CLAIM: Paul writes, “From whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever” (Rom. 9:5). Is this referring to Jesus being God?

RESPONSE: We agree with many scholars like Metzger[1] and Moo^[2] that this passage refers to the deity of Christ. Consider several reasons that support this view:

First, Paul uses the expression “Lord over all” many times to refer to God (Rom. 10:12; 14:9; 1 Cor. 8:6; Phil. 2:10).

Second, the nearest antecedent of “God” is Christ. The natural reading would make Jesus God, unless there was reason to think otherwise.

Third, a passage on the deity of Christ would fit with the context of Jewish unbelief in the Messiah, which was a principal objection to Christianity at the time.

Fourth, the expression “who is over all, God blessed” should really be more literally translated “who really is God.” Jewett writes, “The participle ὤν makes excellent sense in reference to Christ, with the connotation ‘who is really God,’ reflecting the controversial point.”^[3]

Fifth, the early church fathers believed that this supported the deity of Christ. Moo writes, “Metzger cites Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Novatian, Cyprian, Athanasius, Epiphanius, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Augustine, Jerome, Cyril of Alexandria, and Oecumenius.”^[4]

[1] Bruce Metzger, “The Punctuation of Romans 9:5,” in Christ and Spirit in the New Testament, ed. B. Lindars and S. S. Smalley (Cambridge: University Press, 1973), 95-112.

^[2] Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 566–568.

^[3] Robert Jewett and Roy David Kotansky, Romans: A Commentary, ed. Eldon Jay Epp, Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2006), 568.

^[4] Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996).