From two Yale scholars (Adele Yarbro Collins and John J. Collins) in the book, King and Messiah as Son of God:
Commentators have debated whether one should translate "did not con equality with God something to be seized" or "something to be held onto tenaciously." Those who choose the latter translation seem to affirm that being in the form of God" is equivalent to "being equal to God." This reading is undercut by the last part of the hymn in which God highly exalts Jesus. If he had been equal to God at the beginning, then he would simply return to that state. The hymn implies that the exaltation is something new and climactic.
The word translated "something to be seized" here is hARPAGMOS. This exact word does not occur in the Jewish scriptures that were written in or translated into Greek. But members of its word-family occur frequently in these works, and they always have the negative connotation of robbery or taking plunder. Except for the usage of being snatched up to heaven, the word-group usually has a negative connotation in the Greek Pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus, and the New Testament. In some cases, plundering is portrayed as the typical activity of rulers. Furthermore, the notion of equality with God on the part of entities that are not aspects of God has a strongly negative connotation in biblical, Jewish, and early Christian literature. Finally, an important cultural context for such imagery is traditions about the typical ruler who is violent and who presumes to take a divine role. Verse 6, therefore, means that, although Christ had a divine form, he did not attempt to make himself equal to God, unlike the typical arrogant ruler.
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