Romans 4 - Introduction

B. THE EXAMPLE OF ABRAHAM (Ch. 4)

Bp Lightfoot (Ep. to the Galatians, detached note to ch. 3) makes it very probable that "at the time of the Christian era the passage in Genesis relating to Abraham's faith had become a standard text in the Jewish schools … and that the interest thus concentrated upon it prepared the way for the fuller and more spiritual teaching of the Apostles." By Philo, the great representative of Alexandria, Genesis 15:6 "is quoted or referred to at least ten times." And in the Talmud, which reflects "fairly, though with some exceptions, the Jewish teaching at the Christian era," "the significance attached to Abraham's example may be inferred from the following passage in the Mechiltaon Exodus 14:31: -Great is faith, whereby Israel believed on Him that spake and the world was. For as a reward for Israel's having believed in the Lord, the Holy Spirit dwelt on them.… Abraham our father inherited this world and the world to come solely by the merit of faith whereby he believed in the Lord; for it is said, and he believed in the Lord, and it was counted &c.… So … Habakkuk, The righteous liveth of his faith… Great is faith!" " [51] Bp Lightfoot adds in a note, that some later Jewish writers, "anxious, it would appear, to cut the ground from under St Paul's inference of -righteousness by faith," interpreted the latter clause [of Genesis 15:6], -and Abraham counted on God's righteousness," i.e. on His strict fulfilment of His promise.… Such a rendering is as harsh in itself as it is devoid of traditional support."

[51] Observe that the idea of merit, visible in the above passages, is carefully excluded by St Paul.