Israel’s Unique Privileges
For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen. Romans 9:3-5
Israel had experienced utterly unique privileges: ‘Theirs is the adoption as sons’ (9:4) because God had said ‘Israel is my firstborn son’ (Exodus 4:22) and ‘I am Israel’s father’ (Jeremiah 31:9); ‘theirs the divine glory’ (9:4), the visible splendour of God that filled first the tabernacle and then the temple and which was permanently localised in the inner sanctuary so that Yahweh could be described as ‘enthroned between the cherubim that are on the ark’ (2 Samuel 6:2). Theirs too are ‘the covenants’ (9:4), especially God’s foundational covenant with Abraham but also its multiple renewals and elaborations to Isaac and Jacob, Moses (Exodus 24:8) and David (2 Samuel 23:5); ‘the receiving of the law’ (9:4), the unique revelation of God’s will, spoken by His voice and written with His finger (Deuteronomy 4:7f); ‘the temple worship’ (9:4) comprising all the prescribed regulations for the priesthood and sacrifices; ‘and the promises’ (9:4), particularly those relating to the coming of the Messiah as God’s prophet, priest and king. Beyond these, ‘theirs are the patriarchs’ (9:5), not just Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but the leaders of the twelve tribes and other figures like Moses, Samuel and David; and above all ‘from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ’ (9:5), literally ‘Christ according to the flesh’ whose genealogy Matthew traces back to Abraham and Luke to Adam.
Paul may have penned the final words of verse 5, ‘who is God over all, forever praised! Amen,’ of Christ or of God the Father. The difficulty in deciding is because there is no punctuation in the original manuscript. This was common to most ancient documents. Interpreters have to decide whether to put a comma or a full stop after ‘Christ.’
There are three possible ways of understanding Paul’s intent. The first applies all three expressions (‘God,’ ‘over all’ and ‘forever praised’) to Christ (followed by NIV, KJV and JB eg. NIV’s ‘Christ, who is God all, forever praised!). The second view applies the expressions to God the Father. By putting a full stop after ‘Christ,’ what follows becomes a new sentence, ‘God who is over all be blessed forever’ (RSV). The third way is a compromise. It applies the words ‘over all’ to Christ but the remaining words to God the Father (REB mg.)
Which reflects Paul’s thinking? He usually designated Jesus as ‘Son of God’ (1:3,9: 5:10; 8:29) or God’s ‘own Son’ (8:3,32). On the other hand, he gives Jesus the divine title ‘Lord’ (10:9,13), calls Him ‘the Lord of both the dead and the living’ (14:9), describes Him as both ‘in the form of God’ (Philippians 2:6 mg.) and having ‘equality with God’ (Philippians 2:6) and declared that ‘all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form’ in Him (Colossians 2:9). Evangelical scholars generally agree Paul intentionally applied the three terms ‘God,’ ‘over all’ and ‘forever praised’) to Christ.