Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Romans · About this commentary
Before He Was Circumcised
Romans 4:9-12
9 Is this blessing then pronounced only on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. · WEB
The argument is chronological and unanswerable — the crediting came first, the sign years later, making Abraham father of two families.
Is this blessing then pronounced only on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also?
The question is the practical one for a mixed congregation in Rome: who gets Abraham? Both sides claimed him; the answer determines whether Gentile believers are children or guests.
Paul's argument is a matter of dates, and it cannot be argued with: how then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision Romans 4:10.
The crediting of Genesis 15 precedes the circumcision of Genesis 17 — by years. When righteousness was accounted to Abraham, he was, in the categories of the later dispute, a Gentile. The sequence is in the text for anyone to check, and it settles the priority question forever: the standing came first, the sign afterward.
Verse 11 names what the sign therefore was: he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision. A seal — the impression that certifies a document already written. Circumcision did not confer Abraham's righteousness; it confirmed it, the way a seal confirms and never composes. Which is the general truth about covenant signs the letter has already stated: outward marks answer to inward realities or they answer to nothing Romans 2:28–29.
And the purpose clause makes the chronology into a family tree: that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they might be in uncircumcision... and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith Romans 4:11–12.
Father twice over. Of believing Gentiles — because he was credited while uncircumcised, they inherit without the mark. And of the circumcised — with a condition attached that quietly repeats chapter 2's whole argument: not the mark only, but the steps of that faith. Walking in steps is the image of a child following a father's footprints; descent alone, the letter has already said, never made a son Romans 2:28.
God, it turns out, sequenced Abraham's life as an argument — the timing itself was the teaching, waiting in Genesis for the church that would need it.
settled What this mark means