Ro 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)

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”).—See Ps 68:19 ftn.

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 [Ps 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 Ro 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, Ro 9:5 ascribes praise and thanksgiving to God. This scripture does not identify Jehovah God with Jesus Christ.