Romans 4

So what shall we say about Abraham, the man our people are descended from? What did he find out?

1What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?

NoteAbraham is the figure in Genesis whom the Jewish people traced their descent from: God promised him land, countless descendants, and a blessing that would reach every nation. The King James "as pertaining to the flesh" means by physical descent, by blood. "What shall we say then" is a debating formula Paul uses repeatedly in this letter to raise the next objection.

2If Abraham was made right with God by the things he did, then he had something to brag about. But he had nothing to brag about in front of God.

2For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

Note"Justified" is a courtroom word. It means declared to be in the right by a judge, acquitted, rather than made good. In Greek "justify," "righteous" and "righteousness" are all one word family; English splits them between a Latin-based verb and an Anglo-Saxon adjective, so the link Paul keeps pressing is much harder to see in translation than it was for his first readers. The King James "glory" here means boast or brag, not praise.

3What does Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and God credited that to him as being right with himself."

3For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

NoteThe quotation is Genesis 15:6. "Counted" translates a Greek bookkeeping term meaning to enter an amount in someone's account. The same verb runs through this whole chapter, appearing in the King James as counted, reckoned and imputed; they are one word, not three.

4When a person works for pay, that pay is not counted as a gift. It is owed to him.

4Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.

5But when a person does not work, and instead trusts the God who declares guilty people right with himself, that trust is credited to him as being right with God.

5But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Note"Him that justifieth the ungodly" is a deliberately shocking phrase. Acquitting a guilty party was exactly what a judge was forbidden to do: Exodus 23:7 warns against it and Proverbs 17:15 calls it detestable. Paul is using the language of a corrupt verdict on purpose.

6David says the same thing when he describes how happy the person is whom God credits as being right with himself apart from anything that person has done.

6Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,

NoteThe quotation that follows is Psalm 32:1-2. Ancient readers commonly referred to a psalm by its traditional author, so "David says" functions roughly as a citation.

7David says, "Happy are those whose law-breaking is forgiven, whose sins are covered over."

7Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

Note"Iniquities" in the King James means acts of lawlessness, breaches of the law. "Covered" is the image of the Hebrew psalm: the offense is put out of sight rather than left on display.

8"Happy is the man whose sin the Lord will never charge against him."

8Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

9So does this happiness belong only to those who are circumcised, or to those who are not circumcised as well? We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as being right with God.

9Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.

NoteCircumcision is the cutting away of the foreskin, commanded in Genesis 17 as the physical mark of God's agreement with Abraham and his male descendants, performed on infants at eight days old. "The circumcision" and "the uncircumcision" in the King James are not acts but groups of people: they are everyday shorthand for Jews and non-Jews.

10So when was it credited to him? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before.

10How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

NoteThe question is about the order of two events in Genesis. Abraham's faith was credited to him in Genesis 15; the command to be circumcised came in Genesis 17, when he was ninety-nine. On the chronology of Genesis, years separate them.

11Then he received circumcision as a sign. It was a seal marking the fact that God had already counted him right through the faith he had while he was still uncircumcised. This made him the father of everyone who believes without being circumcised, so that they too would be credited as right with God.

11And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:

NoteA seal was the impression a signet ring made in wax or soft clay, stamped on a document to authenticate it or on a container to certify the contents. A seal does not create what it marks; it confirms something already there. That is the whole force of the word here.

12And he is also the father of the circumcised, not of those who are merely circumcised, but of those who also walk in the footsteps of the faith our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

12And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.

NoteThe Greek of this verse is genuinely awkward, with an extra definite article that, read strictly, would make the second group a different set of people from the first. Most translators take Paul to mean one group described twice, as the rendering does, but the roughness is in the original and not in the English.

13The promise that Abraham would inherit the world was not given to him or to his descendants through the law. It came through the right standing with God that comes by faith.

13For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

Note"The law" means the law of Moses, the commands given at Sinai, which in the Genesis account came centuries after Abraham. "Seed" in the King James is a singular collective noun meaning offspring or descendants, not one individual. "Heir of the world" is Paul's summary rather than a phrase from Genesis, where the promises were of land, of descendants beyond counting, and of blessing for all nations.

14For if the people who live by the law are the ones who inherit, then faith counts for nothing and the promise is empty.

14For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:

15The law brings God's anger down on people; and where there is no law, there is nothing to break.

15Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.

Note"Wrath" here is a judicial term for God's settled response to wrongdoing, closer to a sentence handed down than to a fit of temper. "Transgression" means specifically stepping across a line that has been drawn; it is not a general word for doing wrong, which is why it requires a law to exist first.

16So the promise comes by faith, in order that it may rest on God's free kindness and be guaranteed to all of Abraham's descendants. It is not only for those who have the law, but also for those who share Abraham's faith. He is the father of us all.

16Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

Note"Grace" translates a word meaning a gift freely given, a favor shown to someone who has no claim on it. Its opposite in this argument is wages, something the recipient can demand.

17As Scripture says, "I have made you the father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of the God he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that do not exist into being as though they already did.

17(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

NoteThe quotation is Genesis 17:5, the verse where his name is changed from Abram to Abraham, a name understood to mean "father of a multitude." The King James "quickeneth" is old English for makes alive, brings to life.

18When there was no reason left to hope, Abraham still hoped and believed, and so he became the father of many nations, just as he had been told, "That is how many your descendants will be."

18Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

Note"So shall thy seed be" quotes Genesis 15:5, where God takes Abraham outside at night, tells him to count the stars, and says his descendants will be like that.

19His faith did not weaken. He did not dwell on the fact that his own body was as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, or on the fact that Sarah's womb was lifeless.

19And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:

NoteSarah was Abraham's wife. In Genesis she is ninety at this point and he is a hundred, and they have been childless their whole married life. "Dead" and "deadness" in the King James are used of bodies past the age of producing children, not of corpses.

20He did not waver over God's promise through unbelief. Instead he grew strong in faith and gave glory to God,

20He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

21and he was completely convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

21And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

22That is why it was credited to him as being right with God.

22And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.

23Now the words "it was credited to him" were not written down for Abraham's sake alone.

23Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;

24They were written for us as well. It will be credited to us too, if we believe in the God who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

24But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;

25Jesus was handed over to death because of the wrongs we did, and was raised to life because we were declared right with God.

25Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Note"Delivered" means handed over, the word used for handing a prisoner to the authorities; it echoes the Greek version of Isaiah 53. The two phrases "for our offences" and "for our justification" use the same preposition in Greek, which can mean either "because of" or "for the sake of." Translators have to choose, and the choice is disputed: the line can be read as handed over because of our wrongs and raised so that we could be declared right, or with both halves looking backward, as the rendering takes it.