Genesis 15:1-2

The Cutting of the Covenant

15:1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram! I am your shield ¹  and the one who will reward you in great abundance.” ² 

15:2 But Abram said, “O sovereign Lord, ³  what will you give me since ⁴  I continue to be ⁵  childless, and my heir ⁶  is ⁷  Eliezer of Damascus?” ⁸ 

Genesis 18:11-13

18:11 Abraham and Sarah were old and advancing in years; ⁹  Sarah had long since passed menopause.) ¹⁰  18:12 So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, ¹¹  “After I am worn out will I have pleasure, ¹²  especially when my husband is old too?” ¹³ 

18:13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why ¹⁴  did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really ¹⁵  have a child when I am old?’

Joshua 24:3

24:3 but I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates ¹⁶  and brought him into ¹⁷  the entire land of Canaan. I made his descendants numerous; I gave him Isaac,

Romans 4:1-5

The Illustration of Justification

4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh, ¹⁸  has discovered regarding this matter? ¹⁹  4:2 For if Abraham was declared righteous ²⁰  by the works of the law, he has something to boast about – but not before God. 4:3 For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited ²¹  to him as righteousness.” ²²  4:4 Now to the one who works, his pay is not credited due to grace but due to obligation. ²³  4:5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in the one who declares the ungodly righteous, ²⁴  his faith is credited as righteousness.

Romans 4:16-24

4:16 For this reason it is by faith so that it may be by grace, ²⁵  with the result that the promise may be certain to all the descendants – not only to those who are under the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, ²⁶  who is the father of us all 4:17 (as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”). ²⁷  He is our father ²⁸  in the presence of God whom he believed – the God who ²⁹  makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do. ³⁰  4:18 Against hope Abraham ³¹  believed ³²  in hope with the result that he became the father of many nations ³³  according to the pronouncement, ³⁴  “so will your descendants be.” ³⁵  4:19 Without being weak in faith, he considered ³⁶  his own body as dead ³⁷  (because he was about one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 4:20 He ³⁸  did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. 4:21 He was ³⁹  fully convinced that what God ⁴⁰  promised he was also able to do. 4:22 So indeed it was credited to Abraham ⁴¹  as righteousness.

4:23 But the statement it was credited to him ⁴²  was not written only for Abraham’s ⁴³  sake, 4:24 but also for our sake, to whom it will be credited, those who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

[15:1]  ¹ sn The noun “shield” recalls the words of Melchizedek in 14:20. If God is the shield, then God will deliver. Abram need not fear reprisals from those he has fought.

[15:1]  ² tn Heb “your reward [in] great abundance.” When the phrase הַרְבּה מְאֹדֵ (harbeh mÿod) follows a noun it invariably modifies the noun and carries the nuance “very great” or “in great abundance.” (See its use in Gen 41:49; Deut 3:5; Josh 22:8; 2 Sam 8:8; 12:2; 1 Kgs 4:29; 10:10-11; 2 Chr 14:13; 32:27; Jer 40:12.) Here the noun “reward” is in apposition to “shield” and refers by metonymy to God as the source of the reward. Some translate here “your reward will be very great” (cf. NASB, NRSV), taking the statement as an independent clause and understanding the Hiphil infinitive absolute as a substitute for a finite verb. However, the construction הַרְבּה מְאֹדֵ is never used this way elsewhere, where it either modifies a noun (see the texts listed above) or serves as an adverb in relation to a finite verb (see Josh 13:1; 1 Sam 26:21; 2 Sam 12:30; 2 Kgs 21:16; 1 Chr 20:2; Neh 2:2).

[15:2]  ³ tn The Hebrew text has אֲדֹנָי יֱהוִה (’adonay yehvih, “Master, Lord”). Since the tetragrammaton (YHWH) usually is pointed with the vowels for the Hebrew word אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “master”) to avoid pronouncing the divine name, that would lead in this place to a repetition of אֲדֹנָי. So the tetragrammaton is here pointed with the vowels for the word אֱלֹהִים (’elohim, “God”) instead. That would produce the reading of the Hebrew as “Master, God” in the Jewish textual tradition. But the presence of “Master” before the holy name is rather compelling evidence that the original would have been “Master, Lord,” which is rendered here “sovereign Lord.”

[15:2]  ⁴ tn The vav (ו) disjunctive at the beginning of the clause is circumstantial, expressing the cause or reason.

[15:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “I am going.”

[15:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “the son of the acquisition of my house.”

[15:2]  ⁷ tn The pronoun is anaphoric here, equivalent to the verb “to be” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 23, §115).

[15:2]  ⁸ sn The sentence in the Hebrew text employs a very effective wordplay on the name Damascus: “The son of the acquisition (בֶּן־מֶשֶׁק, ben-mesheq) of my house is Eliezer of Damascus (דַּמֶּשֶׁק, dammesheq).” The words are not the same; they have different sibilants. But the sound play gives the impression that “in the nomen is the omen.” Eliezer the Damascene will be Abram’s heir if Abram dies childless because “Damascus” seems to mean that. See M. F. Unger, “Some Comments on the Text of Genesis 15:2-3,” JBL 72 (1953): 49-50; H. L. Ginsberg, “Abram’s ‘Damascene’ Steward,” BASOR 200 (1970): 31-32.

[18:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “days.”

[18:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “it had ceased to be for Sarah [after] a way like women.”

[18:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “saying.”

[18:12]  ¹² tn It has been suggested that this word should be translated “conception,” not “pleasure.” See A. A. McIntosh, “A Third Root ‘adah in Biblical Hebrew,” VT 24 (1974): 454-73.

[18:12]  ¹³ tn The word “too” has been added in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[18:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Why, this?” The demonstrative pronoun following the interrogative pronoun is enclitic, emphasizing the Lord’s amazement: “Why on earth did Sarah laugh?”

[18:13]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew construction uses both הַאַף (ha’af) and אֻמְנָם (’umnam): “Indeed, truly, will I have a child?”

[24:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:3]  ¹⁷ tn Or “through.”

[4:1]  ¹⁸ tn Or “according to natural descent” (BDAG 916 s.v. σάρξ 4).

[4:1]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “has found?”

[4:2]  ²⁰ tn Or “was justified.”

[4:3]  ²¹ tn The term λογίζομαι (logizomai) occurs 11 times in this chapter (vv. 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 22, 23, 24). In secular usage it could (a) refer to deliberations of some sort, or (b) in commercial dealings (as virtually a technical term) to “reckoning” or “charging up a debt.” See H. W. Heidland, TDNT 4:284, 290-92.

[4:3]  ²² sn A quotation from Gen 15:6.

[4:4]  ²³ tn Grk “not according to grace but according to obligation.”

[4:5]  ²⁴ tn Or “who justifies the ungodly.”

[4:16]  ²⁵ tn Grk “that it might be according to grace.”

[4:16]  ²⁶ tn Grk “those who are of the faith of Abraham.”

[4:17]  ²⁷ tn Verses 16-17 comprise one sentence in Greek, but this has been divided into two sentences due to English requirements.

[4:17]  ²⁸ tn The words “He is our father” are not in the Greek text but are supplied to show that they resume Paul’s argument from 16b. (It is also possible to supply “Abraham had faith” here [so REB], taking the relative clause [“who is the father of us all”] as part of the parenthesis, and making the connection back to “the faith of Abraham,” but such an option is not as likely [C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:243].)

[4:17]  ²⁹ tn “The God” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity.

[4:17]  ³⁰ tn Or “calls into existence the things that do not exist.” The translation of ὡς ὄντα (Jw" onta) allows for two different interpretations. If it has the force of result, then creatio ex nihilo is in view and the variant rendering is to be accepted (so C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:244). A problem with this view is the scarcity of ὡς plus participle to indicate result (though for the telic idea with ὡς plus participle, cf. Rom 15:15; 1 Thess 2:4). If it has a comparative force, then the translation given in the text is to be accepted: “this interpretation fits the immediate context better than a reference to God’s creative power, for it explains the assurance with which God can speak of the ‘many nations’ that will be descended from Abraham” (D. Moo, Romans [NICNT], 282; so also W. Sanday and A. C. Headlam, Romans [ICC], 113). Further, this view is in line with a Pauline idiom, viz., verb followed by ὡς plus participle (of the same verb or, in certain contexts, its antonym) to compare present reality with what is not a present reality (cf. 1 Cor 4:7; 5:3; 7:29, 30 (three times), 31; Col 2:20 [similarly, 2 Cor 6:9, 10]).

[4:18]  ³¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:18]  ³² tn Grk “who against hope believed,” referring to Abraham. The relative pronoun was converted to a personal pronoun and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:18]  ³³ sn A quotation from Gen 17:5.

[4:18]  ³⁴ tn Grk “according to that which had been spoken.”

[4:18]  ³⁵ sn A quotation from Gen 15:5.

[4:19]  ³⁶ tc Most mss (D F G Ψ 33 1881 Ï it) read “he did not consider” by including the negative particle (οὐ, ou), but others (א A B C 6 81 365 1506 1739 pc co) lack οὐ. The reading which includes the negative particle probably represents a scribal attempt to exalt the faith of Abraham by making it appear that his faith was so strong that he did not even consider the physical facts. But “here Paul does not wish to imply that faith means closing one’s eyes to reality, but that Abraham was so strong in faith as to be undaunted by every consideration” (TCGNT 451). Both on external and internal grounds, the reading without the negative particle is preferred.

[4:19]  ³⁷ tc ‡ Most witnesses (א A C D Ψ 33 Ï bo) have ἤδη (hdh, “already”) at this point in v. 19. But B F G 630 1739 1881 pc lat sa lack it. Since it appears to heighten the style of the narrative and since there is no easy accounting for an accidental omission, it is best to regard the shorter text as original. NA²⁷ includes the word in brackets, indicating doubt as to its authenticity.

[4:20]  ³⁸ tn Grk “And he.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, δέ (de) has not been translated here.

[4:21]  ³⁹ tn Grk “and being.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:21]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:22]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:23]  ⁴² tn A quotation from Gen 15:6.

[4:23]  ⁴³ tn Grk “his”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.