Roma 1:3

1:3 concerning his Son who was a descendant ¹  of David with reference to the flesh, ² 

Roma 2:28

2:28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something that is outward in the flesh,

Roma 4:1

The Illustration of Justification

4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh, ³  has discovered regarding this matter? ⁴ 

Roma 9:3

9:3 For I could wish ⁵  that I myself were accursed – cut off from Christ – for the sake of my people, ⁶  my fellow countrymen, ⁷ 

Roma 9:5

9:5 To them belong the patriarchs, ⁸  and from them, ⁹  by human descent, ¹⁰  came the Christ, ¹¹  who is God over all, blessed forever! ¹²  Amen.

[1:3]  ¹ tn Grk “born of the seed” (an idiom).

[1:3]  ² tn Grk “according to the flesh,” indicating Jesus’ earthly life, a reference to its weakness. This phrase implies that Jesus was more than human; otherwise it would have been sufficient to say that he was a descendant of David, cf. L. Morris, Romans, 44.

[4:1]  ³ tn Or “according to natural descent” (BDAG 916 s.v. σάρξ 4).

[4:1]  ⁴ tn Grk “has found?”

[9:3]  ⁵ tn Or “For I would pray.” The implied condition is “if this could save my fellow Jews.”

[9:3]  ⁶ tn Grk “brothers.” See BDAG 18-19 s.v. ἀδελφός 2.b.

[9:3]  ⁷ tn Grk “my kinsmen according to the flesh.”

[9:5]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Grk “from whom.” Here the relative pronoun has been replaced by a personal pronoun.

[9:5]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “according to the flesh.”

[9:5]  ¹¹ tn Or “Messiah.” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed.”)

[9:5]  ¹² 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.