Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Bruce Metzger on Early Christians and Romans 9:5


Commenting on the weak patristic evidence that interpreted the Father was the referent of θεος in Rom 9:5 and not Jesus, Bruce Metzger noted:

Relatively few patristic writers took the words ο ων κ.τ.λ. as referring to God the Father. Among the orthodox Greek Fathers one can mention only Diodore of Tarsus (In Cranmer’s Catenae in Sancti Pauli Epistolam ad Romanos [Oxford, 1844], p. 162, lines 25-27) and Photius (Contra Manichaeos iii, 14 [Migne, P.G. cii, 157 B]).

In assessing the wright o the patristic evidence one must put it within its proper perspective. On the one hand, certainly the Greek Fathers must be supposed to have possessed a unique sensitivity to understand the nuances of a passage written in their own language.

On the other hand, however, in the present case the possibility must be allowed that dogmatic interests may have swayed (and in many instances undoubtedly did sway) their interpretation. It is therefore prudent to refrain from assigning much weight to the overwhelming consensus of patristic interpretation of the meaning of the passage in question. (Bruce M. Metzger, New Testament Studies: Philological, Versional, and Patristic [New Testament Tools and Studies Volume X; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1980], 65)