Seeing such self-emptying, the hearers/readers of the Christ-hymn see what it looks like to be God. But this still leaves unanswered the question of what the phrase denotes. If its function in relation to ἁρπαγμός is now pinpointed, to what does it refer? Bauckham notes the infrequency with which this question is even posed,48 as well as the inadequacy of attempts to water down the meaning of the phrase to something denoting similarity.49 The question Bauckham proposes as an interpretive key here