Romans 4:13-25

Ancient lens

What's the historical context?

Ancient Boundaries

The world of Jesus and of the early church saw a Jewish people that had well-established boundary practices. These were behaviors that made it clearer to the wider world who was Jew and who was Gentile. What you ate, what you did on a Sabbath, how you dressed, circumcision, and more could communicate that you were a child of Abraham and heir of the promise.

God had chosen Abraham to be the father of a great nation, a people that will be blessed and will be a blessing to others (Gn 17:1-7). So what made someone part of this people? Some made claims based on their ancestry—that they were direct descendants of Abraham. But there was also a…