Paul's Use of Genesis 15:6 in Romans
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TMSJ 32/1 (Spring 2021) 115–130 PAUL’S USE OF GENESIS 15:6 IN ROMANS 4:3 Sam Waldron Ph.D., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President and Professor of Systematic Theology Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary * * * * * This essay examines (1) the relevant uses of Genesis 15:6 and references to Abraham in a large group of ancient Jewish sources; (2) the immediate context of Romans 4:3; (3) the analysis of the Old Testament context of Genesis 15:6; and (4) the way in which Paul interprets and utilizes Genesis 15:6 in Romans 4:3. Paul’s use of the text is a reaffirmation of themes original to Genesis 15:6 in its OT context, and his careful use of the OT contrasts with contemporary Judaic tendencies to read the OT as supporting a soteriology of human achievement or “the works of the law.” This conclusion undermines the central premise of the New Perspective on Paul, while supporting the traditional doctrine of justification, sola fide. * * * * * Introduction Because of the influence of the New Perspective on Paul and other similar movements in recent decades, questions now abound concerning the traditional Protestant understanding of the doctrine of justification. Prominent among these questions are those which involve the Pauline doctrine of justification. The traditional Protestant understanding of Paul has been challenged. In a yet more extreme fashion, the propriety of Paul’s understanding of justification has been challenged. In particular, questions have been raised with regard to whether the Old Testament itself actually supports the Pauline and Protestant understanding of justification. This is an important—even crucial—question. It is the more crucial because, I suspect, that many who believe in the Pauline and Protestant doctrine harbor certain questions about how this doctrine fits with the teaching and the themes of the Old Testament. This article will examine the key passage in which Paul responds to such questions and, in particular, the key Old Testament quotation which he examines in this passage. This article will argue that the Pauline understanding of the Old Testament is unequivocally superior to those understandings associated with the New 115 116 | Genesis 15:6 in Romans 4:3 Perspective and similar movements which deviate from the traditional, Protestant understanding of justification. It will be demonstrated that it embodies a crucial insight into the teaching and themes of the Old Testament overlooked by many today.1 The Relevant Uses of Genesis 15:6 in Jewish Sources A thorough examination of all the relevant data in the ancient Jewish literature is outside the scope of this paper. The influence of E. P. Sanders, James D. G. Dunn, N. T. Wright, and the consequent debate surrounding the New Perspective on Paul requires, however, some reference to more extensive treatments of the data.2 Das provides a balanced assessment when he remarks: Sanders may have gone too far when he denied that there are admonitions throughout this literature to observe perfectly what God enjoins in the law. If it is true that the Jews saw the law as requiring strict, perfect obedience, the key premise in “the new perspective on Paul” would be wrong.3 Das presents evidence that the New Perspective is in need of corrective lenses. The evidence from Jewish literature now to be reviewed with regard to Abraham appears to confirm Das’s general point of view.4 4 Ezra 9:7 says of Abraham: And it shall be that everyone who will be saved and will be able to escape on account of his works, or on account of his faith by which he has believed. The Apocalypse of Baruch 57:2 says: And after these things you saw the bright waters; that is the fountain of Abraham and his generation, and the coming of his son, and the son of his son, and of those who are like them. For at that time the unwritten 1 In my doctoral dissertation I argue that there was a monolithic, Protestant doctrine of justification reflected in the writings of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and the great Protestant creeds. I also argue that there are significant movements departing from this doctrine in Evangelicalism today. My dissertation is now published by Reformed Baptist Academic Press. It is entitled, Faith, Obedience, and Justification: Current Evangelical Departures from Sola Fide. 2 A number of important studies may be cited that handle the data more comprehensively than this essay is permitted to do. Cf. A. Andrew Das, Paul, the Law, and the Covenant (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2001), 12–69; D. Dixon Sutherland, “Genesis 15:6: A Study in Ancient Jewish and Christian Interpretation” (Ph.D. diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1982), 73–135; Michael Thomas Irvin, “Paul’s Use of the Abraham Image in Romans and Galatians” (Ph.D. diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1985), 7-45. 3 Das, Paul, the Law, and the Covenant, 13. 4 Many of these statements were found with the help of Hermann Leberecht Strack, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch (Munchen: Beck, 1965), 4:186–201. The Master’s Seminary Journal | 117 law was in force among them, and the works of the commandments were accomplished at that time, and the belief in the coming judgment was brought about, and the hope of the world which will be renewed was built at that time, and the promise of life that will come later was planted. Those are the bright waters which you have seen. Aboth 5:3 in the Babylonian Talmud reads as follows: With ten trials was Abraham, our Father proved, and he stood firm in them all; to make known how great was the love of Abraham, our Father (peace be upon him). Genesis Rabbah, Parashah 44, in its comments on Genesis 15:1 contains this fairly typical view of Abraham: Another matter: “His way is perfect” (2Sam. 22:31) refers to Abraham, for it is written in his regard, “You found [Abraham’s] way faithful before you” (Neh. 9:8). Later in this same Parashah there is this revealing comment: “A. “After these things” (Genesis 15:1): There were some second thoughts. B. Who had second thoughts? Abraham did. He said before the Holy One, blessed be he, “Lord of the ages, you made a covenant with Noah that you would not wipe his children. I went and acquired a treasure of religious deeds and good deeds greater than his, so the covenant made with me has set aside the covenant made with him. Now is it possible that someone else will come along and accumulate religious deeds and good deeds greater than mine and so set aside the covenant that was made with me on account of the covenant to be made with him.” Also note: “A. “But he said, ‘O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” (Gen. 15:8): B. R. Hama bar Haninah said, “It was not as though he were complaining, but he said to him, ‘On account of what merit [shall I know it? That is, how have I the honor of being so informed?]” C. “He said to him, ‘It is on account of the merit of the sacrifice of atonement that I shall hand over to your descendants.5 Jubilees 11:15–17 reads: And in the seventh year of that week, she bore a son for him, and he called him Abram, after the name of his mother’s father because he died before his daughter conceived a son. And the lad began understanding the straying of the land, that everyone went astray after graven images and after pollution. And his father taught him writing. And he was two weeks of years old. And he separated from his father that he might not worship the idols with him. And he began to pray to the Creator of all 5 This material is taken from Jacob Neusner, Genesis Rabbah: The Judaic Commentary to the Book of Genesis: A New American Translation (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, n.d.), 125, 128, 129, 134, 135. 118 | Genesis 15:6 in Romans 4:3 so that he might save him from the straying of the sons of men, and so that his portion might not fall into straying after the pollution and scorn.” As the following context makes clear (11:18), Abram is viewed as 14 years old at the time of the above description. Jubilees 17:17–18 says: And the Lord knew that Abraham was faithful in all his afflictions, for he had tried him through his country and with famine; and had tried him with the wealth of kings, and had tried him again through his wife, when she was torn (from him), and with circumcision; and had tried through Ishmael and Hagar, his maid-servant, when he sent them away. And in everything wherein He had tried him, he was found faithful, and his soul was not impatient, and he was not slow to act; for he was faithful and a lover of the Lord.” Irvin adds these relevant remarks to the above quotation: “Whatever might be offensive in the Genesis account was altered. No deception about Sarah occurred in Egypt (13:11–15), and when God told Abraham he and Sarah would have a son, Abraham rejoiced (15:17) instead of laughing (Genesis 17:17). At the age of fourteen, Abraham rejected idol worship, rebuked his father for worshipping them, and then boldly burned the idols (Jubilees 12). Abraham also endorsed the Torah’s eternal validity and established cultic rituals. He reestablished the Feast of Weeks which had been discontinued since the time of Noah (6:18–20), he practiced circumcision, an eternal ordinance (15:25, 26), and he began the practice of tithing (13:25).