Vine's Expository Dictionary: View Entry
TDNT Reference: 3:661,426
κενόω kenóō, ken-o'-o; from G2756; to make empty, i.e. (figuratively) to abase, neutralize, falsify:—make (of none effect, of no reputation, void), be in vain.
The KJV translates Strong's G2758 in the following manner: make void (2x), make of none effect (1x), make of no reputation (1x), be in vain (1x).
to empty, make empty
of Christ, he laid aside equality with or the form of God.
BLB Note: The Outline of Biblical Usage for κενοω is taken directly from Thayer’s Greek Lexicon. The statement that Christ "laid aside equality with or the form of God" is confusing and erroneous if understood as the removal of Christ’s divine nature. Such interpretation is not supported here nor elsewhere in Scripture. The text does not state that Christ "emptied himself" of anything, but rather that he "emptied Himself" by taking the form of a human and a servant to the point of death, for our good and for our salvation. Beginning in Philippians 2:5, Paul sets forth Christ as the consummate example of the very kind of selflessness to which he exhorts believers in 2:3–4, and which he himself exemplifies in 2:17.
to make void
deprive of force, render vain, useless, of no effect
to make void
cause a thing to be seen to be empty, hollow, false
The statement that Christ "laid aside equality with or the form of God" is confusing and erroneous if understood as the removal of Christ’s divine nature. Such interpretation is not supported here nor elsewhere in Scripture. The text does not state that Christ "emptied himself" of anything, but rather that he "emptied Himself" by taking the form of a human and a servant to the point of death, for our good and for our salvation. Beginning in Philippians 2:5, Paul sets forth Christ as the consummate example of the very kind of selflessness to which he exhorts believers in 2:3–4, and which he himself exemplifies in 2:17.
Strong's Number G2758 matches the Greek κενόω (kenoō),
which occurs 5 times in 5 verses
in the TR Greek.