only theft, and the KJV line can be heard as Christ claiming his equality was no theft, which runs against the "but he emptied himself" that follows.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The word appears only here in the New Testament and is not found in the LXX. It is very rare before Paul. Plutarch (Moralia 12A) uses it for an act of carrying off or abduction. The decisive comparison is with the related harpagma in the idiom with "regard": Heliodorus (Aethiopica 7.20) speaks of not regarding something "as a harpagma or a windfall (hermaion)." Roy Hoover (Harvard Theological Review 64, 1971) collected such cases and argued that the phrase means "to regard something as a thing to take advantage of." N. T. Wright, Gordon Fee and Markus Bockmuehl, among others, broadly accept this. Greek church fathers such as John Chrysostom read the verse as saying Christ did not cling to his equality the way a robber clutches stolen goods for fear of losing them.
Similar words
Where it appears
Philippians · 1
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Philippians 2:6 ἁρπαγμὸν something to be grasped
Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
Here: A rare word built on the verb "to snatch, seize." It is put first for emphasis. Here it most likely works within a known idiom: to regard something as a harpagmos is to treat it as a prize to exploit for oneself. The exact sense is disputed (see debates).
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.