Vår fader Abraham : En studie av Abrahams funktion i Romarbrevet 4 i ljuset av The New Perspective on Paul.

Sammanfattning: The background to this thesis is the debate of the last decades within exegetics, concerning the so called "New Perspective on Paul". Starting from this discussion, the thesis is aming to investigateand discuss the function of Abraham in Paul's argument in Romans 4. This is achieved by, to start with, a thoroughly examination and analysis of different translations of Romans 4:1. Secondly, by trying how the translation suggested by Richard B. Hays can be motivated using a narrative perspective of interpretation emphazising the context of covenant history of the text, and thirdly, by examin and discuss other interpretations of the text and compare their ability to bring intelligibility to the text. Moreover, theological issues is brought to the inquiry about the interpretation and about if and how the different perspectives are compatible.The thesis shows that there are good reasons, linguistical as well as theological, to approve the translation of Richard Hays and the presented narrative perspective. This perspective offers a sullotion to the discord between the Old and the New Perspective and at the same time taking seriously the critics from both sides. However, the perspective needs to be discussed and examined further.The conclusions are firstly, that the advantage of the narrative perspective lies in the problems of the other interpretations to acheive a coherent and intelligible account of the text, due to their lack of an overall theological frame of interpretation, secondly, that the terms in which the debate has taken place ("New Perspective"/"Old Perspective") are inaccurate, thirdly, the importance of reading the New Testament, especially Pauls letter to Romans, in its Old Testament framework, and finally, the significance of the interplay between exegetics and theology.