For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
Parallel translations
- KJV For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
- BSB For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
- NKJV For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
- NASB For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
- NLT For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Scripture says Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Righteousness comes by believing, not achieving.
Overview
Quoting Genesis 15:6, Paul gives the decisive evidence: Abraham's faith, not his works, was 'accounted to him for righteousness.' The word 'accounted' (or credited) is the language of justification, righteousness reckoned to one's account as a gift. This verse anchors the whole doctrine that we are justified by faith as Abraham was.
Cross-references & the web
Quotation
- Gen 15:6He believed in Yahweh, who credited it to him for righteousness.
Cross-references · 15
- Gen 15:6He believed in Yahweh, who credited it to him for righteousness.
- Jas 2:23and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God.
- Gal 3:6–8Even as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.”
- Rom 4:9Is this blessing then pronounced on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.
- Rom 4:22–25Therefore it also was “credited to him for righteousness.”
- Rom 4:5But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
- Ps 106:31That was credited to him for righteousness, for all generations to come.
- Rom 4:11He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they might be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them.
- Rom 11:2God didn’t reject his people, which he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel:
- Rom 10:11For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”
- Rom 9:17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
- 2 Pet 1:20–21knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation.
- Mark 12:10Haven’t you even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner.
- Isa 8:20Turn to the law and to the testimony! If they don’t speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.
- Jas 4:5Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 4:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.