Romans 9:3

ηὐχόμην. Cf. Acts 25:22; Galatians 4:20; Philemon 1:13. Here of an impracticable wish, ‘I could have prayed if it had been possible’; Blass, p. 207. Contrast Acts 26:29.

ἀνάθεμα, lit. a thing set up in a temple and so destroyed as far as use by man goes (LXX[173] Leviticus 27:28); then devoted to destruction (Deuteronomy 13:15), cursed (LXX[174] Joshua 7 alibi); cf. Nägeli, p. 49. Followed by ἀπὸ only here; cf. Romans 7:2, κατήργηται�; cf. 1 Corinthians 12:3; 1 Corinthians 16:22; Galatians 1:8-9.

[173] LXX. the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament
[174] LXX. the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament

αὐτὸς ἐγὼ. Romans 7:25; Romans 15:14; 2 Corinthians 10:1; 2 Corinthians 12:13. ? = instead of them.

ἀπὸ τοῦ χριστοῦ = so as to lose all that the Messiah means to a Jew and to a Christian. For ὁ χρ. cf. Romans 7:4; Romans 8:35; Romans 9:5. The reference when the article is present (except perhaps where it is due to an article with a governing word) seems always to be to the office of Messiah as exhibited and interpreted in Jesus.

ὑπὲρ—κατὰ σάρκα, to distinguish them from the spiritual family of Christ: the Church is now the true Israel. τ. σ. μ. κ. σ. explains τ. ἀ. μ.