Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Philippians · About this commentary
Every Knee Shall Bow
Philippians 2:9-11
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name, · WEB
The hymn turns on one word — therefore — and the acclamation it ends with was written about Yahweh.
Therefore God also highly exalted him. The connective carries the whole second half: the exaltation follows the descent rather than merely succeeding it, and the agent changes. Christ did the descending; God does the raising.
The verb is hyperypsoō G5251, found nowhere else in Scripture — exalted to the highest, beyond comparison.
And gave him the name which is above every name. The name is not stated outright, and verse 11 supplies it: Lord.
Then the acclamation, and its source settles what is being claimed. At that name every knee is to bow — in heaven, on earth, and under the earth — and every tongue is to confess him as Lord.
Those words are Isaiah's, spoken by God about himself: to me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear — in a passage that begins by insisting there is no other God Isaiah 45:22–23. The hymn takes an oracle in which Yahweh refuses to share his honor and applies it to Jesus.
And it closes without any sense of competition: to the glory of God the Father.
settled What this mark means