Romans 4:19

19 Abraham didn't weaken. Through faith he regarded the facts: His body was already as good as dead now that he was about a hundred years old, and Sarah was unable to have children.

Romans 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.

Romans 4:19 In-Context

17 as Scripture says: "I have made you a father of many nations." Abraham believed when he stood in the presence of the God who gives life to dead people and calls into existence things that don't even exist.
18 When there was nothing left to hope for, Abraham still hoped and believed. As a result, he became a father of many nations, as he had been told: "That is how many descendants you will have."
19 Abraham didn't weaken. Through faith he regarded the facts: His body was already as good as dead now that he was about a hundred years old, and Sarah was unable to have children.
20 He didn't doubt God's promise out of a lack of faith. Instead, giving honor to God [for the promise], he became strong because of faith
21 and was absolutely confident that God would do what he promised.
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