2D “God, Who Is Over All”
Romans 9:5—Gr., καὶ ἐξ ὧν ὁ χριστὸς τὸ κατὰ σάρκα, ὁ ὢν ἐπὶ πάντων, θεὸς εὐλογητὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας· ἀμήν
(kai ex hon ho khri·stosʹ to ka·taʹ sarʹka, ho on e·piʹ panʹton, The·osʹ eu·lo·ge·tosʹ eis tous ai·oʹnas; a·menʹ)
1934 “and from whom by physical descent The Riverside New
the Christ came. God who is over Testament, Boston
all be blessed through the ages! and New York.
Amen.”
1935 “and theirs too (so far as natural A New Translation
descent goes) is the Christ. of the Bible, by
(Blessed for evermore be the God James Moffatt,
who is over all! Amen.)” New York and London.
1950 “and from whom Christ sprang New World Translation
according to the flesh: God who of the Christian Greek
is over all be blest forever. Scriptures, Brooklyn.
Amen.”
1952 “and of their race, according to Revised Standard
the flesh, is the Christ. God who Version, New York.
is over all be blessed for ever.
Amen.”
1966 “and Christ, as a human being, Today’s English
belongs to their race. May God, Version, American Bible
who rules over all, be praised Society, New York.
for ever! Amen.”
1970 “and from them came the Messiah The New American
(I speak of his human origins). Bible, New York and
Blessed forever be God who is over London.
all! Amen.”
1972 “and from them, in natural The New English
descent, sprang the Messiah. May Bible, Oxford and
God, supreme above all, be blessed Cambridge.
for ever! Amen.”
These translations take ὁ ὤν (ho on) as the beginning of an independent sentence or clause referring to God and pronouncing a blessing upon him for the provisions he made. Here and in Ps 67:19 LXX the predicate εὐλογητός (eu·lo·ge·tosʹ, “blessed”) occurs after the subject θεός (The·osʹ, “God”).
In his work A Grammar of the Idiom of the New Testament, seventh ed., Andover, 1897, p. 551, G. B. Winer says that “when the subject constitutes the principal notion, especially when it is antithetical to another subject, the predicate may and must be placed after it, cf. Ps. lxvii. 20 Sept [Psalm 67:19 LXX]. And so in Rom. ix. 5, if the words ὁ ὢν ἐπὶ πάντων θεὸς εὐλογητός etc. [ho on e·piʹ panʹton The·osʹ eu·lo·ge·tosʹ etc.] are referred to God, the position of the words is quite appropriate, and even indispensable.”
A detailed study of the construction in Romans 9:5 is found in The Authorship of the Fourth Gospel and Other Critical Essays, by Ezra Abbot, Boston, 1888, pp. 332-438. On pp. 345, 346, and 432 he says: “But here ὁ ὤν [ho on] is separated from ὁ χριστός [ho khri·stosʹ] by τὸ κατὰ σάρκα [to ka·taʹ sarʹka], which in reading must be followed by a pause,—a pause which is lengthened by the special emphasis given to the κατὰ σάρκα [ka·taʹ sarʹka] by the τό [to]; and the sentence which precedes is complete in itself grammatically, and requires nothing further logically; for it was only as to the flesh that Christ was from the Jews. On the other hand, as we have seen (p. 334), the enumeration of blessings which immediately precedes, crowned by the inestimable blessing of the advent of Christ, naturally suggests an ascription of praise and thanksgiving to God as the Being who rules over all; while a doxology is also suggested by the ᾿Αμήν [A·menʹ] at the end of the sentence. From every point of view, therefore, the doxological construction seems easy and natural. . . . The naturalness of a pause after σάρκα [sarʹka] is further indicated by the fact that we find a point after this word in all our oldest MSS. that testify in the case,—namely, A, B, C, L. . . . I can now name, besides the uncials A, B, C, L, . . . at least twenty-six cursives which have a stop after σάρκα, the same in general which they have after αἰῶνας [ai·oʹnas] or ᾿Αμήν [A·menʹ].”
Therefore, Romans 9:5 ascribes praise and thanksgiving to God. This scripture does not identify Jehovah God with Jesus Christ.