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Explainer / Messiah

Romans 9:5

whose are the fathers, and of whom is Messiah as concerning the flesh. God who is over all be blessed forever. Amen.

ὧν οἱ πατέρες, καὶ ἐξ ὧν ὁ χριστὸς τὸ κατὰ σάρκα, ὁ ὢν ἐπὶ πάντων, θεὸς εὐλογητὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας· ἀμήν.

Greek
Compare with the ASV

whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

What we did

We put a full stop after "flesh" and printed the last line as a blessing of God: "God who is over all be blessed forever. Amen."

Why

  1. The manuscripts have no punctuation

    The early Greek manuscripts were written without punctuation marks, so where a sentence stops is an editor's choice, not part of the text.

  2. The words of a blessing

    εὐλογητὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, "blessed forever," is the wording Paul uses when he blesses God (Rom 1:25, ὅς ἐστιν εὐλογητὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας· ἀμήν; 2 Cor 11:31, ὁ ὢν εὐλογητὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας).

    More

    With a full stop after "flesh," the line is a blessing of that kind, ending with "Amen" as in Rom 1:25.

  3. "Be blessed."

    The Greek has no verb.

    More

    English supplies one. With the full stop, "be blessed" makes the line a blessing rather than a statement.

Other renderings

"God who is over all be blessed for ever" (ASV margin, RSV, NEB, REB); "Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever" (ESV, NIV, NASB); "Christ … who is over all, God blessed for ever" (ASV text).

Read Romans 9:5 in context