Some ancient Greek manuscripts shed light on how this passage was understood by some scribes. Some manuscripts, including Codex A, have a middle point after "flesh," creating a pause or break between the reference to "Christ" and the reference to "God." Other manuscripts, such as B, L, 0142 and 0151 have a high point after "flesh," also indicating a pause or break of some kind.[1] Metzger also notes that the scribe of C left a noticeable space between "flesh" and what follows.[2]

1
Metzger, ibid., 97, believes that B has a middle point, but in reviewing the microfilm of Codex B it is quite possible that B has a high point, not a middle point. There is definitely a middle point after "Abraham" in verse 7, which is noticeably lower than the point after "flesh" in verse 5. A middle point is usually taken to indicate a pause such as we might indicate by use of a colon or comma, while a high point is generally used to indicate a full stop, which is why B uses a high point after "Amen" in verse 5. Codex B uses middle points throughout Romans 8, and the point after machaira ("sword") in 8:35 is quite similar in its height to the point after "flesh" in 9:5. Compare the high point after "sword" to the middle points in 8:35, which are clearly intended as minor pauses, not full stops.

2
Ibid., 97.

According to the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (hereafter, NWT), the final part of this verse (referring to "God, who is over all") is separated from the preceding reference to "the Christ." In Appendix 6D of the 1984 NWT Reference Bible, several other translations, including the Revised Standard Version, the New English Bible, Today’s English Version, the New American Bible, and James Moffatt’s translation of the Bible, are cited as agreeing with NWT’s reading. We might also list Goodspeed’s translation, and others, in this category.