. . . Paul consistently refers to the Lord Jesus as
distinct from God the Father. This is clear in Phil 2:6 and Rom 10:8. Jesus is
the one who will return everything to God the Father, but Paul nowhere
predicates “God” for Jesus (1 Cor 3:23; 8:6; 11:3; 15:24, 28). Paul’s diction
allows for the Johannine, Nicene, and Chalcedonian developments of Christology,
but does not encapsulate that development. The structural parallelism between
this benediction in 9:5 and the one in 11:36, which is clearly directed toward
God, also is evidence for understanding the benediction in 9:5 as ending with a
benediction of God the Father and not of Christ the Son. It is unlikely,
therefore, that the literal sense of the text is that Pal is saying in so many
words that Christ is God.
Before presenting the arguments from Pauline usage in the
next paragraph to prove this, one more preliminary matter must be raised first,
which is “the one who is” (ο
ων), within 9:5. The phrase deserves to be
considered alongside Jewish blessings. Paul’s phrase ο ων,
usually translated as “who is” is also
the LXX term for the God of Israel, used twice in Exod 3:14 and in some
manuscripts of LXX Jer 1:6; 14:13; and 39:17. Paul’s Scriptures consistently view
the God of Israel as the one who is “over all” of the created world, as, e.g.,
in LXX Ps 82:19 “And let them know that your name is LORD, you alone are the
highest over all the earth.” (και
γνωτωσαν οτ οομα σοι κυριος, συ μονος
υψιστος επι πασαν την γην) It is possible that Paθl, who offers a
liturgical phrase in Aramaic in 1 Cor 16:22, is here calquing a Hebrew or
Aramaic blessing for the God of Israel, who is over all the blessed forever. So
“the one who is,” is a calque for the God of Israel, could then be read either as
associated with “Christ according to the flesh” or with “God be blessed
forever.” But this equation between “the one who is” and the God of Israel—written
as LORD in most English translations—cannot be pressed here. (Mark Reasoner, Now
Shown Mercy: A Commentary on Romans 9-11 [Lectio Sacra; Eugene, Oreg.: Cascade
Books, 2024], 48-49)
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