Doxology
The placement of the closing
doxology (Rom. 16.25-27) has proved very important in textual criticism of
Romans. The fact that the doxology appears in a variety of places in various
manuscripts has given risen to speculation regarding the original integrity of
the entire letter. In many of the best and earliest manuscripts (including P61,
Sinaiticus [א 01], Vaticanus [B 03], Ephraemi Rescriptus [C 04], Claromontanus
[Dp 06], and many others), the doxology is found at the end of Romans 16. This
is the place where it is printed in most, if not virtually all, English Bibles.
The second place is for the doxology to be printed at the end of Romans 14. The
evidence for its placement here is very weak, consisting of mostly late
manuscripts (Codex Macedoniensis or Macedonianus [Y 034] and the Majority
Text). There are a few manuscripts that have it at the end of both Romans 14
and 16 (Alexandrinus [A 02], Porphyrianus [Papr 024], and others).
The third position is for the doxology to be at the end of Romans 15, as it is
in P46 (c. 200 CE), the early Alexandrian papyrus. This is the earliest
manuscript with the doxology, but it also includes Rom. 16.1-23 after the
doxology, making it unclear what this indicates. The fourth alternative is for
the doxology to be omitted altogether, but this apparently occurs only in a few
late manuscripts (F G 629) and what we know of Marcion’s text from Origen’s
comments on Room. 16.25-27 in his commentary on Romans. (Stanley E. Porter, The
Letter to the Romans: A Linguistic and Literary Commentary [New Testament
Monographs 37; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2015], 23)
