At Romans 9:5 the New World Translation punctuates the verse so that the doxology refers to God rather than to Christ: “God, who is over all, be praised forever.” This is genuinely disputed among translators: the New American Bible, the Good News Translation and the Contemporary English Version punctuate it the same way, while the NIV, ESV, NASB and NRSV do not.
Claim ID claim-bible-rom-9-5-disputedConcerns 2013Context
The organisation’s position or later explanation: The organisation's study note states: “Grammatically, such a rendering is possible, but the context has to be taken into consideration”, and argues from the surrounding passage and from Paul's habit of ascribing doxologies to God.
1985 · Romans 9:5 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
“ἐξ out of ὧν whom ὁ the χριστὸς Christ τὸ the (thing) κατὰ according to σάρκα, flesh, ὁ the (one) ὢν being ἐπὶ upon πάντων, all (things), θεὸς God εὐλογητὸς blessed (one) εἰς into τοὺς the αἰῶνας· ages; ἀμήν. amen.”
The Greek runs on without a full stop. Whether ὁ ὤν ('the one being') continues the description of Christ or begins a new clause about God is a question of punctuation, which the earliest manuscripts do not settle.
19 September 2026 · Bible Hub (reproducing the named copyright translations)
“Christ as God: New International Version “the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised!”; English Standard Version “is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever”; New Revised Standard Version “comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed forever”. Separate doxology: New American Bible “is the Messiah. God who is over all be blessed forever.”; Good News Translation “May God, who rules over all, be praised forever!”; Contemporary English Version “I pray that God, who rules over all, will be praised forever!””
Romans 9:5 is genuinely disputed among translators quite independently of the New World Translation: the New American Bible, a Roman Catholic translation, punctuates it as the NWT does.
Notes. This quote field compiles renderings quoted separately from one Bible Hub parallel page; it is not a continuous passage. Each rendering was checked word for word against the page, which carries over forty versions.
Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID.src-nwtv-bh-rom-9-5
1985 · pp.1142-1143 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
“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.”
The appendix lists seven translations that punctuate Romans 9:5 as the New World Translation does, including the Revised Standard Version (1952), Moffatt (1935), Today's English Version (1966), the New American Bible (1970) and the New English Bible (1972). It quotes Winer's grammar and Ezra Abbot's 1888 study, which notes a point after σάρκα in codices A, B, C and L.
Provenance and verification note for The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures, Appendix 2D: “God, Who Is Over All”
Confidence note. Appendix opened in full on wol.jw.org on 19 September 2026; page markers 1142 and 1143 read from the page-number spans. I have not opened Winer or Abbot to check those quotations, nor the manuscripts to confirm the punctuation claim.
A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-bible-rom-9-5-disputed/. Every source above opens the original document or the best available copy. If you believe the wording, date or context is wrong, report an error.