Romans 4:2

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God.

King James Version (1611)
For if Abraham were iustified by workes, hee hath whereof to glory, but not before God.

King James Version
For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

English Standard Version
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

New American Standard Bible
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about; but not before God.

New Century Version
If Abraham was made right by the things he did, he had a reason to brag. But this is not God's view,

Amplified Bible
For if Abraham was justified [that is, acquitted from the guilt of his sins] by works [those things he did that were good], he has something to boast about, but not before God.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

Legacy Standard Bible
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God!

Berean Standard Bible
If Abraham was indeed justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God.

Contemporary English Version
If he became acceptable to God because of what he did, then he would have something to brag about. But he would never be able to brag about it to God.

Complete Jewish Bible
For if Avraham came to be considered righteous by God because of legalistic observances, then he has something to boast about. But this is not how it is before God!

Darby Translation
For if Abraham has been justified on the principle of works, he has whereof to boast: but not before God;

Easy-to-Read Version
If Abraham was made right by the things he did, he had a reason to boast about himself. But God knew different.

Geneva Bible (1587)
For if Abraham were iustified by workes, he hath wherein to reioyce, but not with God.

George Lamsa Translation
For if Abraham were justified by works, he had reason to be proud; but not before God.

Good News Translation
If he was put right with God by the things he did, he would have something to boast about—but not in God's sight.

Lexham English Bible
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

Literal Translation
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has a boast, but not with God.

American Standard Version
For if Abraham was justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not toward God.

Bible in Basic English
For if Abraham got righteousness by works, he has reason for pride; but not before God.

Hebrew Names Version
For if Avraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God.

International Standard Version
For if Abraham was justified by works, he would have had something to boast about - though not before God.Romans 3:20,27-28;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
For if Abraham by works was justified, he had cause for boasting; but not with Aloha.

Murdock Translation
But if Abraham was justified by works, he had [fn] glorying; yet not before God.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For if Abraham were iustified by workes, the hath he wherein to boaste, but not before God.

English Revised Version
For if Abraham was justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not toward God.

World English Bible
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
If Abraham was justified by works, he hath whereof to glory: but he hath not in the sight of God.

Weymouth's New Testament
For if he was held to be righteous on the ground of his actions, he has something to boast of; but not in the presence of God.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For if Abraham is iustified of werkis of the lawe, he hath glorie, but not anentis God.

Update Bible Version
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has whereof to glory; but not toward God.

Webster's Bible Translation
For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath [whereof] to glory, but not before God.

New English Translation
For if Abraham was declared righteous by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God.

New King James Version
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

New Living Translation
If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God's way.

New Life Bible
If Abraham was made right with God by what he did, he would have had something to be proud of. But he could not be proud before God.

New Revised Standard
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, if Abraham by works was declared righteous, he hath whereof to boast; - nevertheless, not towards God, -

Douay-Rheims Bible
For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God.

Revised Standard Version
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
If Abraham were iustified by dedes the hath he wherin to reioyce: but not with god.

Young's Literal Translation
for if Abraham by works was declared righteous, he hath to boast -- but not before god;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
This we saye: Yf Abraham were made righteous thorow workes, then hath he wherin to reioyse, but not before God.

Mace New Testament (1729)
for if Abraham was justified by works, he had matter of pretension, whereas he had no such claim from God.

Simplified Cowboy Version
If it was, he'd have plenty to brag about. But that's not what God saw in him.

Contextual Overview

¹So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in the faith, into this new way of looking at things? If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we're given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story. What we read in Scripture is, "Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own." ⁴If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don't call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift. ⁶David confirms this way of looking at it, saying that the one who trusts God to do the putting-everything-right without insisting on having a say in it is one fortunate man: Fortunate those whose crimes are carted off, whose sins are wiped clean from the slate. Fortunate the person against whom the Lord does not keep score. Do you think for a minute that this blessing is only pronounced over those of us who keep our religious ways and are circumcised? Or do you think it possible that the blessing could be given to those who never even heard of our ways, who were never brought up in the disciplines of God? We all agree, don't we, that it was by embracing what God did for him that Abraham was declared fit before God?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Abraham: Romans 3:20-28, Philippians 3:9

he hath: Romans 3:27, Romans 15:17, Ezekiel 8:9, Jeremiah 9:23, Jeremiah 9:24, 1 Corinthians 9:16, 2 Corinthians 5:12, 2 Corinthians 11:12, 2 Corinthians 11:30, 2 Corinthians 12:1-9, Galatians 6:13, Galatians 6:14, Ephesians 2:9

but: Genesis 12:12, Genesis 12:13, Genesis 12:18, Genesis 12:20, Genesis 20:9-13, Joshua 24:2, 1 Corinthians 1:29, 1 Corinthians 4:7, Galatians 3:22

Reciprocal: Luke 10:29 - willing Romans 2:13 - justified Romans 4:17 - who quickeneth 1 Corinthians 4:4 - yet Galatians 2:16 - that

Cross-References

Genesis 3:23
So God expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which they'd been made. He threw them out of the garden and stationed angel-cherubim and a revolving sword of fire east of it, guarding the path to the Tree-of-Life.

Genesis 4:25
Adam slept with his wife again. She had a son whom she named Seth. She said, "God has given me another child in place of Abel whom Cain killed." And then Seth had a son whom he named Enosh. That's when men and women began praying and worshiping in the name of God .

Genesis 9:20
Noah, a farmer, was the first to plant a vineyard. He drank from its wine, got drunk and passed out, naked in his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and told his two brothers who were outside the tent. Shem and Japheth took a cloak, held it between them from their shoulders, walked backward and covered their father's nakedness, keeping their faces turned away so they did not see their father's exposed body.

Exodus 3:1
Moses was shepherding the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the west end of the wilderness and came to the mountain of God, Horeb. The angel of God appeared to him in flames of fire blazing out of the middle of a bush. He looked. The bush was blazing away but it didn't burn up.

Psalms 127:3
Don't you see that children are God 's best gift? the fruit of the womb his generous legacy? Like a warrior's fistful of arrows are the children of a vigorous youth. Oh, how blessed are you parents, with your quivers full of children! Your enemies don't stand a chance against you; you'll sweep them right off your doorstep.

1 John 3:12
We must not be like Cain, who joined the Evil One and then killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because he was deep in the practice of evil, while the acts of his brother were righteous. So don't be surprised, friends, when the world hates you. This has been going on a long time.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For if Abraham were justified by works,.... That Abraham was not, and could not be justified by works, is clear from hence, that if this was his case,

he hath whereof to glory; which will be allowed him before men, on account of his pious life and conversation:

but not before God; who saw all the iniquity of his heart, and was privy to all his failings and infirmities: besides, glorying before God in a man's own works, is contrary to the scheme and method of God's grace; is excluded by the doctrine of faith; nor is there any place for glorying before God but in Christ, and his righteousness: if therefore Abraham had not that of which he could glory before God, he could not be justified by works in his sight: but does not the Apostle James say that he was justified by works, James 2:21? To this it may be replied, that the two apostles, Paul and James, are not speaking of the same thing: Paul speaks of justification before God, James of justification before men; Paul speaks of the justification of the person, James of the justification of a man's cause, as the truth of his faith, or the uprightness of his conduct; Paul speaks of works, as the causes of justification, James of them as the effects and evidences of faith; Paul had to do with the self-righteous, who trusted in their own works for justification, James with Gnostics, who slighted and neglected the performance of them. These things considered, they will be found to agree.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For if Abraham ... - This is the answer of the apostle. If Abraham was justified on the ground of his own merits, he would have reason to boast, or to claim praise. He might regard himself as the author of it, and take the praise to himself; see Romans 4:4. The inquiry, therefore, was, whether in the account of the justification of Abraham, there was to be found any such statement of a reason for self-confidence and boasting.

But not before God - In the sight of God. That is, in his recorded judgment, he had no ground of boasting on account of works. To show this, the apostle appeals at once to the Scriptures, to show that there was no such record as that Abraham could boast that he was justified by his works. As God judges right in all cases, so it follows that Abraham had no just ground of boasting, and of course that he was not justified by his own works. The sense of this verse is well expressed by Calvin. “If Abraham was justified by his works, he might boast of his own merits. But he has no ground of boasting before God. Therefore he was not justified by works.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Romans 4:2. For if Abraham were justified by works — The JEW proceeds: - I conclude, therefore, that Abraham was justified by works, or by his obedience to this law of circumcision; and, consequently, he has cause for glorying, καυχημα, to exult in something which he has done to entitle him to these blessings. Now, it is evident that he has this glorying, and consequently that he was justified by works.

APOSTLE. But not before God — These seem to be the apostle's words, and contain the beginning of his answer to the arguments of the Jew, as if he had said: - Allowing that Abraham might glory in being called from heathenish darkness into such marvellous light, and exult in the privileges which God had granted to him; yet this glorying was not before God as a reason why those privileges should be granted; the glorying itself being a consequence of these very privileges.