Section 211
27A similar ambiguity attaches to the genitive plural ἐπουϱανίων in Phil. 2:10 (cf. F. F. Bruce, Philippians, GNBC [San Francisco, 1983], p. 55).
28Gk. ϰαθώς ἐξελέξαώο ἡμᾶς (“just as he chose us”). For ϰαθώς in thanksgivings cf. 2 Cor. 1:5; Phil. 1:7; Col. 1:6-7; 1 Thess. 1:5; 2 Thess. 1:3. P. Schubert goes too far in stating that “a very definite formal and functional significance within the thanksgiving pattern attaches to” ϰαθώς in such a setting; indeed, he himself modifies the statement by conceding that “these ϰαθώς-clauses to some extent differ among themselves in formal as well as functional detail” (Form and Function of the Pauline Thanksgivings [Berlin, 1939], p. 31).
29Gk. πϱò ϰαταβολῆς ϰόσμου. The same phrase occurs in John 17:24; 1 Pet. 1:20 (and, with ἀπó instead of πϱό, in Matt. 13:35; 25:34; Luke 11:50; Heb. 4:3; 9:26; Rev. 13:8; 17:8); ϰαταβολή is the act of laying or putting down (ϰαταβὰλλω) a foundation (cf. Heb. 6:1).
30He is called ὁ ἐϰλελεγμένος in Luke 9:35; the Messiah is God’s ἐϰλεϰτός in Luke 23:35; John 1:34, and God introduces his Servant in Isa. 42:1 as ὁ ἐϰλεϰτός μου.