XVI. ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF ROMANS IX. 5. [From the Journal of the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis for 1881.]* WE shall understand better the passage to be discussed, if we consider its relation to what precedes and follows and the circumstances under which it was written. In the first eight chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, the Apostle has set forth the need and the value of the gospel as "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." In view of the present blessings and the glorious hopes of the Christian believer, he closes this part of the Epistle with an exultant song of triumph. But the doctrine of Paul was in direct opposition to the strongest prejudices of the Jews and their most cherished expectations. It placed them on a level, as to the conditions of salvation, with the despised and hated Gentiles. The true Messiah, the king of Israel, the spiritual king of men, had come; but the rulers of their nation had crucified the Lord of glory, and the great mass of the people had rejected him. They had thus set themselves in direct opposition to God. They had become ἀνάθεμα ἀπὸ τοῦ χριστοῦ, outcasts from the Messiah and his kingdom. Christians, a large majority of them Gentiles by birth, were now the true Israel. No rite of circumcision, no observance of the Jewish Law, was required, as the condition of acceptance with God and the enjoyment of the Messianic blessings; no sacrifice but self-sacrifice: the only condition was faith, as Paul uses the term,- a practical belief and trust in Christ, and *[The article by Dr. Dwight, to which Professor Abbot makes frequent reference below, and which defends the opposite opinion to that maintained by Dr. Abbot, may be found in the same number of the above-named journal, pp. 22-55 ] thus in God revealed in his paternal character; a faith that carried with it the affections and will, πίστις δι' ἀγάπης ἐνεργουμένη. How could these things be? How was this gospel of Paul to be reconciled with the promises of God to the "holy nation"? how with his justice, wisdom, and goodness? Had God cast off his people, "Israel his servant, Jacob his chosen, the seed of Abraham his friend"? These are the great questions which the Apostle answers in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters of this Epistle. The first five verses are to be regarded as a conciliatory introduction to his treatment of this subject, on which he had so much to say that was not only hard for the unbelieving Jews, but for Jewish Christians, to understand and accept. The unbelieving Jews regarded the Apostle as an apostate from the true religion and as an enemy of their race. Five times already he had received from them forty stripes. save one; he had been "in perils from his own countrymen" at Damascus, at Antioch in Pisidia, at Iconium and Lystra, at Thessalonica, Beroa, and Corinth,- often in peril of his life. By a great part of the believing Jews, he was regarded with distrust and aversion. (See Acts xxi. 20, 21.) His doctrines were indeed revolutionary. Though he was about to go to Jerusalem to carry a liberal contribution. from the churches of Macedonia and Achaia to the poor Christians in that city, he expresses in this Epistle great anxiety about the reception he should meet with (anxiety fully justified by the result), and begs the prayers of the brethren at Rome in his behalf (Rom. xv. 30-32). As the Jews hated Paul, they naturally believed that he hated them. These circumstances explain the exceedingly strong asseveration of his affection for his countrymen and of his deep sorrow for their estrangement from God, with which this introduction begins. So far from being an enemy of his people, he could make any sacrifice to win them to Christ. They were his brethren, his kinsmen, as to the flesh. He gloried in sharing with them the proud name of Israelite. He delights to enumerate the magnificent privileges by which God had distinguished them from all other nations, "the adoption, and the glory, and the giving of the Law, the covenants, the temple service, and the promises." Theirs were the fathers; and, from among them, as the crowning distinction of all, the Messiah was born, the supreme gift of God's love and mercy not to the Jews alone, but to all mankind. All God's dealings with his chosen people were designed to prepare the way, and had prepared the way, for this grand consummation. How natural that, when, in his rapid recital of their historic glories, the Apostle reaches this highest distinction of the Jews and greatest blessing of God's mercy to men, he should express his overflowing gratitude to God as the Ruler over all; that he should "thank God for his unspeakable gift"! I believe that he has done so, and that the fifth verse of the passage we are considering should be translated, "whose are the fathers and from whom is the Messiah as to the flesh he who is over all, God, be blessed forever. Amen," or "he who is God over all be blessed forever. Amen." The doxology springs from the same feeling and the same view of the gracious providence of God which prompted the fuller outburst at the end of the eleventh chapter, where, on completing the treatment of the subject which he here introduces, the Apostle exclaims: "O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and untraceable his ways! . . . For from him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to him be (or is) the glory forever. Amen." I believe that there are no objections to this construction of the passage which do not betray their weakness when critically examined; and that the objections against most of the other constructions which have been proposed are fatal. The passage is remarkable for the different ways in which it has been and may be punctuated, and for the consequent variety of constructions which have been given it. The Greek is as follows: καὶ ἐξ ὧν ὁ χριστὸς τὸ κατὰ σάρκα ὁ ὢν ἐπὶ πάντων θεὸς εὐλογητὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. 'Αμήν. It grammatically admits of being punctuated and construed in at least seven different ways. I. Placing a comma after cápка, and also after eos, we may translate the last clause, "who (or he who) is God over all, blessed for ever." 2. Putting the second comma after návrov instead of ɛóç : "who (or he who) is over all, God blessed for ever." "who (or 3. With a comma after Távrov and also after ɛós, he who) is over all, God, blessed for ever." So Morus, Gess (Christi Person und Werk, II. i. 207 f., Basel, 1878). 4. Placing a comma after &, and also after sóc,-"He who Is, God over all, blessed for ever." See Wordsworth's note, which, however, is not consistent throughout; and observe the mistranslation at the end of his quotation from Athanasius (Orat. cont. Arianos, i. § 24, p. 338).* 5. Placing a comma after cápka and a colon after návrov, the last part of the verse may be rendered: "and from whom is the Messiah as to the flesh, who (or he who) is over all God be blessed for ever. Amen." 6. Placing a colon after σápкa, sóc may be taken as predicate, thus: "he who is over all is God, blessed for ever"; so Professor B. H. Kennedy, D.D., Canon of Ely; or thus, "he who was over all being (literally, was) God, blessed for ever." So Andrews Norton. 7. With a colon after σάρκα, ὁ ὢν ἐπὶ πάντων θεός may be taken as the subject, and evonós as predicate, with the ellipsis of ein or riv, making the last part of the verse a doxology, thus: "he who is over all, God, be blessed (or is to be praised) for ever"; or "he who is God over all be blessed (or is to be praised) for ever"; or "God, who is over all, be blessed (or is to be praised) for ever." I pass over other varieties of translation and interpretation, depending on the question whether návrov is to be taken as masculine or neuter, and on the wider or narrower application of the word in either case. In Nos. 1-4 inclusive, it will be seen that the, with all that follows, including the designation ɛós, is referred to Perhaps I ought to add here as a curiosity a construction proposed in the Record newspaper, in an article copied in Christian Opinion and Revisionist for March 11, 1892, p. 222. The writer would translate, "Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God. Blessed be he for ever! Amen." ỏ xpitós; in Nos. 6 and 7, v introduces an independent sentence, and to denotes God, the Father. No. 5 refers the first part of the sentence in debate to ó xpiorós, the last part to God. The question of chief interest is whether in this passage the Apostle has called Christ God. Among those who hold that he has done so, the great majority adopt one or the other of the constructions numbered 1 and 2; and it is to these, and especially to No. 2, followed both in King James's version and the Revised Version (text), that I shall give special attention. Among those who refer the last part of the sentence to God, and not Christ, the great majority of scholars adopt either No. 5 or No. 7. I have already expressed my preference for the latter construction, and it is generally preferred by those who find here a doxology to God. I. We will first consider the objections that have been urged against the construction which makes the last part of the sentence, beginning with, introduce a doxology to God. I shall then state the arguments which seem to me to favor this construction, and at the same time to render the constructions numbered 1 to 4 each and all untenable. Other views of the passage will be briefly noticed. Some remarks will be added on the history of its interpretation, though no full account of this will be attempted. 1. It is objected that a doxology here is wholly out of place; that the Apostle is overwhelmed with grief at the Jewish rejection of the Messiah and its consequences, and "an elegy or funeral discourse cannot be changed abruptly into a hymn." He is, indeed, deeply grieved at the unbelief and blindness of the great majority of his countrymen; but his sorrow is not hopeless. He knows all the while that "the word of God hath not failed," that "God hath not cast off his people whom he foreknew," that at last "all Israel shall be saved"; and nothing scems to me more natural than the play of mingled feelings which the passage presents,― grief for the present temporary alienation of his countrymen from Christ, joy and thanksgiving at the thought of the priceless |