heved, even God ivho quickeneth the dead, &c. The orig-inal here is very difficult. The most probable explanation is that which resolves the sentence much in the same manner as in our own version, " Before God, in whom he believed," i. e. he is the father of us all, in the sight or estimation of that God in whom he believed.
God is here described as quickening the dead, and calling those things vjhich he not as though they were. This passage is very variously ex- plained. It may be considered, 1. As a description of the omnipotence of God. The promise made to Abraham seemed impossible of fulfilment, yet he believed in that Almighty God 'who quickens the dead, and calls, i. e. commands and controls, things that are not as though they were.' 2. It may be explained more in reference to the divine omniscience. God foresaw how numerous would be the spiritual seed of Abraham. He was declared to be the father of many nations in the sight of that God who sees the end from the beginning, vrho wakes up the dead, and before whom the future and the present, the nonexistent and the already existing, are alike. Both these ideas may be united ; the object of Abraham's faith was the almighty and all-seeing God, u-ho sees and controls the living and the dead, the future and the present, with equal ease. The idea of the divine power is so prominently presented in the following verses, 19 — 21, that it certainly should not be omitted here. When Paul speaks of God, especially as the object of faith, it is not unusual for him to add some descriptive clause, declarative of some of his attributes or acts, as the special ground of confidence ; compare v. 24.