Romanos 4:19

19 e sem se enfraquecer na fé, considerou o seu próprio corpo já amortecido (pois tinha quase cem anos), e o amortecimento do ventre de Sara;

Romanos 4:19 Meaning and Commentary

Romans 4:19

And being not weak in faith
Abraham was not weak in the exercise of his faith, on the promise of God; nor was his faith weakened about the accomplishment of it, neither by the length of time after the promise was made, nor by the seeming insuperable difficulties of nature which attended it; for

he considered not his own body now dead.
The Alexandrian copy reads without the negative, "he considered his own body now dead", and so the Syriac version: which makes his faith the greater, that though he did consider his case, yet his faith was not weakened: the phrase, "his body now dead", is an "euphemism" of the "merebrum virile", which by the Jews, when unfit for generation, is called (tm rba) , "merebrum emortuum" F20:

when he was about an hundred years old;
not being quite an hundred years of age, wanting a year or thereabout:

neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb;
how unfit she was to conceive and bear children: now though he might consider these things in his mind, yet they did not dwell upon his mind, nor he upon them; at least he did not consider them, so as to distrust the divine promise.


FOOTNOTES:

F20 T. Bab. Yebamot, fol. 55. 2. & Gloss. in ib. Sanhedrin, fol. 55. 1. & Gloss in ib. Shebuot, fol. 18. 1.

Romanos 4:19 In-Context

17 (como está escrito: Por pai de muitas nações te constituí) perante aquele no qual creu, a saber, Deus, que vivifica os mortos, e chama as coisas que não são, como se já fossem.
18 O qual, em esperança, creu contra a esperança, para que se tornasse pai de muitas nações, conforme o que lhe fora dito: Assim será a tua descendência;
19 e sem se enfraquecer na fé, considerou o seu próprio corpo já amortecido (pois tinha quase cem anos), e o amortecimento do ventre de Sara;
20 contudo, � vista da promessa de Deus, não vacilou por incredulidade, antes foi fortalecido na fé, dando glória a Deus,
21 e estando certíssimo de que o que Deus tinha prometido, também era poderoso para o fazer.
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