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In defence of the received version of our text, we have to urge —

I. THAT IT IS IN STRICT CONFORMITY WITH EVERY PRINCIPLE OF JUST INTERPRETATION. It violates no rule of construction; it infringes on no idiom of the Greek language; it deviates from no general usage of the sacred writers. There is no rude disjointure of the passage; no referring of the terms "who is" to a person afterwards to be named, instead of the person named before; no mutilation of the passage; no addition; but — so far as the English language will admit of it — the very order is preserved in which the passage stands in the original.

II. THE QUALIFICATION OF THE STATEMENT, THAT THE MESSIAH WAS OF THE ISRAELITES ONLY "ACCORDING TO THE FLESH," STRONGLY COUNTENANCES, NOT TO SAY RENDERS NECESSARY, THIS READING; involving, as it does, the supposition that there was something else, according to which He was not of them; and at least justifying the conclusion that if anything else be named before the final closing of the sentence by which the contrast can be completed, and according to which the Messiah was not of the Jews, it was intended to be so taken and applied. Now, in our text that something else is clearly pointed out — namely, His Deity. According to the flesh, He is of the Israelites; according to another, and a Divine nature, He is over all, God blessed for ever. Thus the contrast is complete; both parts of the antithesis are supplied, and our Emmanuel is seen to be precisely as St. John represented Him — truly man, and truly God.

III. That this is the proper rendering of the text we argue FROM THE EXISTING ANCIENT VERSIONS OF THIS EPISTLE. The most ancient of the versions of the New Testament, and that which stands highest in critical authority, is the Old Syriac, made, some suppose, before the death of the apostle John, but certainly at the close of the first century, or the beginning of the second. This ancient version thus renders the passage: — "And from them was manifested Messiah in the flesh, who is God that is over all; whose are praises and blessings to the ages of ages. Amen." Nothing can be more clear than this; nothing more express. The version which stands next to the Syriac, and which may be said almost to rival it, is the Old Latin, denominated the Italic. This was executed, as is supposed, at the beginning of the second century, and is of no small importance in Biblical criticism. It renders our text thus; — "From whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen." The Ethiopic, translated in the fourth century, omits the words "over all," and reads — "Of whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is God blessed for ever. Amen." And the Armenian, translated at the end of the fourth or the beginning of the fifth century, reads — "Of whom the Christ came according to the flesh; who is also over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen."

IV. ALL THE ANCIENT CHRISTIAN WRITERS WHO HAVE EITHER PROFESSEDLY CITED OR TRANSLATED THE PASSAGE, OR WHO HAVE REFERRED TO THE APOSTLE'S DESIGN IN WRITING IT, HAVE GIVEN THE CONSTRUCTION FOR WHICH WE ARE CONTENDING. , who flourished in the second century, and who was the disciple of , who had been personally acquainted with the apostle John, speaking of the generation of Jesus Christ, says — "He is called God with us, lest by any means one should conceive that He was only a man; for the Word was made flesh, not by the will of man, but by the will of God; nor should we, indeed, surmise Jesus to have been another, but know Him to be one and the same God. This very thing St. Paul has interpreted. Writing to the Romans, he said — 'Whose are the fathers, and of whom Christ came according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever.'" , about the year , writes thus: — "I will follow the apostle; so that if I have occasion to mention the Father and the Son together, I will use the appellations God the Father, and Jesus Christ the Lord. But when I am speaking of Christ alone, I will call Him God; as the apostle says, 'of whom is Christ, who is,' saith he, 'God over all things, blessed for ever.'" And in another passage Tertullian states: — "Paul also hath called Christ very God: 'Whose are the fathers, and of whom Christ came according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever'" , who wrote about the year , thus cites the passage, in a work written to prove that Christ is God: — "Of whom are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is God over all, blessed for ever." , about the year , thus expostulated with the opposers of the Saviour's Godhead: — "But if, when it belongs to God alone to know the secrets of the heart, Christ looks into the secrets of the heart; but if, when it belongs to God alone to forgive sins, Christ forgives sins; but if, when it is not the possible act of any man to come down from heaven, Christ in His advent descended from heaven; but if, when no man can utter this sentence, 'I and my Father are one,' Christ alone, from a consciousness of His Divinity, declared, 'I,' etc.; but if the apostle Paul, too, in his writings says, 'Whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever,' it follows that Christ is God." , about the year , states: — "Paul thus writes in his Epistle to the Romans: 'Of whom are the fathers, and of whom Christ came according to the flesh, who is over all, God.'" Here, by not adding the doxology, "blessed for ever," Athanasius has incontrovertibly proved that he understood the words as applying to Christ. , , and have quoted them in the same manner. Hilary, who wrote A.D. 324, has left the following testimony: — "Paul was not ignorant that Christ is God, saying, 'Of whom are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all things, God.'" And, now, what shall we say to this? If the consent of the whole professing Christian world — with the exception of a few individuals within the last three centuries — be not sufficient to prove the proper construction of a passage like this, on what authority are we to depend? But if it be sufficient, then an inspired apostle has assuredly written that "Christ is over all, God blessed for ever."

(Thos. Allin.)

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KJV: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;

WEB: who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;