It is helpful to note, in the first place, the fact that the verb ‘to empty’ in every other New Testament instance means ‘to deprive something of its proper place and use’.14 ‘Christ, indeed,’ says Calvin, ‘could not divest himself of Godhead; but he kept it concealed for a time … he laid aside his glory in the view of men, not by lessening it, but by concealing it.’ Or again, ‘Kenosis’, according to D. G. Dawe, ‘says that God is of such a nature that acceptance of the limitations of a human life