Romans 4:12

There can be no doubt that this verse refers to believers of Jewish origin, who formed the other half of Abraham's spiritual family. But it presents a great grammatical difficulty. The Greek expression is such that it seems as if Paul meant to speak in this same verse of two different classes of individuals. It appears as if the literal translation should run thus: “father of circumcision, in respect of those who are not only of the circumcision, but also in respect of those who walk in the steps of”...Proceeding on this translation, Theodoret, Luther, and others have applied the first words: “in respect of those who are not only of the circumcision,” to Jewish believers, and the following words: “in respect of those who walk in the footsteps of Abraham's faith,” to Gentile believers. But why then return to the latter, who had already been sufficiently designated and characterized in Romans 4:11 ? And how, in speaking of Jewish believers, could Paul content himself with saying that they are not of circumcision only, without expressly mentioning faith as the condition of their being children of Abraham? Finally, the construction would still be incorrect in this sense, which would have demanded οὐ τοῖς... μόνον (not only for those who belong to the circumcision) instead of τοῖς οὐ... μόνον (for those who not only belong to...). This ancient explanation must therefore certainly be abandoned. There can be here only one class of persons designated by two distinct attributes. The first is circumcision, and the second, a faith like Abraham's. But in this case the Greek construction seems again faulty in the second member. This is acknowledged by Tholuck, Meyer, etc. Philippi is fain to satisfy himself with the reflection that negligences of style are found in the best writers; which is true, but does not help us here; for the faultiness would be a real want of logic. On the other hand, the expedients recently devised by Hofmann and Wieseler are so farfetched that they do not deserve even to be discussed. And yet the apostle has not accustomed us to inexactness unworthy even of an intelligent pupil; and we may still seek to solve the difficulty. This is not impossible, as it appears to us; we need only take the first τοῖς to be a pronoun (those who), as it incontestably is, but regard the second not as a second parallel pronoun (which would, besides, require it to be placed before the καί), but a simple definite article: “ the (individuals) walking in the steps of”...The meaning thus reached is to this effect: “those who are not only of the circumcision, but who are also, that is to say, at the same time, the (individuals) walking in the steps of”...This article, τοῖς, the, is partitive. It serves to mark off clearly within the mass of the Jewish people who possess the sign of circumcision, a much narrower circle: those walking in the faith, that is to say, the Jews, who to circumcision add the characteristic of faith. These latter do not form a second class alongside of the first; they form within this latter a group apart, possessing beside the common distinction, an attribute (faith) which is wanting to the others; and it is to draw this line of demarkation accurately within the circumcised Israel that the article is used. The τοῖς is here simply an article analogous to the τοῖς before πιστεύουσιν.

Paul is not satisfied with saying: “who also walk in the footsteps of Abraham's faith;” he expressly reminds us for this is the point of his argument that Abraham had this faith in the state of uncircumcision. What does this mean, if not that Abraham was still ranked as a Gentile when “he believed and his faith was counted to him for righteousness?” Hence it follows that it is not, properly speaking, for Gentile believers to enter by the gate of the Jews, but for Jewish believers to enter by the gate of the Gentiles. It will be allowed that it was impossible for one to overwhelm his adversary more completely. But such is Paul's logic; it does not stop short with refuting its opponent, it does not leave him till it has made it plain to a demonstration that the truth is the very antipodes of what he affirmed.

We find in these two verses the great and sublime idea of Abraham's spiritual family, that people which is the product, not of the flesh, but of faith, and which comprises the believers of the whole world, whether Jews or Gentiles. This place of father to all the believing race of man assigned to Abraham, is a fundamental fact in the kingdom of God; it is the act in which this kingdom takes its rise, it is the aim of the patriarch's call: “ that he might be the father of...(Romans 4:11), and of ”...(Romans 4:12). Hofmann says rightly: “Abraham is not only the first example of faith, for there had been other believers before him (Hebrews 11); but in him therewas founded forever the community of faith.” From this point the continuous history of salvation begins. Abraham is the stem of that tree, which thenceforth strikes root and develops. For he has not believed simply in the God of creation; he has laid hold by faith of the God of the promise, the author of that redeeming work which appears on the earth in his very faith. The notion of this spiritual paternity once rightly understood, the filiation of Abraham in the physical sense lost all importance in the matter of salvation. The prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus (John 8), were already at one in laying down the truth which the apostle here demonstrates: faith as constituting the principle of life, as it were the life-blood of Abraham's family, which is that of God on the earth. Because, indeed, this principle is the only one in harmony with the moral essence of things, with the true relation between the Creator who gives of free grace, and the creature who accepts freely.

And this whole admirable deduction made by the apostle is to be regarded as a piece of Rabbinical scholasticism!

The apostle has succeeded in discovering the basis of Christian universalism in the very life of him in whose person theocratic particularism was founded. He has demonstrated the existence of a time when he represented Gentilism, or, to speak more properly, mankind in general; and it was during this period, when he was not yet a Jew, but simply a man, that he received salvation! The whole gospel of Paul was involved in this fact. But a question arose: after receiving justification, Abraham had obtained another privilege: he had been declared, with all his posterity, to be the future possessor of the world. Now this posterity could be none else than his issue by Isaac, and which had been put in possession of circumcision and of Canaan. Through this opening there returned, with banners displayed, that particularism which had been overthrown in the domain of justification. Thus there was lost the whole gain of the preceding demonstration. Paul does not fail to anticipate and remove the difficulty. To this question he devotes the following passage, Romans 4:13-16.