scriptural reference reporting this event also apply to those contemporary with Paul.103 Their identity is his identity. But we can go a little further than this. Paul is presenting the graphic picture of Abraham’s faith in vv. 18–21, tied to the exigencies of human hope and capable of growing weak yet waxing strong, as also prototypical of Christ-followers, since he writes immediately afterward in vv. 23–25: “But the words, ‘it was reckoned to him,’ were not written only for his sake, but for ours