Romans 9:5

9:5 To them belong the patriarchs, ¹  and from them, ²  by human descent, ³  came the Christ, ⁴  who is God over all, blessed forever! ⁵  Amen.

Psalms 72:19

72:19 His glorious name deserves praise ⁶  forevermore!

May his majestic splendor ⁷  fill the whole earth!

We agree! We agree! ⁸ 

Psalms 145:1-2

Psalm 145 ⁹ 

A psalm of praise, by David.

145:1 I will extol you, my God, O king!

I will praise your name continually! ¹⁰ 

145:2 Every day I will praise you!

I will praise your name continually! ¹¹ 

Psalms 145:2

145:2 Every day I will praise you!

I will praise your name continually! ¹² 

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ¹³  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Ephesians 3:21

3:21 to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:1

Paul's Relationship to the Divine Mystery

3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus ¹⁴  for the sake of you Gentiles –

Ephesians 1:11

1:11 In Christ ¹⁵  we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, ¹⁶  since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will

Ephesians 1:17

1:17 I pray that ¹⁷  the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, ¹⁸  may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation ¹⁹  in your growing knowledge of him, ²⁰ 

[9:5]  ¹ tn Grk “of whom are the fathers.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[9:5]  ² tn Grk “from whom.” Here the relative pronoun has been replaced by a personal pronoun.

[9:5]  ³ tn Grk “according to the flesh.”

[9:5]  ⁴ tn Or “Messiah.” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed.”)

[9:5]  ⁵ tn Or “the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever,” or “the Messiah. God who is over all be blessed forever!” or “the Messiah who is over all. God be blessed forever!” The translational difficulty here is not text-critical in nature, but is a problem of punctuation. Since the genre of these opening verses of Romans 9 is a lament, it is probably best to take this as an affirmation of Christ’s deity (as the text renders it). Although the other renderings are possible, to see a note of praise to God at the end of this section seems strangely out of place. But for Paul to bring his lament to a crescendo (that is to say, his kinsmen had rejected God come in the flesh), thereby deepening his anguish, is wholly appropriate. This is also supported grammatically and stylistically: The phrase ὁ ὢν (Jo wn, “the one who is”) is most naturally taken as a phrase which modifies something in the preceding context, and Paul’s doxologies are always closely tied to the preceding context. For a detailed examination of this verse, see B. M. Metzger, “The Punctuation of Rom. 9:5,” Christ and the Spirit in the New Testament, 95-112; and M. J. Harris, Jesus as God, 144-72.

[72:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “[be] blessed.”

[72:19]  ⁷ tn Or “glory.”

[72:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “surely and surely” (אָמֵן וְאָמֵן [’amen vÿ’amen], i.e., “Amen and amen”). This is probably a congregational response of agreement to the immediately preceding statement about the propriety of praising God.

[145:1]  ⁹ sn Psalm 145. The psalmist praises God because he is a just and merciful king who cares for his people.

[145:1]  ¹⁰ tn Or, hyperbolically, “forever.”

[145:2]  ¹¹ tn Or, hyperbolically, “forever.”

[145:2]  ¹² tn Or, hyperbolically, “forever.”

[1:1]  ¹³ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[3:1]  ¹⁴ tc Several early and important witnesses, chiefly of the Western text (א* D* F G [365]), lack ᾿Ιησοῦ (Ihsou, “Jesus”) here, while most Alexandrian and Byzantine mss (Ì⁴⁶ א¹ A B [C] D¹ Ψ 33 1739 [1881] Ï lat sy bo) have the word. However, because of the Western text’s proclivities to add or delete to the text, seemingly at whim, serious doubts should be attached to the shorter reading. It is strengthened, however, by א’s support. Nevertheless, since both א and D were corrected with the addition of ᾿Ιησοῦ, their testimony might be questioned. Further, in uncial script the nomina sacra here could have led to missing a word by way of homoioteleuton (cMuiMu). At the same time, in light of the rarity of scribal omission of nomina sacra (see TCGNT 582, n. 1), a decision for inclusion of the word here must be tentative. NA²⁷ rightly places ᾿Ιησοῦ in brackets.

[1:11]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “in whom,” as a continuation of the previous verse.

[1:11]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “we were appointed by lot.” The notion of the verb κληρόω (klhrow) in the OT was to “appoint a portion by lot” (the more frequent cognate verb κληρονομέω [klhronomew] meant “obtain a portion by lot”). In the passive, as here, the idea is that “we were appointed [as a portion] by lot” (BDAG 548 s.v. κληρόω 1). The words “God’s own” have been supplied in the translation to clarify this sense of the verb. An alternative interpretation is that believers receive a portion as an inheritance: “In Christ we too have been appointed a portion of the inheritance.” See H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians, 226-27, for discussion on this interpretive issue.

[1:17]  ¹⁷ tn The words “I pray” are not in the Greek text, but have been supplied to clarify the meaning; v. 17 is a subordinate clause to v. 16 (“I pray” in v. 17 is implied from v. 16). Eph 1:15-23 constitutes one sentence in Greek, but a new sentence was started here in the translation in light of contemporary English usage.

[1:17]  ¹⁸ tn Or “glorious Father.” The genitive phrase “of glory” is most likely an attributive genitive. The literal translation “Father of glory” has been retained because of the parallelism with the first line of the verse: “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.”

[1:17]  ¹⁹ tn Or “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation,” or “a spirit of wisdom and revelation.” Verse 17 involves a complex exegetical problem revolving around the Greek term πνεῦμα (pneuma). Some take it to mean “the Spirit,” others “a spirit,” and still others “spiritual.” (1) If “the Spirit” is meant, the idea must be a metonymy of cause for effect, because the author had just indicated in vv. 13-14 that the Spirit was already given (hence, there is no need for him to pray that he be given again). But the effect of the Spirit is wisdom and revelation. (2) If “a spirit” is meant, the idea may be that the readers will have the ability to gain wisdom and insight as they read Paul’s letters, but the exact meaning of “a spirit” remains ambiguous. (3) To take the genitives following πνεῦμα as attributed genitives (see ExSyn 89-91), in which the head noun (“S/spirit”) functions semantically like an adjective (“spiritual”) is both grammatically probable and exegetically consistent.

[1:17]  ²⁰ tn Grk “in the knowledge of him.”