Romanos 4:19

19 Y sin debilitarse en la fe contempló su propio cuerpo, que ya estaba como muerto puesto que tenía como cien años, y la esterilidad de la matriz 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: TE HE HECHO PADRE DE MUCHAS NACIONES), delante de aquel en quien creyó, es decir Dios, que da vida a los muertos y llama a las cosas que no son, como si fueran.

18 El creyó en esperanza contra esperanza, a fin de llegar a ser padre de muchas naciones, conforme a lo que se le había dicho: ASI SERA TU DESCENDENCIA.

19 Y sin debilitarse en la fe contempló su propio cuerpo, que ya estaba como muerto puesto que tenía como cien años, y la esterilidad de la matriz de Sara;

20 sin embargo, respecto a la promesa de Dios, Abraham no titubeó con incredulidad, sino que se fortaleció en fe, dando gloria a Dios,

21 y estando plenamente convencido de que lo que Dios había prometido, poderoso era también para cumplirlo.