Romans 4
Romans 4 is the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It is authored by Paul the Apostle, while he was in Corinth in the mid-50s AD, with the help of an amanuensis, Tertius, who adds his own greeting in Romans 16:22.
The focus of this chapter is on Abraham, whose faith "was accounted to him for righteousness". The Geneva Bible's chapter summary states that "ten times in the chapter beateth upon this word, Imputation.
Text
The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 25 verses.Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:- Papyrus 40
- Codex Vaticanus
- Codex Sinaiticus
- Codex Alexandrinus
- Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus
Old Testament references
- Romans 4:3 references Genesis 15:6
- Romans 4:7–8 references Psalm 32:1–2
- Romans 4:17 references Genesis 17:5
- Romans 4:18 references Genesis 15:5
- Romans 4:22 references Genesis 15:6
Abraham's faith
Verse 1
The Jerusalem Bible sees Abraham's faith as an "example" or an "application" of the faith which Paul has described in chapter 3. T F Lockyer calls it "a test case", and Craig Hill treats this passage as an appeal, in a legal sense, to precedent. While many translations link the with the Jews' ancestral relationship with Abraham, an alternative reading is recognised, for example in the New King James Version, which reads "What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?"Verse 3
Heinrich Meyer explains that the citation from Genesis 15:6 is quoted according to the Septuagint, which renders the active by the passive. The passage follows from an account of where God has taken Abraham outside to count the number of stars, and promised "so shall your descendants be". Paul quotes the same verse in the same way in Galatians 3:6.Meyer also disputes the charge from theologian that Paul "made an unwarrantable use of the passage for his purpose", because here Paul definitely understood "in the dogmatic sense", justifiable in doing so, since "the imputation of faith as, was essentially the same judicial act which takes place at the justification of Christians".