To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. (Rom 9:5 ESV)
Commenting on Rom 9:5 and the question as to whether θεος is used of Jesus, Richard N. Longenecker wrote the following in favour of the thesis that Jesus is called “God” here:
Scholars down through the centuries have never had any doubts regarding the wording of the text of 9:5b. They have often, however, had questions about the punctuation of this latter portion of the verse and therefore its meaning. For since the earliest MSS of this verse (and all the other texts of the NT) are without any systematic punctuation, both ancient scribes and contemporary editors have been forced to insert such punctuation as has seemed most appropriate to them, as based on their own understanding of the syntax and meaning of what Paul has written.
In the main, two seemingly minor—though significantly different—options for the punctuation of 9:5b have been proposed and extensively discussed, with this difference resulting in two quite different translations:
1. The Christological Option, which punctuates the text with a comma after the word σάρκα, thereby reading καὶ ἐξ ὧν ὁ Χριστὸς τὸ κατὰ σάρκα, ὁ ὢν ἐπί πάντων θεὸς, εὐλογητὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, ἀμήν (literally “And from them is the Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever! Amen”).
2. The Theological Option, which punctuates the text with a period after the word σάρκα, thereby reading καὶ ἐξ ὧν ὁ Χριστὸς τὸ κατὰ σάρκα. ὁ ὢν ἐπί πάντων θεὸς, εὐλογητὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, ἀμήν (literally “And from them is the Christ according to the flesh. May God who is over all be blessed forever! Amen”).
Within these two basic punctuation options there have been proposed a number of other translation options—perhaps as many as eight ways of reading the latter portion of this verse.
The debate among biblical scholars during an earlier generation has been almost equally divided. Of late, however, scholarly opinion in favor of the Christological interpretation seems to have become dominant. The principal reasons why many earlier and some modern scholars preferred the theological option for the translation of 9:5b are as follows:
1. Paul does not elsewhere in his letters refer to Jesus as God—though, as Robert Jewett has quite properly responded: “Phil 2:6 is a prominent example of his doing so and in many of the other instances where Paul refers to Jesus as ‘Lord,’ divinity is implied.”
2. The phrase “God over all things” is too extensive a claim to make for Christ—yet, as Jewett goes on to point out: “there are instances in which Paul makes such a claim for Christ by referring to him as ‘Lord’ over all.”
3. The reverential expression εὐλογητός (“blessed,” “praised”) is used only as an ascription of God himself in the OT55 and by Paul elsewhere in his letters, as well as by other writers of the NT—which Jewett acknowledges is a matter that “must be explained,” but to which he also offers the following probable explanation: “The preceding reference to Christ as stemming from Israel ‘insofar as the flesh is concerned’ is a delimitation that invites an antithesis, which the doxology to Christ provides, thus bringing this passage into correlation with the opening confession: ‘from David’s seed according to the flesh, appointed son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness’ (1:3–4).”
The major exegetical feature that favors “the Christ” (ὁ Χριστός) as being ascribed as “God” (ὁ θεός) in 9:5b is, as Murray Harris has expressed it, the following Greek syntactical pattern that appears throughout the LXX and elsewhere in the NT:
Throughout the Greek Bible, whenever εὐλογητός occurs in an independent or asyndetic doxology, it always precedes the name of God. Thus, for instance, εὐλογητος ὁ θεὸς ὁ ὕψιστος (Gen. 14:20) and εὐλογητὸς ὁ θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (2 Cor. 1:3; Eph. 1:3; 1 Pet. 1:3). But in Romans 9:5 εὐλογητός follows θεός. If normal biblical word order for independent doxologies were followed in Romans 9:5, one would expect either εὐλογητὸς θεὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, ἀμήν (if ὁ ὢν ἐπὶ πάντων is construed with ὁ Χριστός) or εὐλογητὸς ὁ θεὸς ὁ ὢν ἐπὶ τοὺς αἰῶνας, ἀμήν.
The major theological and contextual arguments that favor “the Christ” (ὁ Χριστός) as being ascribed “God” (ὁ θεός) in 9:5b, as Robert Jewett has summarized them from a vast body of literature on the subject, are as follows:
1. “The ascription of divinity to Christ was the principal barrier against Jewish acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah, so a doxology to him as God is relevant to Paul’s argument.”
2. “The participle ὥν makes excellent sense in reference to Christ, with the connotation ‘who is really God,’ reflecting the controversial point [of the passage].”
3. “The preceding reference to Christ as stemming from Israel ‘insofar as the flesh is concerned’ is a delimitation that invites an antithesis, which the doxology to Christ provides, thus bringing this passage into correlation with the opening confession: ‘from David’s seed according to the flesh; appointed son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness’ (1:3–4).”
We therefore agree with the evaluation of the evidence as proposed by Oscar Cullman in the middle of the twentieth century: “We conclude that it is quite probable, if not certain, that Paul designates Jesus Christ as ‘God’ in Rom. 9:5”—as well as the conclusion expressed by Murray Harris in 1992: “Given the high Christology of the Pauline letters, according to which Jesus shares the divine name and nature, exercises divine functions, and is the object of human faith and adoration, it should generate no surprise if on occasion Paul should refer to Jesus by the generic title θεός.” (Richard N. Longenecker, The Epistle to the Romans: A Commentary on the Greek Text [New International Greek Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdman, 2016], 788–791)
