Bingo!
...who, being in the form of God...
huparcho, "existing", referring to the continued state of a thing, with morph meaining the essential attributes as shown in the form, i.e., the essence his nature. Being (uparxwn).
RWP
Existing in the form of God denotes pre-existence, obviously.
Cordially,
Not at all. Paul is speaking of the resurrected Christ, not the pre-incarnate Christ. That much is obvious not only from Philippians 2 but from Paul's theology in general.
More importantly, Paul himself dispels any notion that hyparcho, used in this fashion, means pre-existence.
KJV translates this as
Cleverly, or deceitfully, take your pick, the translators of KJV and others versions chose to translate the same tense (active present participle) differently, to avoid the pre-existential conflict between verses such as Philippians 2:6 and 1 Corinthians 11:7.
This is the level and extent of manipulation the biblical text has been subjected to in order to create "concordance." It is obvious that otherwise verses such as 1 Corinthians 11:7 and Philippians 2:6 would have been a doctrinal stumbling block if not a killer.
This also explains why it is no wonder that Gnostics loved Paul so much, especially Valentius and Marcion. He spoke their language because he himself, by the way he wrote, must have harbored substantial Gnostic beliefs.
Of course, none of this would ever be evident to your average bumpkin English Bible reader. The powers to be made sure of that. Ignorance is bliss.
That's not what morphe means. It means the external appearance, or the "form by which one strikes the vision."
External appearance does not represent the essence or nature. The definition given by your source corresponds not to morphe but to ousia.
Apparently Paul believed that God was visible and had a form. Nothing could be farther from the Jewish or even Christian belief.
Or he was just saying that knowing the Greeks believed it.