Passage

Romans 9.5

Book: Romans · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

3. For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh: 4. who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;

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

But it is not as though the word of God hath come to nought. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel: 7. neither, because they are Abraham's seed, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. (Romans 9:3-7, ASV)

WEB

3. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh, 4. who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;

5. of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.

But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel. 7. Neither, because they are Abraham’s offspring, are they all children. But, “your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac.” (Romans 9:3-7, WEB)

KJV

3. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: ^{accursed: or, separated} 4. Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; ^{covenants: or, testaments}

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

Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7. Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. (Romans 9:3-7, KJV)

YLT

3. for I was wishing, I myself, to be anathema from the Christ, for my brethren, my kindred, according to the flesh, 4. who are Israelites, whose [is] the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the lawgiving, and the service, and the promises,

5. whose [are] the fathers, and of whom [is] the Christ, according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed to the ages. Amen.

And it is not possible that the word of God hath failed; for not all who [are] of Israel are these Israel; 7. nor because they are seed of Abraham [are] all children, but, 'in Isaac shall a seed be called to thee;' (Romans 9:3-7, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul the Apostle
Audience: the Roman house churches (mixed Jewish-Gentile), whom Paul had not yet met
Location: Corinth, near the close of the third missionary journey
Time period: c. AD 56-57

Theological reading

The climax of Paul's list of Israel's privileges, and the site of a well-known punctuation problem with significant christological stakes. The oldest manuscripts are unpunctuated, so the question cannot be settled by the text alone.

The clause is ho ōn epi pantōn theos eulogētos eis tous aiōnas. Read with the sentence running on, it says the Messiah is "the one who is over all, God blessed forever," a direct predication of deity to Christ. Read with a full stop after kata sarka, it becomes a separate doxology to the Father, "God who is over all be blessed forever."

The main arguments for taking it as a predication of Christ are three. The participle ho ōn most naturally attaches to the preceding noun rather than starting a new sentence. The preceding phrase to kata sarka, "as concerns the flesh," sets up a restriction that expects a corresponding clause on the other side, exactly as at Romans 1:3-4. And Greek doxologies to God characteristically place eulogētos first, which this one does not. The main argument on the other side is that Paul does not elsewhere call Christ theos outright, so the usage would be unusual for him.

Modern translations divide, and the split is visible in their footnotes. The verse is regularly cited in Trinitarian argument and is worth deploying with the punctuation question stated openly rather than assumed, since an informed objector will raise it. See Trinity.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G0165 - aion, aion, Strong's G0165
G4561 - sarx, sarx, Strong's G4561
G3962 - pater, pater, Strong's G3962
G5547 - christos, christos, Strong's G5547
G3956 - pas, pas, Strong's G3956
G2316 - theos, theos, Strong's G2316

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

People:

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.