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came' (Rom. 9:5). Where, however, Israel and the Saviour differ is in this,
that while it is written that the one descended from 'the fathers' and the
Other from 'David', there the parallel ends. In Romans 1:4 the apostle goes
on to speak of the resurrection, saying:
'And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit
of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead',
and in Romans 9, he adds:
'Who is over all, God blessed for ever.
Amen' (Rom. 9:5).
With reference to this passage, Wardlaw writes in his book The Socinian
Controversy:
'This seems abundantly plain, so plain, and so decisive, that if there
were not another text in the Bible directly affirming this great truth, I
know not how I should satisfy myself in rejecting its explicit testimony. It
has accordingly been put upon the rack, to make it speak by dint of torture a
different language. It might, perhaps, be enough to say, respecting this
passage, that, according to the order of the original words, the received
translation is the most direct and natural rendering. This, so far as I
know, no one has ventured to deny. All that has been affirmed is that it is
capable of bearing a different sense. And this has accordingly been
attempted in no fewer than five different ways:
"Of whom, by natural descent, the Christ came.
God, Who is over
all, be blessed for ever".
"Whose are the fathers, and of whom the Christ came, Who is above
them all (viz., the fathers). God be blessed for ever".
"Of whom the Christ came, Who is over all things.
God be blessed
for ever".
"Of whom the Christ came, Who is as God, over all, blessed for
ever".
"Of whom the Christ came (and) whose, or of whom, is the supreme
God, blessed for ever".
Sadly enough, the R.V. has brought these untenable views to the notice
of all its readers. The note in the R.V. reads as follows:
'Some modern interpreters place a full stop after flesh, and translate,
He Who is God over all be (is) blessed for ever: or, He Who is over all
is God, blessed for ever. Others punctuate, flesh, who is over all.
God be (is) blessed for ever'.
No wonder Dean Burgon wrote of this marginal note:
'Now this is a matter -- let it be clearly observed -- which (as Dr.
Hort is aware) belongs to interpretation, and not to textual criticism.
What business then has it in these pages at all? Is it then the
function of Divines appointed to revise the Authorized Version, to give
information to the 90 millions of English -speaking Christians
scattered throughout the world as to the unfaithfulness of "some modern