Abraham Crediting YHWH with Righteousness
Scholars and Teachers Who Have Read the Text This Way
The standard reading of Genesis 15:6 across the Christian translation tradition has been that YHWH credited Abraham with righteousness because he trusted. This document records the scholars and teachers who have read the text differently, that Abraham, trusting YHWH’s faithfulness in an impossible situation, was the one doing the reckoning. He credited YHWH with righteousness. These scholars were not writing against the tradition for polemical purposes. They were reading the Hebrew text carefully and following where the grammar led.
This document does not present their readings as validation. It records that others have seen what the Hebrew text shows, independently, across centuries, from within different traditions, and have stated it clearly.
The Hebrew Text
והאמן ביהוה ויחשבהד לו צדקה
Vayaamem baYHWH vayachshevehah lo tsedakah
And he trusted in YHWH and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.
The grammatical question is precise. The subject of vayachshevehah, he reckoned, is not stated explicitly. In Hebrew narrative the subject of a verb carries forward from the previous clause unless a new subject is introduced. The previous clause names Avraham as the one who trusted. Without a new subject being introduced the he of vayachshevehah carries forward as Avraham. Avraham reckoned it, the faithfulness of YHWH to fulfill an impossible promise, as righteousness to him, to YHWH.
The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, rendered the verb in the passive, obscuring the original subject. Paul working from the Septuagint read it through that passive construction. The Hebrew text itself does not require that reading.
The Scholars
Ramban — Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Nachmanides) 1194–1270 CE
Medieval Jewish commentator, Spain and the Land of Israel
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that the verse is stating that Abraham believed in God and he considered it due to the righteousness of the Holy One, blessed be He, that He would give him a child under all circumstances, and not because of Abram’s state of righteousness and his reward.
Ramban further asks: how should Abraham not believe in the good tidings? No great faith is involved in simply accepting a beneficial promise. The reading that makes sense is Abraham recognizing and crediting the faithfulness of YHWH as the ground of the promise.
Rabbinic Bible (Mikraoth Gedoloth). Commentary on Genesis 15:6. Also referenced in Lloyd Gaston, Abraham and the Righteousness of God, Horizons in Biblical Theology (1980).
The Mekilta Ancient rabbinic midrash
Early rabbinic literature
The Mekilta reads Genesis 15:6 in the same direction as Ramban, Abraham reckoning the faithfulness of YHWH as righteousness rather than YHWH crediting Abraham with righteousness. The rabbinic reading precedes the Christian tradition and reads the Hebrew text on its own terms without the Septuagint passive construction through which Paul encountered the verse.
Referenced in Lloyd Gaston, Abraham and the Righteousness of God, Horizons in Biblical Theology (1980) and Paul and Torah (UBC Press, 1987).
Lloyd Gaston 20th century
Presbyterian minister, later professor at Regent College and other institutions
There is certainly no merit in accepting good news. The more normal reading of the text, clearly indicated by Hebrew syntax, is to see Abraham as the one doing the reckoning. He was simply reckoning the promise from God as more proof of the righteousness of God. Ramban’s and the Mekilta’s view fits well with the many passages where the psalmist gives praise for God’s righteousness. That is all Abraham was doing in Genesis 15:6, reckoning the promise of a child in old age as a righteous deed of God. English syntax is the same as Hebrew syntax. The subject of the second clause is the subject of the first clause: here Abraham. Thus this verse never had anything to do with justification by God of Abraham.
Abraham and the Righteousness of God, Horizons in Biblical Theology: An International Dialogue, Vol. 2 (1980). Revised and republished in Paul and Torah (University of British Columbia Press, 1987).
Victor P. Hamilton 20th–21st century
Evangelical Old Testament scholar, Asbury University
Hamilton, described as an evangelical scholar of impeccable credentials, concedes that Paul relied upon a verse which in the original Hebrew can be read that Abraham is the one doing the reckoning, which but for Paul’s understanding would have been the correct understanding of the Hebrew text.
Referenced and quoted in analysis of Genesis 15:6 Hebrew syntax. Hamilton’s concession is significant coming from within the evangelical tradition that has most strongly defended the standard reading.
Bekhor Shor, Ralbag, Abravanel Medieval period
Jewish medieval commentators
These three major Jewish medieval commentators are listed alongside Ramban as holding the alternative reading of Genesis 15:6, that Abraham is the subject of the reckoning and that what is being reckoned is the righteousness of YHWH in fulfilling the promise.
Referenced in The Merit of Faith: Genesis 15:6, citing the alternative interpretation tradition within Jewish medieval commentary.
John Calvin’s Response
It is worth noting that John Calvin, the sixteenth century Reformer whose framework of justification by faith has most deeply shaped the Protestant reading of Genesis 15:6, was aware of Ramban’s reading and explicitly rejected it. The fact that Calvin found it necessary to respond to Ramban’s reading demonstrates that the alternative reading was known and considered within the Reformation tradition. Calvin rejected it. He did not dismiss it as unworthy of engagement.
The rejection of a reading is not the same as the refutation of it. Calvin knew what Ramban read and chose the standard reading for theological reasons. The Hebrew text that Ramban read has not changed.
Why This Matters
This document is not presented as external validation of the reading developed in this body of work. The reading stands or falls on what the Hebrew text actually shows. What this document records is that the reading is not novel, not without precedent, and not the product of theological convenience.
Ramban was not writing to support a framework about the covenant being grounded in YHWH’s faithfulness rather than human merit. He was reading the Hebrew text of Genesis 15:6 carefully in the thirteenth century and following where the grammar led. The Mekilta predates the Christian tradition entirely. Lloyd Gaston was a Presbyterian minister examining the text within his own tradition and arriving at the same reading from the grammar.
Three different traditions. Multiple centuries. The same reading of the Hebrew text. Abraham trusting YHWH in the face of an impossible promise and reckoning YHWH’s faithfulness as righteousness, not YHWH crediting Abraham with a righteousness Abraham did not possess.
The covenant in Genesis 15 was sealed by YHWH passing through the pieces alone while Abraham lay unconscious in the darkness. The faithfulness on display in that moment was YHWH’s. The righteousness declared in that moment was YHWH’s. The reading that Abraham recognized and credited that righteousness is consistent with what the narrative of Genesis 15 shows from beginning to end.
Genesis 15:6, Abraham reckoned YHWH’s faithfulness as righteousness. Others have seen this clearly. The Hebrew text has always shown it.
Ramban — 13th century. Jewish.
The Mekilta — ancient rabbinic. Jewish.
Lloyd Gaston — 20th century. Presbyterian.
Victor Hamilton — 20th century. Evangelical.
Different traditions. Different centuries.
The same Hebrew text.
The Gospel Revolution • Mike Williams Ministries
William Ethan Massengill • Michael Lilborn Williams • Daniel Thomas Rouse
Published by Audrey Williams