Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Romans 16:27

μόνῳ σοφῷ θεῷ : this description of God suits all that has just been said about His great purpose in human history, and the hiding and revealing of it in due time. The true text in 1 Timothy 1:17 has no σοφῷ. The absence of the article here indicates that it is in virtue of having this character that God is able to stablish the Romans according to Paul's Gospel. ᾧ ἡ δόξα : it is impossible to be sure of the reading here. If ᾧ be omitted, there is no grammatical difficulty whatever: glory is ascribed to God through Jesus Christ, through Whom the eternal purpose of the world's redemption has in God's wisdom been wrought out. But its omission is almost certainly a correction made for simplification's sake. If it be retained, to whom does it refer? (1) Some say, to Jesus Christ; and this is grammatically the obvious way to take it. But it seems inconsistent with the fact that in τῷ δὲ δυναμένῳ and μόνῳ σοφῷ θεῷ Paul wishes unequivocally to ascribe the glory to God. And though it saves the grammar of the last clause, it sacrifices that of the whole sentence. Hence (2) it seems necessary to refer it to God, and we may suppose, with Sanday and Headlam, that the structure of the sentence being lost amid the heavily-loaded clauses of the doxology, the writer concludes with a well-known formula of praise, ᾦ ἡ δόξα κ. τ. λ. (Galatians 1:15; 2 Timothy 4:18; Hebrews 13:21). This might be indicated by putting a dash after Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. The thread is lost, and the writer appends his solemn conclusion as best he can.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Romans 16:27

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