Religious Visions as the Origins of Christian Worship
The other day I was reading an essay by German scholar Hans Dieter Betz and he made a very interesting point about how religious visions lead to liturgical acts like hymns and hymns, in turn, generate theology. In the essay, he talks specifically about how the “hymn” of Phil 2.6-11 is indicative of a theology and is probably based on Paul’s own visionary experience of the risen Jesus.
Here is what he writes:
[O]ne fact needs to be admitted from the outset: the ancient ways of responding to visions were different from those in modernity. According to ancient religious thinking, the appropriate way of responding to a vision of a deity was not to investigate, like suspicious police inspectors or investigative reporters, the ‘realities behind the deceptions.’ For the ancients, facing a vision of a deity and responding to it called for an extraordinary effort. Such a response was prepared by Paul’s dense language at the end of 2 Cor 4:6. yet, he did not actually deliver at this point what he appears to have had in mind. The reason may be that it would not fit within an argumentative context. There cannot be any doubt, however, that, as for the ancients, as also for Paul, the response appropriate at this juncture would be a liturgical act, the recitation of a hymn. What he does not present in 2 Corinthians, he does in Phil 2:6-11.
People debate whether Phil 2:6-11 is a “hymn” or “poem,” whether it Pauline, early Pauline, or pre-Pauline, whether it is influenced by encomia to a ruler or a deity, where it reflects ancient mythology or a christology of divine identity, where it affirms Jesus’s pre-existence or merely makes him a new Adam, and whether equality with God is something that Jesus possessed yet did not exploit or something he lacked but did not rapaciously usurp.
In any case, Betz makes an interesting point, Phil 2:6-11 is a hymn, and it is possibly Paul’s liturgical response to his vision of the risen Jesus, a vision recounted in 2 Cor 4:6 - “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Hans Dieter Betz, “New Testament Theology: The Origins of a Concept,” in The Origins of New Testament Theology, eds. Rainer Hirsch-Luipold and Robert Matthew Calhoun (WUNT 440; Tuebingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 2020), 7-92 (quote from p. 35).
This was so instructive, especially the value that the ancients gave to a vision of deity and the necessity of a response. I will never look at the Philippian passage again without reflecting on the glorious beatific vision Paul must have received prompting his response.
I’d never realised the Phil 2 passage was a hymn - a hymn of a ‘vision’. Of course, that makes sense! So as a hymn, would you say it uses poetic license like songs do, instead of being didactic? For instance I’ve often thought of the part in v.10, where every knee bows to Jesus as Lord- those in heaven (I’m guessing, angels), on earth (the reigning church) and under the earth (those who already died or perhaps are in Hades), to be of meaning. But if it’s a song, maybe it’s just a poetic way of saying- “Jesus’ name has been so exalted and every creature can see that now”. In other words, instead of getting post-grave teaching from here, we just focus on the exaltation of Jesus part?
What do you think?