A rhetorical approach to the christological crux in Romans 9:5

In Romans 9:4-5 Paul lists the several prerogatives of his own people, the Jews, the last being that from them is “the messiah according to the flesh.” Then comes this clause: “the one being over all God blessed forever, amen.”

Here we have the christological crux.

Do we put a period after “according to the flesh” and punctuate this as an independent benediction or doxology, keeping messiah and God apart?

…the messiah according to the flesh. The one being over all, God, (be) blessed forever, amen.

Or does the benediction apply to “the messiah,” appositionally or as a predicate, who is therefore said to be in some sense divine?

…the messiah according to the flesh, the one being over all, God, blessed forever, amen.

Technically, there are other options—putting the period after “the one being over all,” for example. But in practice this is the basic choice. There’s no point in over-complicating matters.

Read more...
A brief and friendly critique of the Evangelical Alliance statement of faith
In response to Peter’s post about the Evangelical Alliance statement of faith, I would suggest that this sort of statement is designed for a particular purpose and does it admirably. An organization like the EA needs to define a doctrinal position that is acceptable across the spectrum of… ()
Critical-realism and postmodernism
The ‘emerging church’ project is an experiment in new forms of church. The question of what ‘church’ is, however, cannot be resolved sociologically or experimentally. Ultimately, a theological answer is required. This page was written to provide some preliminary reflection for the Future of the… ()
Transmillennialism™
Paul Seburn referred in another post to the ‘transmillennial’ view on New Testament eschatology. I thought it might be worth examining this separately. There’s a lot of material on the two sites I looked at (www.presence.tv and www.transmillennial.com), but I have limited my superficial… ()
Postmodernism and the Jesus of history
There is both a diachronic (historical) and a synchronic (a-historical, existential) dimension to the development of a theology for the emerging church. The argument has for the most part been developed synchronically in response to cultural and philosophical changes taking place both inside and… ()
Church in the court of the Gentiles
The analogy of the church as the temple of God is a familiar one (cf. 1 Cor.3:16-17; 1 Pet.2:5). It has usually been used, however, in an exclusivist sense: the church is the sanctuary at the heart of Herod’s temple, where legitimate Israel worships; everything outside the sanctuary is the… ()