---
title: Philippians 2:7
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/philippians-2-7/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/philippians-2-7.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Philippians 2:7
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Philippians 2:7

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "No, but he emptied himself and took a slave's form and became human."

## JW Usage

The Watchtower reads Philippians 2:7 as describing the moment Michael the Archangel relinquished his pre-human spirit existence and was transferred into Mary's womb to become the human Jesus. "Emptied himself" is taken as a literal cessation of his prior form, with Michael's spirit-life given up entirely to assume human nature. After his resurrection, on the JW reading, Jesus returned to being Michael as a spirit creature again. The "form of a slave" is read as ordinary human existence rather than as voluntary humiliation by a divine person.

## Protestant Usage

Read Philippians 2:5-11 as a single Christological hymn. Verse 6 explicitly says Christ existed "in God's form" and that "equality with God" was already his — he did not have to grasp it. Then v. 7 says he "emptied himself" by taking the form of a slave. The kenosis is the Son's voluntary humbling, not the cessation of Michael as a creature. Pair Philippians 2:7 with John 17:5 ("the glory I had with you before the world existed" — pre-existence in shared divine glory), Hebrews 1:3 (Christ is "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his very being"), and Colossians 2:9 ("in him all the fullness of the divine quality dwells bodily"). Christ became truly human — the "last Adam" of 1 Corinthians 15:45 — without ceasing to be the Son. Two natures, one person; this is the Incarnation framework.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Last Adam — More Than a Man](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/1corinthians15-45-last-adam.md) — 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 [Deity of Christ]
- [Tempted in Every Way — Yet Could Not Fail](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/jesus-tempted-yet-impeccable.md) — Hebrews 4:15 / James 1:13 [Deity of Christ]
- [Two Verbs, Two Categories](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/en-vs-egeneto-john-1-tense.md) — John 1 — the Word 'was' (ēn), creation 'came to be' (egeneto) [Deity of Christ]
- [The Incarnation Is Addition, Not Compression](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/word-became-flesh-not-michael.md) — Why the Logos-to-Michael-to-Jesus-to-Michael cycle does not match the New Testament [Deity of Christ]
- ["Nor the Son" — and "You Are Aware of All Things"](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/jesus-knowledge-mark-13-32.md) — Mark 13:32 / Revelation 1:1 / Revelation 14:14-16 — what the Son didn't know, and what he did [Deity of Christ]