Text -- Hebrews 11:7 (NET)

11:7 By faith Noah, when he was warned about things not yet seen, with reverent regard constructed an ark for the deliverance of his family. Through faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Robertson: Heb 11:7

Being warned of God ( chrēmatistheis ).

First aorist passive participle of chrēmatizō , old word for oracular or divine communications as already in Heb 8:5 (cf. Mat 2:12, Mat 2:22, etc.).

Robertson: Heb 11:7

Moved with godly fear ( eulabēthē ).

First aorist passive indicative of eulabeomai , old verb from eulabēs (from eu and labein , to take hold well or carefully), to show oneself eulabēs , to act circumspectly or with reverence, here only in N.T. (save Textus Receptus in Act 23:10), often in lxx.

Robertson: Heb 11:7

An ark ( kibōton ).

Gen 6:15; Mat 24:38. Shaped like a box (cf. Heb 9:4).

Robertson: Heb 11:7

Through which ( di' hēs ).

Through his faith as shown in building the ark.

Robertson: Heb 11:7

The world ( ton kosmon ).

Sinful humanity as in Heb 11:38.

Robertson: Heb 11:7

Heir ( klēronomos ).

In 2Pe 2:5 Noah is called "a preacher of righteousness"as here "heir of righteousness."He himself believed his message about the flood. Like Enoch he walked with God (Gen 6:9).

Vincent: Heb 11:7

Noah

Genesis 6.

Vincent: Heb 11:7

Being warned of God ( χρηματισθεὶς )

Of God is not in the text. See on Mat 2:12; see on Luk 2:26; see on Act 11:26; and comp. Heb 8:5.

Vincent: Heb 11:7

Of things not seen as yet ( περὶ τῶν μηδέπω βλεπομένων )

Const. with εὐλαβηθεὶς , and rend. " by faith Noah, being warned, having reverent care concerning things not seen as yet, prepared an ark," etc. Thus χρηματισθεὶς warned is taken absolutely. The things not seen were the well-known contents of the revelation to Noah, Gen 6:13 ff., as apprehended by Noah's faith.

Vincent: Heb 11:7

Moved with fear ( εὐλαβηθεὶς )

N.T.o . Often in Class. and lxx. See on εὐλάβεια godly fear , Heb 5:7. The A.V. gives the impression that Noah acted under the influence of fright . Rev. improves on this a little by rendering godly fear . The true idea is pious care , a reverent circumspection with regard to things enjoined by God, and as yet unseen, yet confidently expected on the strength of God's word.

Vincent: Heb 11:7

Prepared ( κατεσκεύασεν )

Built and equipped. See on Heb 3:3.

Vincent: Heb 11:7

An ark ( κιβωτὸν )

Originally, a wooden chest Also of the ark of the covenant in the temple and tabernacle, as Heb 9:4; Rev 11:19. Of Noah's ark, Mat 24:38; Luk 17:27; 1Pe 3:20 Λάρσαξ a chest is found in Class. in the same sense. Every classical scholar will recall the charming fragment of Simonides on Danae and her infant son Perseus exposed in an ark:

Ὁτε λάρνακι ἐν δαισαλέᾳ ἄνεσμος

βρέμε πνέων κ. τ. λ.

Also of the ark of Deucalion, the mythic Noah.

Vincent: Heb 11:7

By the which ( δι ' ἧς )

By faith: although some refer it to the ark.

Vincent: Heb 11:7

He condemned the world ( κατέκρινεν τὸν κόσμον )

His faith was exhibited in building the ark on the mere strength of God's declaration, while as yet there were no signs of the flood. By his faith thus manifested he announced the condemnation of the world to destruction. World is to be taken as in 2Pe 2:5. It is not used in Hebrews in the ethical sense so common in John and Paul - the world as alien from God. The meaning of the statement is not that Noah condemned the conduct of his contemporaries by the contrast presented by his own faith, after the analogy of Mat 12:41; Rom 2:27.

Vincent: Heb 11:7

And became heir ( καὶ - ἐγένετο κληρονόμος )

This is not an independent clause, but is dependent on δι ' ἧς by which . It is connected by καὶ with the preceding clause, and the two clauses are parallel, describing the lot of Noah and his family. Became heir is practically = became partaker of . The literal sense of heir must not be pressed. Certainly not " inherited the righteousness of Abel and Enoch." But righteousness came to Noah in virtue of his intimate fellowship with God. Of him as of Enoch, it is said that " he walked with God," Gen 6:9. Because of this fellowship he was a son of God and an heir of righteousness.

Vincent: Heb 11:7

Of the righteousness which is by faith ( τῆς κατὰ πίστις δικαιοσύνης )

In the O.T. Noah is the first to receive the title of δίκαιος righteous , Gen 6:9; comp. Eze 14:14, Eze 14:20; Sir. 44:17. Κατὰ πίστιν , lit. according to faith , comp Mat 9:29; Tit 1:1, Tit 1:4. Paul has δικαιοσύνη and δίκαιος from or out of faith (ἐκ πίστεως ), by faith (διὰ πίστεως ), founded on faith (ἐπὶ τῇ πίστει ), and of faith (πίστεως ), none of which are found either in Hebrews or in the Pastorals. Κατὰ πίστιν signifies according to faith as a standard; but the conception at bottom is not essentially different from Paul's, unless there be imported into his conception the scholastic fiction of imputed righteousness. Paul, in Romans 4 is at pains to show that the Christian conception of righteousness by faith has its parallel in Abraham, and that the doctrine of justification by faith is no new thing. Faith is the ground and the germ of righteousness. Our writer here lays down the absolute and universal standard of righteousness for the men of both dispensations - according to faith . Hence, like Paul, he cites the words of Hab 2:4. See Heb 10:38.

Wesley: Heb 11:7

Of the future deluge. Moved with fear, prepared an ark, by which open testimony he condemned the world - Who neither believed nor feared.

JFB: Heb 11:7

The same Greek, Heb 8:5, "admonished of God."

JFB: Heb 11:7

Not mere slavish fear, but as in Heb 5:7; see on Heb 5:7; Greek, "reverential fear": opposed to the world's sneering disbelief of the revelation, and self-deceiving security. Join "by faith" with "prepared an ark" (1Pe 3:20).

JFB: Heb 11:7

Faith.

JFB: Heb 11:7

For since he believed and was saved, so might they have believed and been saved, so that their condemnation by God is by his case shown to be just.

JFB: Heb 11:7

Greek, "according to faith." A Pauline thought. Noah is first called "righteous" in Gen 6:9. Christ calls Abel so, Mat 23:35. Compare as to Noah's righteousness, Eze 14:14, Eze 14:20; 2Pe 2:5, "a preacher of righteousness." Paul here makes faith the principle and ground of his righteousness.

JFB: Heb 11:7

The consequence of sonship which flows from faith.

Clarke: Heb 11:7

By faith Noah - See the whole of this history, Gen 6:13

Clarke: Heb 11:7

Warned of God - Χρηματισθεις . As we know from the history in Genesis that God did warn Noah, we see from this the real import of the verb χρηματιζω, as used in various parts of the New Testament; it signifies to utter oracles, to give Divine warning

Clarke: Heb 11:7

Moved with fear - Ευλαβηθεις· Influenced by religious fear or reverence towards God. This is mentioned to show that he acted not from a fear of losing his life, but from the fear of God; and hence that fear is here properly attributed to faith

Clarke: Heb 11:7

He condemned the world - He credited God, they did not; he walked in the way God had commanded, they did not; he repeatedly admonished them, 1Pe 3:20, they regarded it not; this aggravated their crimes while it exalted his faith and righteousness. "His faith and obedience condemned the world, i.e. the unbelievers, in the same sense in which every good man’ s virtues and exhortations condemn such as will not attend to and imitate them."Dodd

Clarke: Heb 11:7

Became heir of the righteousness - He became entitled to that justification which is by faith; and his temporal deliverance was a pledge of the salvation of his soul.

Calvin: Heb 11:7

7.By faith Noah, === etc. It was a wonderful example of magnanimity, that when the whole world were promising themselves impunity, and securely and unrestrainedly indulging themselves in sinful pleasures, Noah alone paid regard to Gods vengeance though deferred for a considerable time, — that he greatly wearied himself for a hundred and twenty years in building the ark, — that he stood unshaken amidst the scoffs of so many ungodly men, — that he entertained no doubt but that he would be safe in the midst of the ruin of the whole world, — yea, that he felt sure of life as it were in the grave, even in the ark. It is briefly that I shall touch on the subject; each one can better for himself weigh all the circumstances.

The Apostle ascribes to faith the praise of so remarkable a fortitude. He has been hitherto speaking of the fathers who lived in the first age of the world; but it was a kind of regeneration when Noah and his family emerged from the deluge. It is hence evident that in all ages men have neither been approved by God, nor performed anything worthy of praise otherwise than by faith.

Let us now then see what are the things he presents to our consideration in the case of Noah. They are the following, — that having been warned of things to come, but not yet made visible, he feared, — that he built an ark, — that he condemned the world by building it, — and that he became the heir of that righteousness which is faith. ²¹⁵

What I have just mentioned is that which especially sets forth the power of faith; for the Apostle ever reminds us of this truth, that faith is the evidence of things not seen; and doubtless it is its peculiar office to behold in God’s word the things which are hid, and far removed from our senses. When it was declared to Noah that there would be a deluge after one hundred and twenty years, first, the length of time might have removed every fear; secondly, the thing in itself seemed incredible; thirdly, he saw the ungodly heedlessly indulging in sinful pleasures; and lastly, the terrible announcement of a deluge might have appeared to him as intended only to terrify men. But Noah attended so much to God’s word, that turning away his eyes from the appearance of things at that time, he feared the destruction which God had threatened, as though it was present. Hence the faith which he had in God’s word prepared him to render obedience to God; and of this he afterwards gave a proof by building the ark.

But here a question is raised. Why does the Apostle make faith the cause of fear, since it has respect to promises of grace rather than to threatening? For Paul for this reason calls the Gospel, in which God’s righteousness is offered to us for salvation, the word of faith. It seems then to have been improperly stated, that Noah was by faith led to fear. To this, I reply, that faith indeed properly springs from promises; it is founded on them, it rests on them. We hence say that Christ is the real object of faith, for through him our heavenly Father is reconciled to us, and by him all the promises of salvation are sealed and confirmed. Yet there is no reason why faith should not look to God and reverently receive whatever he may say; or if you prefer another way of stating the subject, it rightly belongs to faith to hear God whenever he speaks, and unhesitatingly to embrace whatsoever may proceed from his sacred mouth. Thus far it has regard to commands and threatening, as well as to gratuitous promises. But as no man is moved as he ought and as much as is needful, to obey God’s commands, nor is sufficiently stirred up to deprecate his wrath, unless he has already laid hold on the promises of grace, so as to acknowledge him as a kind Father, and the author of salvation, — hence the Gospel is called the word of faith, the principal part being stated for the whole; and thus is set forth the mutual relation that there is between them both. Faith, then, though its most direct regard is to God’s promises, yet looks on his threatening so far as it is necessary for it to be taught to fear and obey God.

===Prepared an ark, === etc. Here is pointed out that obedience which flows from faith as water from a fountain. The work of building the ark was long and laborious. It might have been haltered by the scoffs of the ungodly, and thus suspended a thousand times; nor is there a doubt but they mocked and derided the holy man on every side. That he then bore their wanton insults with an unshaken spirit, is a proof that his resolution to obey was not of an ordinary kind. But how was it that he so perseveringly obeyed God except that he had previously rested on the promise which gave him the hope of deliverance; and in this confidence he persevered even to the last; for he could not have had the courage willingly to undergo so many toils, nor could he have been able to overcome so many obstacles, nor could he have stood so firm in his purpose for so long a time, had he not beforehand possessed this confidence.

It hence appears that faith alone is the teacher of obedience; and we may on the contrary draw this conclusion, that it is unbelief that prevents us to obey God. And at this day the unbelief of the world exhibits itself dreadfully in this way, for there are a very few who obey God.

===By the which he condemned the world, === etc. It were strange to say that Noah’s deliverance condemned the world, and the context will hardly allow faith to be meant; we must then understand this of the ark. And he is said on two accounts to have by the ark condemned the world; for by being so long occupied in building it, he took away every excuse from the wicked; — and the event which followed proved how just was the destruction of the world; for why was the ark made the means of deliverance to one family, except that the Lord thus spared a righteous man that he should not perish with the ungodly. Had he then not been preserved, the condemnation of the world would not have been so apparent. Noah then by obeying God’s command condemned by his example the obstinate disobedience of the world: his wonderful deliverance from the midst of death, was an evidence that the world justly perished; for God would have doubtless saved it, had it not been unworthy of salvation

===Of the righteousness which is by faith This is the last thing in the character of Noah, which the Apostle reminds us to observe. Moses records that he was a righteous man: history does not expressly say that the cause and root of his righteousness was faith, but the Apostle declares that as arising from the facts of the case. And this is not only true, because no one ever devotes himself really and sincerely to God’s service, but he who relies on the promises of his paternal kindness, and feels assured that his life is approved by him; but also on this account, because the life of no one, however holy it may be, when tried by the rule of God’s law, can please him without pardon being granted. Then righteousness must necessarily recumb on faith.

Defender: Heb 11:7

The writer here not only affirms the historicity of Noah but also of the ark and the worldwide flood (see notes on Genesis 6-9 for extensive discussion of the evidence and its significance).

Defender: Heb 11:7

The world had never even seen rainfall or a river flood, let alone a global flood (Gen 2:5), yet Noah believed God's word and set about building a huge ark on dry land that would have been completely useless and unnecessary in a local flood. He, his family and the animals could easily have migrated to another region if it were to be a local flood.

Defender: Heb 11:7

Noah was not fearful for his own life but for the lives and souls of his descendants if they continued to live in the violent and ungodly antediluvian society of the day. Hence, he built an ark "to the saving of his house." Because of his obedience, not only was he saved, but so was his family (Gen 7:1, compare Act 16:31).

Defender: Heb 11:7

He, like all others who truly believe God's Word, received His imputed righteousness by faith. This particular verse is the only one in Hebrews 11 which both begins and ends "by faith.""

TSK: Heb 11:7

Noah : Gen 6:13, Gen 6:22, Gen 7:1, Gen 7:5; Mat 24:38; Luk 17:26, Noe, 2Pe 2:5

warned : Gen 6:13, Gen 19:14; Exo 9:18-21; Pro 22:3, Pro 27:12; Eze 3:17-19; Mat 3:7; Mat 24:15, Mat 24:25; 2Pe 3:6

things : Heb 11:1

moved with fear : or, being wary, Heb 5:7 *Gr.

prepared : Gen 6:18, Gen 7:1, Gen 7:23, Gen 8:16; Eze 14:14, Eze 14:20; 1Pe 3:20

he condemned : Mat 12:41, Mat 12:42; Luk 11:31, Luk 11:32

righteousness : Rom 1:17, Rom 3:22, Rom 4:11, Rom 4:13, Rom 9:30, Rom 10:6; Gal 5:5; Phi 3:9; 2Pe 1:1

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Heb 11:7

By faith Noah - It is less difficult to see that Noah must have been influenced "by faith"than that Abel and Enoch were. Everything which Noah did in reference to the threatened deluge, was done in virtue of simple faith or belief of what God said. It was not because he could show from the course of events that things were tending to such a catastrophe; or because such an event had occurred before, rendering it probable that it would be likely to occur again; or because this was the common belief of men, and it was easy to fall into this himself. It was simply because God had informed him of it, and he put unwavering reliance on the truth of the divine declaration.

Being warned of God - Gen 6:13."The Greek word used here means divinely admonished; compare Heb 8:5.

Of things not seen as yet - Of the flood which was yet future. The meaning is, that there were no visible signs of it; there was nothing which could be a basis of calculation that it would occur. This admonition was given an hundered and twenty years before the deluge, and of course long before there could have been any natural indications that it would occur.

Moved with fear - Margin, "Being wary."The Greek word - εὐλαβηθεὶς eulabētheis - occurs only here and in Act 23:10, "The chief captain fearing lest Paul,"etc. The noun occurs in Heb 5:7, "And was heard in that he feared,"(see the note on that place), and in Heb 12:28, "With reverence and godly fear."The verb properly means, "to act with caution, to be circumspect,"and then "to fear, to be afraid."So far as the "word"is concerned, it might mean here that Noah was influenced by the dread of what was coming, or it may mean that he was influenced by proper caution and reverence for God. The latter meaning agrees better with the scope of the remarks of Paul, and is probably the true sense. His reverence and respect for God induced him to act under the belief that what he had said was true, and that the calamity which he had predicted would certainly come upon the world.

Prepared an ark to the saving of his house - In order that his family might be saved. Gen 6:14-22. The salvation here referred to was preservation from the flood.

By the which - By which faith.

He condemned the world - That is, the wicked world around him. The meaning is, that by his confidence in God, and his preparation for the flood, he showed the wisdom of his own course and the folly of theirs. We have the same phrase now in common use where one who sets a good example is said to "condemn others."He shows the guilt and folly of their lives by the contrast between his conduct; and theirs. The wickedness of the sinner is condemned not only by preaching, and by the admonitions and threatenings of the Law of God, but by the conduct of every good man. The language of such a life is as plain a rebuke of the sinner as the most fearful denunciations of divine wrath.

And became heir of the righteousness which is by faith - The phrase "heir of righteousness"here means properly that he acquired, gained, or became possessed of that righteousness. It does not refer so much to the "mode"by which it was done as if it were by inheritance, as to the "fact"that he obtained it. The word "heir"is used in this general sense in Rom 4:13-14; Tit 3:7; Heb 1:2; Heb 6:17. Noah was not the "heir"to that righteousness by "inheriting"it from his ancestors, but in virtue of it he was regarded as among the heirs or sons of God, and as being a possessor of that righteousness which is connected with faith. The phrase "righteousness which is by faith"refers to the fact that he was regarded and treated as a righteous man. notes on Rom 1:17. It is observable here that it is not said that Noah had specific faith in Christ, or that his being made heir of the righteousness of faith depended on that, but it was in connection with his believing what God said respecting the deluge.

It was "faith or confidence"in God which was the ground of his justification, in accordance with the general doctrine of the Scriptures that it is only by faith that man can be saved, though the specific mode of faith was not what is required now under the gospel. In the early ages of the world, when few truths were revealed, a cordial belief of any of those truths showed that there was real confidence in God, or that the "principle"of faith was in the heart; in the fuller revelation which we enjoy, we are not only to believe those truths, but specifically to believe in him who has made the great atonement for sin, and by whose merits all have been saved who have entered heaven. The same faith or confidence in God which led Noah to believe what God said about the deluge would have led him to believe what he has said about the Redeemer; and the same confidence in Godwhich led him to commit himself to his safe keeping in an ark on the world of waters, would have led him to commit his soul to the safe keeping of the Redeemer, the true ark of safety. As the "principle"of faith, therefore, existed in the heart of Noah, it was proper that he should become, with others, an "heir of the righteousness which is by faith."

(If this righteousness which is by faith be the same with that in Rom 1:17; Rom 3:21; and of this there can be no doubt - if it be the same with what forms the ground of the sinner’ s justification in every age, namely, the glorious righteousness which Christ has worked out in his active and passive obedience - then clearly there is no way of getting possession of this, but by faith in Jesus, And, without doubt, by "this"faith, Noah was saved. It is absurd to suppose that the doctrine of salvation by the Redeemer was unknown to him. Was not the ark itself a type and pledge of this salvation? 1Pe 3:21. Was Noah ignorant of the promise concerning the Messiah? Dr. Owen can scarce speak with patience of the view that excludes Christ as the specific object of Noah’ s faith,"That in this faith of the patriarchs no respect was had unto Christ and his righteousness, is such a putid figment, is so destructive of the first promises, and of all true faith in the church of old, is so inconsistent with, and contrary to the design of the apostle, and is so utterly destructive of the whole force of his argument, that it deserves no consideration."The idea indeed seems to derogate from the glory of Christ as the alone object of faith and salvation in every age; see also Scott. Bloomfield, McLean.)

In regard to the circumstances which show the strength of his faith, we may make the following remarks:

(1) It pertained to a very distant future event. It looked forward to what was to happen after a lapse of an hundred and twenty years. This was known to Noah Gen 6:3, and at this long period before it occurred, he was to begin to build an ark to save himself and family; to act as though this would be undoubtedly true. This is a much longer period than man now is required to exercise faith before that is realized which is the object of belief. Rare is it that three score years intervene between the time when a man first believes in God and when he enters into heaven; much more frequently it is but a few months or days; not an instance now occurs in which the period is lengthened out to 120 years.

\caps1 (2) t\caps0 here was no outward "evidence"that what Noah believed would occur. There were no appearances in nature which indicated that there would be such a flood of waters after more than a century had passed away. There were no breakings up of the fountains of the deep; no marks of the far distant storm gathering on the sky which could be the basis of the calculation. The "word of God"was the only ground of evidence; the only thing to which he could refer gainsayers and revilers. It is so now. There are no visible signs of the coming of the Saviour to judge the world. Yet the true believer feels and acts as if it were so - resting on the sure word of God.

\caps1 (3) t\caps0 he course of things was much against the truth of what Noah believed. No such event had ever occurred. There is no evidence that there had ever been a storm of rain half sufficient to drown the world; or that there had ever been the breaking up of the deep, or that there had been ever a partial deluge. For sixteen hundred years the course of nature had been uniform, and all the force of this uniformity would be felt and urged when it should be alleged that this was to be disturbed and to give place to an entire new order of events. Compare 2Pe 3:4. The same thing is now felt in regard to the objects of the Christian faith. The course of events is uniform. The laws of nature are regular and steady. The dead do not leave their graves. Seasons succeed each other in regular succession; people are born, live, and die, as in former times; fire does not wrap the earth in flames; the elements do not melt with fervent heat; seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter follow each other, and "all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."How many probabilities are there now, therefore, as there were in the time of Noah, against what is the object of faith!

\caps1 (4) i\caps0 t is not improbable that when Noah proclaimed the approaching destruction of the world by a deluge, the "possibility"of such an event was strongly denied by the philosophers of that age. The fact that such an event could have occurred has been denied by infidel philosophers in our own times, and attempts have been gravely made to show that the earth did not contain water enough to cover its surface to the height mentioned in the Scriptures, and that no condensation of the vapour in the atmosphere could produce such an effect. It is not improbable that some such arguments may have been used in the time of Noah, and "it is morally certain that he could not meet those arguments by any philosophy of his own."There is no reason to think that he was endowed with such a knowledge of chemistry as to be able to show that such a thing was possible, or that he had such an acquaintance with the structure of the earth as to demonstrate that it contained within itself the elements of its own destruction. All that he could oppose to such speculations was the simple declaration of God; and the same thing is also true now in regard to the cavils and philosophical arguments of infidelity. Objections drawn from philosophy are often made against the doctrine of the resurrection of the body; the destruction of the earth by the agency of fire; and even the existence of the soul after death. These difficulties may be obviated partly by science; but the proof that these events will occur, does not depend on science. It is a matter of simple faith; and all that we can in fact oppose to these objections is the declaration of God. The result showed that Noah was not a feel or a fanatic in trusting to the Word of God against the philosophy of his age; and the result will show the same of the Christian in his confiding in the truth of the divine declarations against the philosophy of "his"age.

\caps1 (5) i\caps0 t is beyond all question that Noah would be subjected to much ridicule and scorn. He would be regarded as a dreamer; a fanatic; an alarmist; a wild projector. The purpose of making preparation for such an event as the flood, to occur after the lapse of an hundred and twenty years, and when there were no indications of it, and all appearances were against it, would be regarded as in the highest degree wild and visionary. The design of building a vessel which would outride the storm, and which would live in such an open sea, and which would contain all sorts of animals, with the food for them for an indefinite period, could not but have been regarded as eminently ridiculous. When the ark was preparing, nothing could have been a more happy subject for scoffing and jibes. In such an age, therefore, and in such circumstances, we may suppose that all the means possible would have been resorted to, to pour contempt on such an undertaking. They who had wit, would find here an ample subject for its exercise; if ballads were made then, no more fertile theme for a profane song could be desired than this; and in the haunts of revelry, intemperance, and pollution, nothing would furnish a finer topic to give point to a jest, than the credulity and folly of the old man who was building the ark. It would require strong faith to contend thus with the wit, the sarcasm, the contempt, the raillery, and the low jesting, as well as with the wisdom and philosophy of a whole world. Yet it is a fair illustration of what occurs often now, and of the strength of that faith in the Christian heart which meets meekly and calmly the scoffs and jeers of a wicked generation.

\caps1 (6) a\caps0 ll this would be heightened by delay. The time was distant. What now completes four generations would have passed away before the event predicted would occur. Youth grew up to manhood, and manhood passed on to old age, and still there were no signs of the coming storm. That was no feeble faith which could hold on in this manner, for an hundred and twenty years, believing unwaveringly that all which God had said would be accomplished. But it is an illustration of faith in the Christian church now. The church maintains the same confidence in God from age to age - and regardless of all the reproaches of scoffers, and all the arguments of philosophy, still adheres to the truths which God has revealed. So with individual Christians. They look for the promise. They are expecting heaven. They doubt not that the time will come when they will be received to glory; when their bodies will be raised up glorified and immortal, and when sin and sorrow will be no more.

In the conflicts and trials of life the time of their deliverance may seem to be long delayed. The world may reproach them, and Satan may tempt them to doubt whether all their hope of heaven is not delusion. But their faith fails not, and though hope seems delayed, and the heart is sick, yet they keep the eye on heaven. So it is in regard to the final triumphs of the gospel. The Christian looks forward to the time when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. Yet that time may seem to be long delayed. Wickedness triumphs. A large part of the earth is still filled with the habitations of cruelty. The progress of the gospel is slow. The church comes up reluctantly to the work. The enemies of the cause exult and rejoice, and ask with scoffing triumph where is the evidence that the nations will be converted to God? They suggest difficulties; they refer to the numbers, and to the opposition of the enemies of the true religion; to the might of kingdoms, and to the power of fixed opinion, and to the hold which idolatry has on mankind, and they sneeringly inquire at what period will the world be converted to Christ? Yet in the face of all difficulties, and arguments, and sneers, "faith"confides in the promise of the Father to the Son, that the "heathen shall be given to him for an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession,"Psa 2:8. The faith of the true Christian is as strong in the fulfillment of this promise, as that of Noah was in the assurance that the guilty world would be destroyed by a flood of waters.

Poole: Heb 11:7

By faith Noah, being warned of God by the same Divine faith Noah, the last example of it in the old world, and the father of the new world, being warned by an immediate revelation from God, Gen 6:13,21 , largely rehearsed by Moses: so that God’ s word is the ground or foundation of Divine faith in all ages of the world.

Of things not seen as yet of things not yet seen, but only by faith in God’ s revelation: which things were the perishing of the world by a deluge of waters above one hundred years after; and that himself and family, with some creatures, should be saved from that deluge, to repeople the world, and to replenish the air and earth; none of which things did fall under Noah’ s sense then.

Moved with feareulabhyeiv imports in it a right reception of God’ s revelation, which made him afraid, and careful not to offend God; and a godly carriage to him who had revealed the imminent danger of the sinful world, and his own deliverance from it: see Heb 5:7 .

Prepared an ark to the saving of his house hereon he obeyeth God’ s precept, and prepared and perfected the vessel, both for matter and form, according to God’ s word; so as to be ready against the time of the deluge, for the preservation of himself and family by it, Gen 6:14-16,22 ; compare 1Pe 3:20 . By virtue of this ark, that water which drowned the world saved them. So that flood was a full type of the water of baptism: his ark, of Christ our ark; his family, of Christ’ s small family in comparison of the world; their salvation from water, of the eternal salvation of these from the deluge of fire, 2Pe 3:6,7,11,14 . The same Divine faith in Noah and in Christians, maketh them to obey God’ s precept, retire to aunt enter God’ s ark, and so enjoy his salvation.

By the which he condemned the world by this faith discovered in his work about the ark, he testified against the sinful world of mankind for their unbelief and disobedience, who for one hundred and twenty years together, being by Noah’ s preaching and building the ark called to repentance, 2Pe 2:5 , and to prevent the judgment God threatened on them; and so condemned them virtually by his word and doctrine, judicially by declaring God’ s sentence on them: see Mat 12:41,42Jo 12:48 .

And became heir of the righteousness which is by faith by this faith he received the promise of righteousness, which made him an heir of it, and of that eternal life and salvation for which it fitted him, as well as to which it entitled him; and by it he sent out all the fruits of righteousness that are to the praise and glory of God, Rom 5:1 Joh 1:12 .

Haydock: Heb 11:7

Having received an answer....moved with fear; [5] i.e. with a religious fear: by the Greek, prepared the ark, by which he condemned the rest of the incredulous world, who would not take warning nor believe. (Witham) ---

Noe [Noah] warned impenitent sinners of impending judgments; but unbelievers and scoffers, they only laughed at Noe's credulity: thus worldlings, who laugh at the simplicity of the few, who work out their salvation with fear and trembling, will one day see their error, when the former shall perish in their infidelity, and the latter shall triumph in the midst of a falling world.

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Metuens, Greek: eulabetheis, which signifieth a fear with reverence. See Hebrews v. 7.

Gill: Heb 11:7

By faith Noah, being warned of God,.... In the Greek text, Noah is called "Noe", and so the Septuagint interpreters of the Old Testament call him; but Josephus calls him "Noeos": or "having received an oracle from God"; in which he was admonished, how to make an ark, as Moses was, in like manner, how to make a tabernacle, Heb 8:5. This oracle or warning is extant, in Gen 6:13 and it was

of things not seen as yet; as the universal deluge; the building of an ark or ship, which was the first that ever was in the world; the entrance of all creatures into it; their preservation in it, and the destruction of all without it: and this divine warning, or oracle, concerning things of such a nature, delivered to Noah, and received by him, shows that he was a favourite of God; that his faith rested in the word of God; and that it agreed with the apostle's definition of faith, Heb 11:1,

moved with fear; not with a fear of his own damnation; nor with a distrust of the salvation of himself and his family in the ark; but with an awful sense of the judgments of God upon the wicked; and with reverence of God, from whom he received the oracle; and with a religious fear, with which he worshipped God, and which he discovered by a regard to his word and ordinances; and which fear does not arise from nature, but from grace; and is increased by the discoveries of divine love; and is consistent with faith, goes along with it, and is a fruit of it: hence he

prepared an ark for the saving of his house. Immediately, and without delay, he set about the building of the ark, and made it exactly according to the pattern which was given him; and his end in it was to secure his family, himself and his wife, his three sons and their wives, from the flood, which he believed would shortly come upon the world, according to the word of God; and in this his faith was seen: and from hence it may be observed, that, though God can save without means, yet, generally speaking, it is his will to save by them; and that as God saved Noah and his family in the waters, so he can, and does, save his people in afflictions; and also, that true faith is attended with obedience:

by the which he condemned the world: the inhabitants of the world, the world of the ungodly: as a preacher, he declared they would be condemned, in case of impenitence and unbelief; and his words heard, and his actions seen by them, were aggravations of their condemnation; for by his works, as well as by his words, he reproved, and condemned them; by building the ark, as he declared his own faith, so he condemned their unbelief; See Gill on Mat 12:41.

and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith: not of the law, but of the righteousness of Christ, and of eternal life through that; for he was not only heir of this world, as Abraham, but of that which is to come; and not through works of righteousness done by him, but through the righteousness of Christ received by faith, or through faith in Christ, the antitype of the ark.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Heb 11:7

¹ tn Cf. BDAG 407 s.v. εὐλαβέομαι 2, “out of reverent regard (for God’s command).”

Geneva Bible: Heb 11:7

^{( 6 )} By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

^{( 6 )} Noah.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Heb 11:1-40

1 What faith is.

6 Without faith we cannot please God.

7 The worthy fruits thereof in the fathers of old time.

Combined Bible: Heb 11:7

Faith of Noah   

(Hebrews 11:6, 7)   

The verses which are now to engage our attention are by no means free of difficulty, especially unto those who have sat under a ministry which has failed to preserve the balance between Divine grace and Divine righteousness. Where the free favor of God has been strongly emphasized and His claims largely ignored, where privileges have been stressed and duties almost neglected, it is far from easy to view many Scriptures in their true perspective. When those who have heard little more than the decrying of creature-abilities and the denunciation of creature-merits are asked to honestly and seriously face the terms of Hebrews 11:6, 7, they are quite unable to fit them into their system of theology. Where such be the case, it is proof positive that something is wrong with our theology. Often those who are least cramped by sectarian bias find that the truth of God is too large, too many-sided, to be squeezed into human definitions and creeds.  

Others of our readers are probably wondering what it is we have reference to above when we say that our present portion of Hebrews 11 is by no means free of difficulty. Then let us raise a few questions upon these verses. If the exercise of faith be pleasing to God, does this signify that it is a thing meritorious? How is this concept to be avoided in the light of the statement that God is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him? How does a "reward" consist with pure grace? And what is the doctrinal force of the next verse? Does the case of Noah teach salvation by works? If he had not gone to so much expense and labor in building the ark, would he and his house have escaped the flood? Was his becoming "heir of righteousness’’ something that he earned by his obedient toil? How can this conclusion be fairly avoided? We shall endeavor to keep these questions before us in the course of our exposition.  

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him" (verse 6). There is a threefold "coming to God": an initial, a continuous, and a final. The first takes place at conversion, the second is repeated throughout the Christian’ s life, the third occurs at death or the second coming of Christ. To come to God signifies to seek and have fellowship with Him. It denotes a desire to enter into His favor and become a partaker of His blessings in this life and of His salvation in the life to come. It is the heart’ s approach unto Him in and through Christ: John 14:6, Hebrews 7:25. But before there is a conscious access to Him, God has to be diligently sought.  

None come to God, none truly seek Him, until they are made conscious of their lost condition. The Spirit must first work in the soul a realization that sin has alienated us "from the life of God" (Eph. 4:18). We have to be made to feel that we are away from God, out of His favor, under His righteous condemnation, before we shall really do as the prodigal did, and say "I will arise and go to My Father, and will say unto Him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before Thee" (Luke 15:18). The same principle holds good in connection with the repeated "coming" of the Christian (1 Pet. 2:4); it is a sense of need which causes us to seek Him who is the Giver of every good and every perfect gift. There is also a maintained communion with God in the performance of holy duties: in all the exercises of godliness we renew our access to God in Christ: in reading of or hearing His Word, we come to Him as Teacher, in prayer we come to Him as Benefactor.  

But to seek God aright, He has to be sought in faith, for "without faith it is impossible to please Him," therefore, "he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." There has to be first a firm persuasion of His being, and second of His bounty. To believe that "He is" means much more than assenting to the fact of a "First Cause" or to allow that there is a "Supreme Being"; it means to believe in the character of God as He has revealed Himself in His works, in His Word, and in Christ. He must be conceived of aright, or otherwise we are only pursuing a phantom of our own imagination. Thus, to believe that "God is" is to exercise faith upon Him as such a Being as His Word declares Him to be: supreme sovereign, ineffably holy, almighty, inflexibly just, yet abounding in mercy and grace toward poor sinners through Christ.  

Not only is the heart to go out unto God as His being and character is revealed in Scripture, but particularly, faith is to lay hold of His graciousness: that He is "a Rewarder" etc. The acting of faith toward God as a "Rewarder" is the heart’ s apprehension and anticipation of the fact that He is ready and willing to conduct Himself to needy sinners in a way of bounty, that He will act in all things toward them in a manner suitable unto the proposal of which He makes of Himself through the Gospel. It was the realization of this (in addition to his felt need) which stirred the prodigal to act. Just as it would be useless to pray unless there were an hope that God hears and that He will answer prayer, so no sinner will really seek unto God until there is born in his heart an expectation of mercy from Him, that He will receive him graciously. This is a laying hold of His promise.  

In Scripture, privileges are propounded with their necessary limitations, and we disjoint the whole system of Truth if we separate the recompense from the duty. There is something to be done on our part: God is a "Rewarder," but of whom? Of those who "diligently seek Him." "The wicked shall be turned into Hell, all the nations that forget God" (Ps. 9:17): not only "deny," but "forget" Him; as they cast God out of their thoughts and affections, so He will cast them out of His presence. What is meant by "diligently seek Him"? To "seek" God is to forsake, deny, go out of self, and take Him alone for our Ruler and satisfying Portion. To seek Him "diligently" is to seek Him early (Prov. 8:17), whole-heartedly (Ps. 119:10), earnestly (Ps. 27: 4), unweariedly (Luke 11:8). How does a thirsty man seek water? The promise is, "And ye shall seek Me and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13 and cf. 2 Chronicles 15:15).  

And how does God "reward" the diligent seeker? By offering Himself graciously to be found of them who penitently, earnestly, trustfully approach Him through the appointed Mediator. By granting them access into His favor: this He did not unto Cain, who sought Him in a wrong manner. By actually bestowing His favor upon them, as He did upon the prodigal. By forgiving their sins and blotting out their iniquities (Isa. 55:7). By writing His laws in their hearts, so that they now desire and determine to forsake all idols and serve Him only. By giving them assurance of their acceptance in the Beloved, and granting them sweet foretastes of the rest and bliss which awaits them on High. By ministering to their every need, both spiritual and temporal. Finally, by taking them to heaven, where they shall spend eternity in the unclouded enjoyment of the wondrous riches of His grace.  

But does this word "Rewarder" have a legalistic ring to it? Not if it be understood rightly. Does it signify that our "diligent seeking" is a meritorious performance which is entitled to recognition? Of course it does not. What, then, is meant? First, let us quote from the helpful comments of John Owen: "That which these words of the apostle hath respect to, and which is the ground of the faith here required, is contained in the revelation that God made of Himself unto Abraham, ‘ Fear not: Abram: I am thy shield, and they exceeding great reward’ (Gen. 15:1). God is so a rewarder unto them that seek Him, as that He is Himself their reward, which eternally excludes all thoughts of merit in them that are so rewarded. Who can merit God to be his reward? Rewarding in God, especially where He Himself is the reward, is an act of infinite grace and bounty. And this gives us full direction unto the object of faith here intended, namely, God in Christ, as revealed in the promise of Him, giving Himself unto believers as a reward, (to be their God) in a way of infinite goodness and bounty. The proposal hereof, is that alone which gives encouragement to come unto Him, which the apostle designs to declare."  

"Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt" (Rom. 4:4): is not the implication clear that grace itself also "rewards"? Grace and reward are no more inconsistent than the high sovereignty of God and the real responsibility of man, or between the fact that Christ is and was both "Servant" (Isa. 42:1) and "Lord" (John 13:13). The language of Colossians 3:24 makes this clear as a sunbeam: "Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ." The "inheritance" is Heaven itself, salvation in its consummation. But is not salvation a free gift? Yes, indeed; nevertheless it has to be "bought" by its recipients (Isa. 55:1), yet "without money and without price." Salvation is both a "gift" and a "reward."  

While it be true that Heaven cannot be earned by the sinner, it is equally true that Heaven is not for idlers and loiterers. God has to be "diligently sought." To enter the strait gate the soul has to agonize (Luke 13:24). We are called upon to "labor" for that meat which endureth unto eternal life (John 6:27) and to enter into the heavenly rest (Heb. 4:11). Such efforts God "rewards," not because they are meritorious, but because He deems it meet to recognize and recompense them. There are those who teach that in serving God we ought to have no "respect unto the recompense of the reward" (Heb. 11:26), but this verse refutes them, for the apostle explicitly declares that this forms a necessary part of that truth which is to be believed in order to our pleasing God.  

Heaven, or completed salvation, is spoken of as a "reward" to intimate the character of those to whom it is given, namely, the diligent laborer. Second, because it is not bestowed until our work is completed: 2 Timothy 4:7, 8. Third, to intimate the sureness of it: we may as confidently expect it as does the laborer who has been hired by an honest master: James 1:12. This "reward" is principally in the next life: Hebrews 11:16, 2 Corinthians 4:17— it is then that all true godliness shall be richly recompensed: Mark 10:29, 30. It only remains for us now to add that the ground on which God bestows the "reward" is the infinite merits of Christ, and out of respect unto His own promise. That which He "rewards" is the work of His own Spirit within us, so that we have no ground for boasting.  

"By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith" (verse 7).  

The apostle now presents a concrete example which illustrates what he had said in verse 6. God’ s dealings with Noah and the world in his time were plainly a sample and pledge of His dealing with the world in all ages, particularly so when its history is finally wound up. Inasmuch as God is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, it necessarily follows that He is also the Revenger of all who despise Him. In the destruction of the old world, God showed His displeasure against sin (Job 22:15, 16); in the preservation of Noah, He made manifest the privileges of His own people (2 Pet. 2:9). That the whole was a pledge and type is clear from 2 Peter 3:6, 7.  

In the verse which is now before us three things claim attention. First, Noah’ s faith and its ground, namely the warning he had received from God. Second, the effects of his faith, namely, internally, the impulse of "fear"; externally, his obedience in making the ark under God’ s orders. Third, the consequences of his faith, namely, the saving of his house, the condemning of the world, his becoming heir of the righteousness which is by faith. But ere taking up these points, let us face and endeavor to remove a difficulty which some feel this verse raises. Let us put it this way: was Noah saved by his own works? We believe the answer is both Yes, and No. We beg the reader to exercise patience and prayerfully ponder what follows, and not cry out rank heresy and refuse to read further.  

If Noah had not "prepared an ark" in obedience to God’ s command, would he not have perished in the flood? Then was it his own efforts which preserved him from death in the great deluge? No indeed; it was the preserving power of God. That ark had neither mast, sail, nor steering-wheel: only the gracious hand of the Lord kept that frail barque from being splintered to atoms on the rocks and the mountains. Then what is the relation between these two things? This: Noah made use of the means which God had prescribed, and by His grace and power those means were made effectual unto his preservation. Must not the farmer toil in his fields? yet it is God alone who gives him the increase. Must I not observe the laws of hygiene and eat wholesome food? yet only as God blesses them to me am I kept in health. So it is in spiritual things: salvation by grace alone does not exclude the imperative necessity of our using the means which God has appointed and prescribed.  

The temporal deliverance of Noah from the flood is undoubtedly an adumbration of the eternal deliverance of God’ s elect from the wrath to come: and here, as everywhere, the type is accurate and perfect. Nor can any sophistical quibbling honestly get rid of the fact that Noah’ s building of the Ark— a most costly and arduous work!— was a means towards his preservation. Then does the case of Noah supply a clear example of salvation by works? Again we answer boldly, Yes and No. But the difficulty is greatly relieved if we bear in mind that Noah was already a saved man before God bade him build the Ark! A reference to Genesis 6:8, 9 and a comparison with Hebrews 6:14, 22 makes this unmistakably plain. But does not this fact overthrow all that has been said in the previous paragraphs? Not at all. The Christian’ s salvation is not only a past thing (2 Tim. 1:9), but a present (Phil. 2:12) and future (Rom. 13:11) thing too! We trust that the solution of the difficulty will be more evident as we proceed with our exposition of the verse.  

As we have before pointed out, the first three verses of Hebrews 11 are introductory, their design being to set forth the importance and excellency of faith. Then, in verse 4-7, we have an outline of the life of faith: the beginning of it is seen in verse 4, the nature of what it consists in verse 5, a warning and encouragement is supplied in verse 6, and the end of it is shown in verse 7. Before bringing before us the glorious goal which the life of faith reaches, verse 7 gives us the other side of what was before us in verse 5: there we saw faith elevating above a world of death, carrying the heart of its favored possessor into Heaven. But we are still in the world, and that is the place of opposition, of danger, and hence, of testing. Thus in verse 7 we are not only shown what faith obtains, but how it obtains, it.  

Now as we found it necessary to go back to Genesis 3 and 4 to interpret Hebrews 11:4, and to Genesis 5:24 to get the meaning of Hebrews 11:5, so now we have to consult Genesis 6 in order to discover what is here adumbrated. Let the reader turn back to Genesis 6:5-22. There we find unsparing Divine judgment announced (verse 13), a way of deliverance presented to one who had "found grace" in the Lord’ s eyes (verse 14), faith’ s obedience called for if escape was to be had from judgment (verse 14), the Divinely prescribed means to be used (verse 15); by employing those means deliverance was obtained. Now in like manner, a most solemn warning has been given us, an announcement of coming judgment: see 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8; 2 Peter 3:10-17— let the reader duly observe that both of these passages are found in epistles addressed to God’ s children.  

In saying above that Hebrews 11:7 gives us the other side of what is spiritually set forth in verse 5, we mean that it gives us the balancing truth. It is most important to observe this, for otherwise we are very liable to entertain a mystical concept of verse 5 and become lopsided. Satan is ready to tell us that verse 5 presents to us a beautiful ideal, but one which is altogether impracticable for ordinary people— alright for preachers, but impossible for others. After reading our article on verse 5, many are likely to exclaim: We cannot be thinking of heavenly things all the time, we have our daily duties to attend to here on earth: the only way we could reach the standard of verse 5 would be by entering a monastery or convent, entirely secluding ourselves from the world; and surely God does not require this of us. No, indeed; that was the great mistake of the "Dark Ages."  

"By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house." This gives us the other side of verse 5. It shows that we have duties to perform on earth, and intimates how they are to be discharged— by faith, in the fear of God, implicitly obeying His commands. And more: our present verse insists on the fact (now so little apprehended) that, the performing these duties, the rendering of faith’ s obedience to God, is indispensably necessary to our very salvation. The "salvation" of the soul is yet future: note "saving" and not "salvation" in Hebrews 10:39, and also compare 1 Peter 1:5. In order to be saved from the destructive power of sin, the ruinous allurements of the world, and the devouring assaults of Satan, we must tread the path of obedience to Christ (Heb. 5:9), for only there do we escape these fatal foes. Let the reader prayerfully ponder Mark 9:43-50; Luke 14:26, 27, 33; Romans 8:13; 1 Corinthians 9:27; Colossians 3:5; Hebrews 3:12, 14.  

Hebrews 11:5 and 7 supplement each other. Verse 5 shows us that by the exercise of faith our affections are elevated above the earth and set upon things above. Verse 7 teaches us that our lives on earth are to be regulated by heavenly principles. The real Christian is a heavenly man living on earth as a heavenly man; that is to say, he is governed by spiritual and Divine principles, and not by fleshly motives and worldly interests. The Christian performs many of the same deeds as the non-Christian does, yet with a far different object and aim. All that I do should be done in obedience to God, in joyous response to His revealed will. Let us be specific and come to details. Let the Christian wife read Ephesians 5:22-24 and the husband 5:25-31, and let each recognize that in obeying the husband and loving the wife, they are obeying God. Let Christian employees ponder Ephesians 6:5-7, and recognize that in obeying their masters they are obeying the Lord; contrariwise, in sulking or speaking against them, they murmur against the Lord!  

Now such obedience to God’ s commandments in the ordinary relationships of life are necessary unto salvation. If this staggers the reader, let him contemplate the opposite. Those precepts and commands have been given us by God, and to disregard them is rebellion, and to refuse compliance is defiance; and no rebel against God can enter Heaven. Unless our wills have been broken, unless our hearts have been brought into subjection to God, we have no scriptural warrant for concluding that He has begun a good work in us (Phil. 1:6). "He that saith I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:4). The only path which leads to heaven is that of walking in obedience to God’ s commands.  

Now the salvation of the soul lies at the end of that path. Does the reader exclaim, I thought it was at the beginning of it, and that none but a regenerate person could or would walk therein. From one standpoint that is quite true. When genuinely converted a sinner is saved from the eternal penalty of his sins, and is "delivered from the wrath to come." But is he there and then removed to Heaven? With very rare exceptions he is not. Instead, God leaves him here in this world. And this world is the place of danger, for temptations to return unto its ways and pleasures abound on every side. Moreover, the judgment of God hangs over it, and one day will burst upon and consume it. And who will escape that destruction? Only those who, like Noah, have a faith which is moved with fear and produces obedience. But it is now high time that we considered more closely the details of verse 7.  

"By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house." Ah, here is the key to our verse, hung right upon the very door of it. Like every other one of God’ s elect, Noah was saved by grace through faith; and yet not by a faith that was inactive— Ephesians 2:10 follows verse 9! Faith was the spring of all his works: a faith which was far more than an intellectual assent, one which was a supernatural principle that sovereign grace had wrought in him. God had determined to send a flood and destroy the wicked world, but ere doing so, He acquainted Noah with His purpose. He has done the same with us: see Romans 1:18. That Divine warning was the ground of Noah’ s faith. He argued not, nor reasoned about its incredibility; instead, he believed God. The threatening, as well as the promise of God, is the object of faith; the justice of God is to be eyed, as well as His mercy!  

Human reason was altogether opposed unto what God had made known to Noah. Hitherto there had been no rain (Gen. 2:6), then why expect an overwhelming deluge? It seemed utterly unlikely God would destroy the whole human race, and His mercy be thus utterly swallowed up by His avenging justice. The threatening judgment was a long way off (120 years: Genesis 6:3), and during that time the world might well repent and reform. When he preached to men (2 Pet. 2:5) none believed his message: why then should he be so fearful, when every one else was at ease? To build an ark of such huge dimensions was an enormous undertaking, and, as well, would involve the scoffs of all his fellows. And even if the flood came, how could the ark float with such an immensely heavy burden— it had no anchor to stay her, no mast and sail to steady her, no steering-wheel to direct. Was it not quite inpracticable, for Noah was quite inexperienced nautically. Moreover, for him and his family to dwell for an indefinite period in a sealed ark was far from a pleasant prospect unto the flesh and blood. But against all these carnal objections faith offered a steady resistance, and believed God!  

"Moved with fear." This evidenced the reality and power of his faith, for saving faith not only "worketh by love" (Gal. 5:6), but in "fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12). A reverential awe of God is a sure fruit of saving faith. That "fear" acted as a salutary impetus in Noah and operated as a powerful motive in his building of the ark. "His believing the word of God, had this effect on him... a reverential fear it is of God’ s threatenings, and not an anxious solicitous fear of the evil threatened. In the warning given him, he considered the greatness, the holiness, and the power of God, with the vengeance becoming those holy properties of His nature, which He threatened to bring on the world. Seeing God by faith under this representation of Him, he was filled with a reverential fear of Him. See Habakuk 3:16, Psalm 119:120, Malachi 2:5" (John Owen).  

"Prepared an ark to the saving of his house." As Matthew Henry says, "Faith first influences our affections and then our actions." "Faith without works is dead" (James 2:20), particularly works of obedience. "Thus did Noah: according to all that God commanded him, so did he" (Gen. 6:22). Privilege and duty are inseparably connected, yet duty will never be performed where faith is absent. Faith in Noah caused him to persevere in his arduous labors amid many difficulties and discouragements. Thus his building of the ark was the work of faith and patience, a labor of Godly fear, an act of obedience, a means to his preservation— for God’ s covenant with him (Gen. 6:18) did not preclude his diligent use of means; and a type of Christ. As it was by faith-obedience he prepared the ark, so by faith’ s obedience came the "saving of his house." God always honors those who honor Him. This temporal salvation was a figure of the eternal salvation unto which we are pressing forward for note that the destruction of the and-deluvians was an eternal one— for their spirits are now "in prison" (1 Pet. 3:19)! Observe it is our responsibility to seek after our own salvation and those committed to us: see Acts 2:40, 2 Timothy 4:16.  

"By the which he condemned the world." The reference is to all that precedes. By his own example, by his faith in God’ s warning, his reverential awe of God’ s holiness and justice, his implicit and unflagging obedience in preparing the ark, Noah "condemned" the unbelieving, unconcerned, godless people all around him. One man is said to "condemn," another when, by his godly actions, he shows what the other should do, and which by doing not, his guilt is aggravated; see Matthew 12:41, 42. The Sabbath-keeper "condemns" the Sabbath-breaker. He who abandons a worldly church and goes forth unto Christ outside the camp, "condemns" the compromiser. Noah’ s diligent and costly labors increased the guilt of the careless, who rested in a false security. Though we cannot convert the wicked, yet we must be careful to set before them such an example of personal piety that they are left "without excuse."  

"And became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." The "righteousness" here referred to is that perfect obedience of Christ which God imputes unto all who savingly believe on His Son: Jeremiah 23:6, Romans 5:19, 2 Corinthians 5:21. This righteousness is sometimes called, absolutely, the "righteousness of God" (Rom. 1:17, etc.), sometimes the "gift of righteousness... by one, Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:17), sometimes "the righteousness which is of God by faith" (Phil. 3:9); in all of which our free and gratuitous justification by the righteousness of Christ reckoned to our account through faith, is intended. In saying that Noah "became heir" of this righteousness, there may be a double significance. First, by faith’ s obedience he evidenced himself to be a justified man (Gen. 6:9), as Abraham did when he offered up Isaac (James 2:21). Second, he established his title to that righteousness which is here spoken of as an "inheritance": this is in contrast from Esau who despised his. That righteousness which Christ purchased for His people is here denominated an "inheritance," to emphasize the dignity and excellency of it, to magnify the freeness of its tenure, to declare the certainty and inviolability of it.  

The actual entrance upon our Inheritance is yet future. "That being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:7). The great question for each of us to settle is, Am I an "heir"? To help us do so, let me inquire, Have I the spirit of one? Is my main care to make sure that I have the birthright? Am I putting the claims of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33) above everything else? Have I such thoughts of the blessedness of my portion in Christ that nothing can induce me to sell or part with it (Heb. 12:16)? Is my heart wrapped up in that inheritance so that I am groaning within myself, "waiting for the adoption" (Rom. 8:23)? Am I walking by faith, with the fear of God upon me, diligently attending to His commandments, thereby condemning the world? If so, thrice blessed am I: and soon shall I be saved "to sin no more."  

  

  

Maclaren: Heb 11:7

Noah's Faith And Ours

By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house.'--Heb. 11:7.

THE creed of these Old Testament saints was a very short one, and very different from ours. Their faith was the very same. It is the great object of the writer of this Epistle, in this magnificent catalogue of the heroes of the faith, the muster roll of God's great army, to establish the principle that from the beginning there has only been one kind of religion, only one way to God;and that, however rudimentary and brief the articles of belief in those early days, the faculty by which these far-away believers lay hold on them, and its practical issues, were identical in them and in us, And that is a principle well worth getting into our minds, that the scope of the creed has nothing, to do with the essence of the faith.

So we may look at this instance and discern in it. beneath all superficial differences, the underlying identities, and take this dim, half-intelligible figure of Noah, as he stands almost on the horizon of history, as being an example for us, in very vivid fashion, of the true object of faith, its operation in a two-fold fashion, and its vindication.

I. Look First At Noah's Faith In Regard To Its Object.

If we think of the incident brought before us in these words, we shall see how the confidence with which Noah laid hold of a dim future, about which he knew nothing, except because God had spoken to him, was, at bottom, identical with that great attitude of the soul which we call faith, as it is exercised towards Jesus Christ.

No doubt in this Epistle to the Hebrews, the aspect of faith by which it lays hold of the future and the unseen, is the one on which the writer's mind is mainly fixed. But notice, that whilst the near object, so to speak, to which Noah stretched out his hands, and of which he laid hold, was that coming catastrophe, with its certainties of destruction and of deliverance; there was only one reason why he knew anything about that, and there was only one reason why he knew or believed anything about it, and that was because, he believed Him who had told him. So, at bottom, God who had revealed the unseen future to him was the object of his faith. He trusted the Person, therefore he believed in that Person's word, and therefore he had the assured realisation of things not seen as yet; and the future, so dim and uncertain to unaided eyes, became to him as certain as the past, and expectation as reliable as memory. His faith grasped the invisible things to come, only because it grasped the Invisible Person, who was, is, and is to come, and who lifted for him the curtain and showed him the things that should be. So is it with our faith; whether it lays hold upon a past sacrifice on Calvary, or upon a present Christ dwelling in our hearts, or whether it becomes telescopic, and stretches forward into the future, and brings the distant near, all its various aspects are but aspects of one thing, and that is personal trust in the personal Christ who speaks to us. What he says is a matter of secondary importance in this respect. The contents of God's revelation vary; the act by which man accepts them is always the same.

So the great question for us all is--do we trust God Do we believe Him, and therefore accept His words, not only with the assent of the understanding, which of all idle things is the idlest, but do we believe Him, revealing, commanding, promising, threatening, with the trust and affiance of our whole hearts? Then, and then only, can we look with quiet certainty into the dim future, which else is all full of rolling clouds, that sometimes shape themselves to our imaginations into the likeness of stable things, but alas! change and melt while we gaze. Only then can we front the solemn future, and say: I do not expect only, I know what is there.' My brother, if our faith is worth calling faith at all, it rests so absolutely and confidingly upon God, that His bare word becomes to us the infallible source of certitude with regard to all the shifting hours of time, and to the steadfast day of an eternity, whose change is blessed growth to an unreached and undeclining noon.

And what was the future that loomed before this man? The coming of a destruction as certain as God, and the coming of a deliverance as complete as His love could make it. Never mind although Noah's outlook related but to a temporary catastrophe, and ours has reference to an eternal condition of things. That is a difference of no real moment. We have what Noah had, a definite, divine utterance, as the source of all our knowledge of what is coming. Both are alike in having two sides, one dark and menacing with a certain destruction, the other radiant and lustrous with as certain a deliverance. And now the question for each of us is, do I so believe God that that future is to me what it was to this map--far more real than these fleeing illusions that lie nearer me?

When Noah walked the earth and saw his contemporaries busy with buying and selling, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, how fantastic and unreal their work must have seemed to him, when behind them he saw blazing a vision, which he alone of all that multitude believed. Do not let us fancy that we have faith if these near trifles are to us the great realities, and the distance is dim, and unsubstantial, and doubtful, hidden in mist and forgotten. The years that stretched between the divine utterance and its fulfilment were to this man as nothing, and for him the unseen was the reality, and the seen was the shadowy and phantasmal. And that is what faith worth calling the name will always do for men. Ask yourselves the question if your dim apprehension of that future, in either of its aspects, is anything so vivid as the certitude which blazed ever before the eye of this man. One of our old English writers says, If the felicities of another world were as closely apprehended as the joys of this, it were martyrdom to live.' That may be an exaggeration, but surely, surely there is something wrong in men who call themselves believers in God and His word, to whom the things seen and temporal are all or nearly all important, and the trifles an inch from their eyes are big enough to shut out heaven and all its stars.

II. Still Further, Notice Noah's Faith In Its Practical Effects.

If faith has any reality in us at all, it works. If it has no effect it has no existence. The writer points out two operations of this confidence in God which, through belief in His word, leads to a realisation of a remote and unseen future. The effects are two-fold. First on Noah's disposition, faith produced appropriate emotion, excited by the belief in the coming deluge; he was moved with fear.' Then, secondly, through emotion, faith influenced conduct--he prepared an ark.' This is the order in which faith ever works.

If real and strong, it will first affect emotion. By fear' here we are not merely to understand, though possibly it is not to be excluded, a dread of personal consequences, but much rather the sweet and lofty emotion which is described in another part of this same book by the same word: Let us serve Him with reverence and with godly fear.' It is the fear of pious regard, of religious awe, of reverence which has love blended inseparably with it, and is not merely a tremulous apprehension of some mischief coming to me. Noah had no need for that self-regarding fear,' inasmuch as one half of his knowledge of the future was the knowledge of his own absolute safety. But reverence, the dread of going against his Father's will, lowly submission, and all analogous and kindred sentiments, are expressed by the word.

Such holy and blessed emotion, which has no torment, is the sure result of real faith. Unless a man's faith is warm enough to melt his heart, it is worth very little. A faith unaccompanied by emotion is, I was going to say worse, at any rate it is quite as bad, as a faith which is all wasted in emotion. It is not a good thing when all the steam roars out through an escape pipe; it is perhaps a worse thing when there is no steam in the boiler to escape. It is easy for people that have not any religion to scoff at what they suppose to be the fanatical excess of emotion which some forms of religious belief develop. I, for my part, would rather have the extremest emotion than a dead cold orthodoxy, that believes everything and feels nothing. There is some hope in the one; the other is only fit to be buried. Do not be afraid of feeling which is the child of faith. Be very much more afraid of a religion that leaves your heart beating just exactly at the same rate that it did before you took the truth into it. I am very, very sure that there is no road, between a man's faith and his practice, except through his heart, and that, as the Apostle has it in a somewhat different form of speech, meaning, however, the same thing that I am now insisting upon, faith worketh by love.' Love is the path through which creed travels outward to conduct.

So we come to the second and more remote effect of faith. Emotion will lead to action. Moved with fear he prepared an ark.' If emotion be the child of faith, conduct is the child of emotion. Noah's faith, then, led him to a line of action that separated him from the men around him; and it led him to a protracted labour in preparation for a remote end, for the coming of which he had no guarantee except what he believed to be God's word. Commentators calculate that there were a hundred and twenty years between the time of the divine command and the Flood. Think of how this man, for all that long while, set himself to his task, and how many clever speeches would be made, proving that he was a fool, and how many witty gibes would come showering around his head like hail. But he kept steadily on, on a line of conduct which made him singular, and which had regard only to that result a hundred and twenty years off.

Now, is that what you and I are doing? Does our faith so shape our lives that whatever we are about, there is still regard to that far-off future? If you meet a man in the street, hurrying somewhere to welcome a friend expected to arrive from a far-off land, and you detain him in conversation, as you speak he is impatient, keeps looking over your shoulder down the road to see if there is any sign of his coming. That is how we should be acting here--doing our work and sticking to our tasks, but ever letting expectation and desire carry us onwards to that great future, which has already set out from the throne in Eternity, and is speeding towards us even now. Let that future, dear brethren, stand so clear before each of us, that it shall shape our whole work in the present. We shall mould all our lives with reference to it, if we are wise. For what we make our present, that will our future be. The smaller ends for which men live, and the nearer futures which they struggle towards, lose no jot of their worth by being regarded as but means to that far greater end. Rather, time is only redeemed from triviality, when it is seen to be the preparation for eternity, and earth is never so fair and good as when we discern and use it as the vestibule of heaven. Never mind being singular. He is the wise man whose vision reaches as far as his existence, and whose earthly life has for the end of its effort, to please Christ and be found in Him.

III. And So, Lastly, Let Me Point To Noah's Faith, In Regard To Its Vindication.

He condemned the world.' The world' thought him wasting life foolishly. No doubt there were plenty of witty and wise things said about him. Prudent, far-sighted, practical men' would say, How fanatical! What a misuse of energies and opportunities'; and so forth. And then, one morning, the rain began, and continued, and for forty days it did not stop, and they began to think that perhaps, after all, there was some method in his madness. Noah got into his ark, and still it rained, and I wonder what the wits and' practical men,' that had treated the whole thing as moonshine and folly, thought about it all then, with the water up to their knees. How their gibes and jests would die in their throats when it reached their lips!

And so, my dear friends, the faith of the poor, ignorant old woman that up in her garret lives to serve Jesus Christ, and to win an eternal crown, will get its vindication some day, and it will be found out then which was the' practical' man and the wise man, and all the witty speeches and smart sayings will seem very foolish even to their authors, when the light of that future shines on them. And the old word will come true once more, that the man who lives for the present, and for anything bounded by Time, will have to leave it in the midst of his days,' and at his latter end shall be a fool,' whilst the foolish' man who lived for the future, when the future has come to the present, and the present has dwindled away into the past, and sunk beneath the horizon, shall be proved to be wise, and shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever.

MHCC: Heb 11:4-7

Here follow some illustrious examples of faith from the Old Testament. Abel brought a sacrifice of atonement from the firstlings of the flock, acknowledging himself a sinner who deserved to die, and only hoping for mercy through the great Sacrifice. Cain's proud rage and enmity against the accepted worshipper of God, led to the awful effects the same principles have produced in every age; the cruel persecution, and even murder of believers. By faith Abel, being dead, yet speaketh; he left an instructive and speaking example. Enoch was translated, or removed, that he should not see death; God took him into heaven, as Christ will do the saints who shall be alive at his second coming. We cannot come to God, unless we believe that he is what he has revealed himself to be in the Scripture. Those who would find God, must seek him with all their heart. Noah's faith influenced his practice; it moved him to prepare an ark. His faith condemned the unbelief of others; and his obedience condemned their contempt and rebellion. Good examples either convert sinners or condemn them. This shows how believers, being warned of God to flee from the wrath to come, are moved with fear, take refuge in Christ, and become heirs of the righteousness of faith.

Matthew Henry: Heb 11:4-31

The apostle, having given us a more general account of the grace of faith, now proceeds to set before us some illustrious examples of it in the Old Testament times, and these may be divided into two classes: - 1. Those whose names are mentioned, and the particular exercise and actings of whose faith are specified. 2. Those whose names are barely mentioned, and an account given in general of the exploits of their faith, which it is left to the reader to accommodate, and apply to the particular persons from what he gathers up in the sacred story. We have here those whose names are not only mentioned, but the particular trials and actings of their faith are subjoined.

I. The leading instance and example of faith here recorded is that of Abel. It is observable that the Spirit of God has not thought fit to say any thing here of the faith of our first parents; and yet the church of God has generally, by a pious charity, taken it for granted that God gave them repentance and faith in the promised seed, that he instructed them in the mystery of sacrificing, that they instructed their children in it, and that they found mercy with God, after they had ruined themselves and all their posterity. But God has left the matter still under some doubt, as a warning to all who have great talents given to them, and a great trust reposed in them, that they do not prove unfaithful, since God would not enroll our first parents among the number of believers in this blessed calendar. It begins with Abel, one of the first saints, and the first martyr for religion, of all the sons of Adam, one who lived by faith, and died for it, and therefore a fit pattern for the Hebrews to imitate. Observe,

1. What Abel did by faith: He offered up a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, a more full and perfect sacrifice, pleiona thusian . Hence learn, (1.) That, after the fall, God opened a new way for the children of men to return to him in religious worship. This is one of the first instances that is upon record of fallen men going in to worship God; and it was a wonder of mercy that all intercourse between God and man was not cut off by the fall. (2.) After the fall, God must be worshipped by sacrifices, a way of worship which carries in it a confession of sin, and of the desert of sin, and a profession of faith in a Redeemer, who was to be a ransom for the souls of men. (3.) That, from the beginning, there has been a remarkable difference between the worshippers. Here were two persons, brethren, both of whom went in to worship God, and yet there was a vast difference. Cain was the elder brother, but Abel has the preference. It is not seniority of birth, but grace, that makes men truly honourable. The difference is observable in their persons: Abel was an upright person, a righteous man, a true believer; Cain was a formalist, had not a principle of special grace. It is observable in their principles: Abel acted under the power of faith; Cain only from the force of education, or natural conscience. There was also a very observable difference in their offerings: Abel brought a sacrifice of atonement, brought of the firstlings of the flock, acknowledging himself to be a sinner who deserved to die, and only hoping for mercy through the great sacrifice; Cain brought only a sacrifice of acknowledgment, a mere thank-offering, the fruit of the ground, which might, and perhaps must, have been offered in innocency; here was no confession of sin, no regard to the ransom; this was an essential defect in Cain's offering. There will always be a difference between those who worship the true God; some will compass him about with lies, others will be faithful with the saints; some, like the Pharisee, will lean to their own righteousness; others, like the publican, will confess their sin, and cast themselves upon the mercy of God in Christ.

2. What Abel gained by his faith: the original record is in Gen 4:4, God had respect to Abel, and to his offering; first to his person as gracious, then to his offering as proceeding from grace, especially from the grace of faith. In this place we are told that he obtained by his faith some special advantages; as, (1.) Witness that he was righteous, a justified, sanctified, and accepted person; this, very probably, was attested by fire from heaven, kindling and consuming his sacrifice. (2.) God gave witness to the righteousness of his person, by testifying his acceptance of his gifts. When the fire, an emblem of God's justice, consumed the offering, it was a sign that the mercy of God accepted the offerer for the sake of the great sacrifice. (3.) By it he, being dead, yet speaketh. He had the honour to leave behind him an instructive speaking case; and what does it speak to us? What should we learn from it? [1.] That fallen man has leave to go in to worship God, with hope of acceptance. [2.] That, if our persons and offerings be accepted, it must be through faith in the Messiah. [3.] That acceptance with God is a peculiar and distinguishing favour. [4.] That those who obtain this favour from God must expect the envy and malice of the world. [5.] That God will not suffer the injuries done to his people to remain unpunished, nor their sufferings unrewarded. These are very good and useful instructions, and yet the blood of sprinkling speaketh better things than that of Abel. [6.] That God would not suffer Abel's faith to die with him, but would raise up others, who should obtain like precious faith; and so he did in a little time; for in the next verse we read,

II. Of the faith of Enoch, Heb 11:5. He is the second of those elders that through faith have a good report. Observe,

1. What is here reported of him. In this place (and in Gen 5:22, etc.) we read, (1.) That he walked with God, that is, that he was really, eminently, actively, progressively, and perseveringly religious in his conformity to God, communion with God, and complacency in God. (2.) That he was translated, that he should not see death, nor any part of him be found upon earth; for God took him, soul and body, into heaven, as he will do those of the saints who shall be found alive at his second coming. (3.) That before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. He had the evidence of it in his own conscience, and the Spirit of God witnessed with his spirit. Those who by faith walk with God in a sinful world are pleasing to him, and he will give them marks of his favour, and put honour upon them.

2. What is here said of his faith, Heb 11:6. It is said that without this faith it is impossible to please God, without such a faith as helps us to walk with God, an active faith, and that we cannot come to God unless we believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. (1.) He must believe that God is, and that he is what he is, what he has revealed himself to be in the scripture, a Being of infinite perfections, subsisting in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Observe, The practical belief of the existence of God, as revealed in the word, would be a powerful awe - band upon our souls, a bridle of restraint to keep us from sin, and a spur of constraint to put us upon all manner of gospel obedience. (2.) That he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. Here observe, [1.] By the fall we have lost God; we have lost the divine light, life, love, likeness, and communion. [2.] God is again to be found of us through Christ, the second Adam. [3.] God has prescribed means and ways wherein he may be found; to with, a strict attention to his oracles, attendance on his ordinances, and ministers duly discharging their office and associating with his people, observing his providential guidance, and in all things humbly waiting his gracious presence. [4.] Those who would find God in these ways of his must seek him diligently; they must seek early, earnestly, and perseveringly. Then shall they seek him, and find him, if they seek him with all their heart; and when once they have found him, as their reconciled God, they will never repent the pains they have spent in seeking after him.

III. The faith of Noah, Heb 11:7. Observe,

1. The ground of Noah's faith - a warning he had received from God of things as yet not seen. He had a divine revelation, whether by voice or vision does not appear; but it was such as carried in it its own evidence; he was forewarned of things not seen as yet, that is, of a great and severe judgment, such as the world had never yet seen, and of which, in the course of second causes, there was not yet the least sign. This secret warning he was to communicate to the world, who would be sure to despise both him and his message. God usually warns sinners before he strikes; and, where his warnings are slighted, the blow will fall the heavier.

2. The actings of Noah's faith, and the influence it had both upon his mind and practice. (1.) Upon his mind; it impressed his soul with a fear of God's judgment: he was moved with fear. Faith first influences our affections, then our actions; and faith works upon those affections that are suitable to the matter revealed. If it be some good thing, faith stirs up love and desire; if some evil thing, faith stirs up fear. (2.) His faith influenced his practice. His fear, thus excited by believing God's threatening, moved him to prepare an ark, in which, no doubt, he met with the scorns and reproaches of a wicked generation. He did not dispute with God why he should make an ark, nor how it could be capable of containing what was to be lodged in it, nor how such a vessel could possibly weather out so great a storm. His faith silenced all objections, and set him to work in earnest.

3. The blessed fruits and rewards of Noah's faith. (1.) Hereby himself and his house were saved, when a whole world of sinners were perishing about them. God saved his family for his sake; it was well for them that they were Noah's sons and daughters; it was well for those women that they married into Noah's family; perhaps they might have married to great estates in other families, but then they would have been drowned. We often say, "It is good to be akin to an estate;"but surely it is good to be akin to the covenant. (2.) Hereby he judged and condemned the world; his holy fear condemned their security and vain confidence; his faith condemned their unbelief; his obedience condemned their contempt and rebellion. Good examples will either convert sinners or condemn them. There is something very convincing in a life of strict holiness and regard to God; it commends itself to every man's conscience in the sight of God, and they are judged by it. This is the best way the people of God can take to condemn the wicked; not by harsh and censorious language, but by a holy exemplary conversation. (3.) Hereby he became an heir of the righteousness which is by faith. [1.] He was possessed of a true justifying righteousness; he was heir to it: and, [2.] This his right of inheritance was through faith in Christ, as a member of Christ, a child of God, and, if a child, then an heir. His righteousness was relative, resulting from his adoption, through faith in the promised seed. As ever we expect to be justified and saved in the great and terrible day of the Lord, let us now prepare an ark, secure an interest in Christ, and in the ark of the covenant, and do it speedily, before the door be shut, for there is not salvation in any other.

IV. The faith of Abraham, the friend of God, and father of the faithful, in whom the Hebrews boasted, and from whom they derived their pedigree and privileges; and therefore the apostle, that he might both please and profit them, enlarges more upon the heroic achievements of Abraham's faith than of that of any other of the patriarchs; and in the midst of his account of the faith of Abraham he inserts the story of Sarah's faith, whose daughters those women are that continue to do well. Observe,

1. The ground of Abraham's faith, the call and promise of God, Heb 11:8. (1.) This call, though it was a very trying call, was the call of God, and therefore a sufficient ground for faith and rule of obedience. The manner in which he was called Stephen relates in Act 7:2, Act 7:3, The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia - And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I will show thee. This was an effectual call, by which he was converted from the idolatry of his father's house, Gen 12:1. This call was renewed after his father's death in Charran. Observe, [1.] The grace of God is absolutely free, in taking some of the worst of men, and making them the best. [2.] God must come to us before we come to him. [3.] In calling and converting sinners, God appears as a God of glory, and works a glorious work in the soul. [4.] This calls us not only to leave sin, but sinful company, and whatever is inconsistent with our devotedness to him. [5.] We need to be called, not only to set out well, but to go on well. [6.] He will not have his people take up that rest any where short of the heavenly Canaan. (2.) The promise of God. God promised Abraham that the place he was called to he should afterwards receive for an inheritance, after awhile he should have the heavenly Canaan for his inheritance, and in process of time his posterity should inherit the earthly Canaan. Observe here, [1.] God calls his people to an inheritance: by his effectual call he makes them children, and so heirs. [2.] This inheritance is not immediately possessed by them; they must wait some time for it: but the promise is sure, and shall have its seasonable accomplishment. [3.] The faith of parents often procures blessings for their posterity.

2. The exercise of Abraham's faith: he yielded an implicit regard to the call of God. (1.) He went out, not knowing whither he went. He put himself into the hand of God, to send him whithersoever he pleased. He subscribed to God's wisdom, as fittest to direct; and submitted to his will, as fittest to determine every thing that concerned him. Implicit faith and obedience are due to God, and to him only. All that are effectually called resign up their own will and wisdom to the will and wisdom of God, and it is their wisdom to do so; though they know not always their way, yet they know their guide, and this satisfies them. (2.) He sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country. This was an exercise of his faith. Observe, [1.] How Canaan is called the land of promise, because yet only promised, not possessed. [2.] How Abraham lived in Canaan, not as heir and proprietor, but as a sojourner only. He did not serve an ejectment, or raise a war against the old inhabitants, to dispossess them, but contented himself to live as a stranger, to bear their unkindnesses patiently, to receive any favours from them thankfully, and to keep his heart fixed upon his home, the heavenly Canaan. [3.] He dwelt in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. He lived there in an ambulatory moving condition, living in a daily readiness for his removal: and thus should we all live in this world. He had good company with him, and they were a great comfort to him in his sojourning state. Abraham lived till Isaac was seventy-five years old, and Jacob fifteen. Isaac and Jacob were heirs of the same promise; for the promise was renewed to Isaac (Gen 26:3), and to Jacob, Gen 28:13. All the saints are heirs of the same promise. The promise is made to believers and their children, and to as many as the Lord our God shall call. And it is pleasant to see parents and children sojourning together in this world as heirs of the heavenly inheritance.

3. The supports of Abraham's faith (Heb 11:10): He looked for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Observe here, (1.) The description given of heaven: it is a city, a regular society, well established, well defended, and well supplied: it is a city that hath foundations, even the immutable purposes and almighty power of God, the infinite merits and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the promises of an everlasting covenant, its own purity, and the perfection of its inhabitants: and it is a city whose builder and maker is God. He contrived the model; he accordingly made it, and he has laid open a new and living way into it, and prepared it for his people; he puts them into possession of it, prefers them in it, and is himself the substance and felicity of it. (2.) Observe the due regard that Abraham had to this heavenly city: he looked for it; he believed there was such a state; he waited for it, and in the mean time he conversed in it by faith; he had exalted and rejoicing hopes, that in God's time and way he should be brought safely to it. (3.) The influence this had upon his present conversation: it was a support to him under all the trials of his sojourning state, helped him patiently to bear all the inconveniences of it, and actively to discharge all the duties of it, persevering therein unto the end.

V. In the midst of the story of Abraham, the apostle inserts an account of the faith of Sarah. Here observe,

1. The difficulties of Sarah's faith, which were very great. As, (1.) The prevalency of unbelief for a time: she laughed at the promise, as impossible to be made good. (2.) She had gone out of the way of her duty through unbelief, in putting Abraham upon taking Hagar to his bed, that he might have a posterity. Now this sin of hers would make it more difficult for her to act by faith afterwards. (3.) The great improbability of the thing promised, that she should be the mother of a child, when she was of sterile constitution naturally, and now past the prolific age.

2. The actings of her faith. Her unbelief is pardoned and forgotten, but her faith prevailed and is recorded: She judged him faithful, who had promised, Heb 11:11. She received the promise as the promise of God; and, being convinced of that, she truly judged he both could and would perform it, how impossible soever it might seem to reason; for the faithfulness of God will not suffer him to deceive his people.

3. The fruits and rewards of her faith. (1.) She received strength to conceive seed. The strength of nature, as well as grace, is from God: he can make the barren soul fruitful, as well as the barren womb. (2.) She was delivered of a child, a man-child, a child of the promise, and comfort of his parents' advanced years, and the hope of future ages. (3.) From them, by this son, sprang a numerous progeny of illustrious persons, as the stars of the sky (Heb 11:12) - a great, powerful, and renowned nation, above all the rest in the world; and a nation of saints, the peculiar church and people of God; and, which was the highest honour and reward of all, of these, according to the flesh, the Messiah came, who is over all, God blessed for evermore.

VI. The apostle proceeds to make mention of the faith of the other patriarchs, Isaac and Jacob, and the rest of this happy family, Heb 11:13. Here observe,

1. The trial of their faith in the imperfection of their present state. They had not received the promises, that is, they had not received the things promised, they had not yet been put into possession of Canaan, they had not yet seen their numerous issue, they had not seen Christ in the flesh. Observe, (1.) Many that are interested in the promises do not presently receive the things promised. (2.) One imperfection of the present state of the saints on earth is that their happiness lies more in promise and reversion than in actual enjoyment and possession. The gospel state is more perfect than the patriarchal, because more of the promises are now fulfilled. The heavenly state will be most perfect of all; for there all the promises will have their full accomplishment.

2. The actings of their faith during this imperfect state of things. Though they had not received the promises, yet,

(1.) They saw them afar off. Faith has a clear and a strong eye, and can see promised mercies at a great distance. Abraham saw Christ's day, when it was afar off, and rejoiced, Joh 8:56.

(2.) They were persuaded of them, that they were true and should be fulfilled. Faith sets to its seal that God is true, and thereby settles and satisfies the soul.

(3.) They embraced them. Their faith was a faith of consent. Faith has a long arm, and can lay hold of blessings at a great distance, can make them present, can love them, and rejoice in them; and thus antedate the enjoyment of them.

(4.) They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth. Observe, [1.] Their condition: Strangers and pilgrims. They are strangers as saints, whose home is heaven; they are pilgrims as they are travelling towards their home, though often meanly and slowly. [2.] Their acknowledgment of this their condition: they were not ashamed to own it; both their lips and their lives confessed their present condition. They expected little from the world. They cared not to engage much in it. They endeavoured to lay aside every weight, to gird up the loins of their minds to mind their way, to keep company and pace with their fellow-travellers, looking for difficulties, and bearing them, and longing to get home.

(5.) Hereby they declared plainly that they sought another country (Heb 11:14), heaven, their own country. For their spiritual birth is thence, there are their best relations, and there is their inheritance. This country they seek: their designs are for it; their desires are after it; their discourse is about it; they diligently endeavour to clear up their title to it, to have their temper suited to it, to have their conversation in it, and to come to the enjoyment of it.

(6.) They gave full proof of their sincerity in making such a confession. For, [1.] They were not mindful of that country whence they came, Heb 11:15. They did not hanker after the plenty and pleasures of it, nor regret and repent that they had left it; they had no desire to return to it. Note, Those that are once effectually and savingly called out of a sinful state have no mind to return into it again; they now know better things. [2.] They did not take the opportunity that offered itself for their return. They might have had such an opportunity. They had time enough to return. They had natural strength to return. They knew the way. Those with whom they sojourned would have been willing enough to part with them. Their old friends would have been glad to receive them. They had sufficient to bear the charges of their journey; and flesh and blood, a corrupt counsellor, would be sometimes suggesting to them a return. But they stedfastly adhered to God and duty under all discouragements and against all temptations to revolt from him. So should we all do. We shall not want opportunities to revolt from God; but we must show the truth of our faith and profession by a steady adherence to him to the end of our days. Their sincerity appeared not only in not returning to their former country, but in desiring a better country, that is, a heavenly. Observe, First, The heavenly country is better than any upon earth; it is better situated, better stored with every thing that is good, better secured from every thing that is evil; the employments, the enjoyments, the society, and every thing in it, are better than the best in this world. Secondly, All true believers desire this better country. True faith draws forth sincere and fervent desires; and the stronger faith is the more fervent those desires will be.

(7.) They died in the faith of those promises; not only lived by the faith of them, but died in the full persuasion that all the promises would be fulfilled to them and theirs, Heb 11:13. That faith held out to the last. By faith, when they were dying, they received the atonement; they acquiesced in the will of God; they quenched all the fiery darts of the devil; they overcame the terrors of death, disarmed it of its sting, and bade a cheerful farewell to this world and to all the comforts and crosses of it. These were the actings of their faith. Now observe,

3. The gracious and great reward of their faith: God is not ashamed to be their God, for he hath prepared for them a city, Heb 11:16. Note, (1.) God is the God of all true believers; faith gives them an interest in God, and in all his fullness. (2.) He is called their God. He calls himself so: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; he gives them leave to call him so; and he gives them the spirit of adoption, to enable them to cry, Abba, Father. (3.) Notwithstanding their meanness by nature, their vileness by sin, and the poverty of their outward condition, God is not ashamed to be called their God: such is his condescension, such is his love to them; therefore let them never be ashamed of being called his people, nor of any of those that are truly so, how much soever despised in the world. Above all, let them take care that they be not a shame and reproach to their God, and so provoke him to be ashamed of them; but let them act so as to be to him for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory. (4.) As the proof of this, God has prepared for them a city, a happiness suitable to the relation into which he has taken them. For there is nothing in this world commensurate to the love of God in being the God of his people; and, if God neither could nor would give his people anything better than this world affords, he would be ashamed to be called their God. If he takes them into such a relation to himself, he will provide for them accordingly. If he takes them into such a relation to himself, he will provide for them accordingly. If he takes to himself the title of their God, he will fully answer it, and act up to it; and he has prepared that for them in heaven which will fully answer this character and relation, so that it shall never be said, to the reproach and dishonour of God, that he has adopted a people to be his own children and then taken no care to make a suitable provision for them. The consideration of this should inflame the affections, enlarge the desires, and excite the diligent endeavours, of the people of God after this city that he has prepared for them.

VII. Now after the apostle has given this account of the faith of others, with Abraham, he returns to him again, and gives us an instance of the greatest trial and act of faith that stands upon record, either in the story of the father of the faithful or of any of his spiritual seed; and this was his offering up Isaac: By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only-begotten son, Heb 11:17. In this great example observe,

1. The trial and exercise of Abraham's faith; he was tried indeed. It is said (Gen 22:1), God in this tempted Abraham; not to sin, for so God tempteth no man, but only tried his faith and obedience to purpose. God had before this tempted or tried the faith of Abraham, when he called him away from his country and father's house, - when by a famine he was forced out of Canaan into Egypt, - when he was obliged to fight with five kings to rescue Lot, - when Sarah was taken from him by Abimelech, and in many other instances. But this trial was greater than all; he was commanded to offer up his son Isaac. Read the account of it, Gen 22:2. There you will find every word was a trial: " Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. Take thy son, not one of thy beasts or slaves, thy only son by Sarah, Isaac thy laughter, the child of thy joy and delight, whom thou lovest as thine own soul; take him away to a distant place, three days' journey, the land of Moriah; do not only leave him there, but offer him for a burnt offering."A greater trial was never put upon any creature. The apostle here mentions some things that very much added to the greatness of this trial. (1.) He was put upon it after he had received the promises, that this Isaac should build up his family, that in him his seed should be called (Heb 11:18), and that he should be one of the progenitors of the Messiah, and all nations blessed in him; so that, in being called to offer up his Isaac, he seemed to be called to destroy and cut off his own family, to cancel the promises of God, to prevent the coming of Christ, to destroy the whole world, to sacrifice his own soul and his hopes of salvation, and to cut off the church of God at one blow: a most terrible trial! (2.) That this Isaac was his only-begotten son by his wife Sarah, the only one he was to have by her, and the only one that was to be the child and heir of the promise. Ishmael was to be put off with earthly greatness. The promise of a posterity, and of the Messiah, must either be fulfilled by means of this son or not at all; so that, besides his most tender affection to this his son, all his expectations were bound up in him, and, if he perished, must perish with him. If Abraham had ever so many sons, this was the only son who could convey to all nations the promised blessing. A son for whom he waited so long, whom he received in so extraordinary a manner, upon whom his heart was set - to have this son offered up as a sacrifice, and that by his own hand; it was a trial that would have overset the firmest and the strongest mind that ever informed a human body.

2. The actings of Abraham's faith in so great a trial: he obeyed; he offered up Isaac; he intentionally gave him up by his submissive soul to God, and was ready to have done it actually, according to the command of God; he went as far in it as to the very critical moment, and would have gone through with it if God had not prevented him. Nothing could be more tender and moving than those words of Isaac: My father, here is the wood, here is the fire; but where is the lamb for the burnt-offering? little thinking that he was to be the lamb; but Abraham knew it, and yet he went on with the great design.

3. The supports of his faith. they must be very great, suitable to the greatness of the trial: He accounted that God was able to raise him from the dead, Heb 11:19. His faith was supported by the sense he had of the mighty power of God, who was able to raise the dead; he reasoned thus with himself, and so he resolved all his doubts. It does not appear that he had any expectation of being countermanded, and prevented from offering up his son; such an expectation would have spoiled the trial, and consequently the triumph, of his faith; but he knew that God was able to raise him from the dead, and he believed that God would do so, since such great things depended upon his son, which must have failed if Isaac had not a further life. Observe, (1.) God is able to raise the dead, to raise dead bodies, and to raise dead souls. (2.) The belief of this will carry us through the greatest difficulties and trials that we can meet with. (3.) It is our duty to be reasoning down our doubts and fears, by the consideration of the almighty power of God.

4. The reward of his faith in this great trial (Heb 11:19): he received his son from the dead in a figure, in a parable. (1.) He received his son. He had parted with him to God, and God gave him back again. The best way to enjoy our comforts with comfort is to resign them up to God; he will then return them, if not in kind, yet in kindness. (2.) He received him from the dead, for he gave him up for dead; he was as a dead child to him, and the return was to him no less than a resurrection. (3.) This was a figure or parable of something further. It was a figure of the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ, of whom Isaac was a type. It was a figure and earnest of the glorious resurrection of all true believers, whose life is not lost, but hid with Christ in God. We come now to the faith of other Old Testament saints, mentioned by name, and by the particular trials and actings of their faith.

VIII. Of the faith of Isaac, Heb 11:20. Something of him we had before interwoven with the story of Abraham; here we have something of a distinct nature - that by faith he blessed his two sons, Jacob and Esau, concerning things to come. Here observe,

1. The actings of his faith: He blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. He blessed them; that is, he resigned them up to God in covenant; he recommended God and religion to them; he prayed for them, and prophesied concerning them, what would be the condition, and the condition of their descendants: we have the account of this in Gen. 27. Observe, (1.) Both Jacob and Esau were blessed as Isaac's children, at least as to temporal good things. It is a great privilege to be the offspring of good parents, and often the wicked children of good parents fare the better in this world for their parents' sake, for things present are in the covenant; but they are not the best things, and no man knoweth love or hatred by having or wanting such things. (2.) Jacob had the precedency and the principal blessing, which shows that it is grace and the new birth that exalt persons above their fellows and qualify them for the best blessings, and that it is owing to the sovereign free grace of God that in the same family one is taken and another left, one loved and the other hated, since all the race of Adam are by nature hateful to God - that if one has his portion in this world, and the other in the better world, it is God who makes the difference; for even the comforts of this life are more and better than any of the children of men deserve.

2. The difficulties Isaac's faith struggled with. (1.) He seemed to have forgotten how God had determined the matter at the birth of these his sons, Gen 25:23. This should have been a rule to him all along, but he was rather swayed by natural affection, and by general custom, which gives the double portion of honour, affection, and advantage, to the first-born. (2.) He acted in this matter with some reluctance. When he came to pronounce the blessing, he trembled very exceedingly (Gen 27:33); and he charged Jacob that he had subtly taken away Esau's blessing, Heb 11:33, Heb 11:35. But, notwithstanding all this, Isaac's faith recovered itself, and he ratified the blessing: I have blessed him yea, and he shall be blessed. Rebecca and Jacob are not to be justified in the indirect means they used to obtain this blessing, but God will be justified in overruling even the sins of men to serve the purposes of his glory. Now, the faith of Isaac thus prevailing over his unbelief, it has pleased the God of Isaac to pass by the weakness of his faith, to commend the sincerity of it, and record him among the elders, who through faith have obtained a good report. We now go on to,

IX. The faith of Jacob (Heb 11:21), who, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph, and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. There were a great many instances of the faith of Jacob; his life was a life of faith, and his faith met with great exercise. But it has pleased God to single two instances out of many of the faith of this patriarch, besides what has been already mentioned in the account of Abraham. Here observe,

1. The actings of his faith here mentioned, and they are two: -

(1.) He blessed both the sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh; he adopted them into the number of his own sons, and so into the congregation of Israel, though they were born in Egypt. It is doubtless a great blessing to be joined to the visible church of God in profession and privilege, but more to be so in spirit and truth. [1.] He made them both heads of different tribes, as if they had been his own immediate sons. [2.] He prayed for them, that they might both be blessed of God. [3.] He prophesied that they should be blessed; but, as Isaac did before, so now Jacob prefers the younger, Ephraim; and though Joseph had placed them so, that the right hand of his father should be laid on Manasseh, the elder, Jacob wittingly laid it on Ephraim, and this by divine direction, for he could not see, to show that the Gentile church, the younger, should have a more abundant blessing than the Jewish church, the elder.

(2.) He worshipped, leaning on his staff; that is, he praised God for what he had done for him, and for the prospect he had of approaching blessedness; and he prayed for those he was leaving behind him, that religion might live in his family when he was gone. He did this leaning on the top of his staff; not as the papists dream, that he worshipped some image of God engraven on the head of his staff, but intimating to us his great natural weakness, that he was not able to support himself so far as to sit up in his bed without a staff, and yet that he would not make this an excuse for neglecting the worshipping of God; he would do it as well as he could with his body, as well as with his spirit, though he could not do it as well as he would. He showed thereby his dependence upon God, and testified his condition here as a pilgrim with his staff, and his weariness of the world, and willingness to be at rest.

2. The time and season when Jacob thus acted his faith: when he was dying. He lived by faith, and he died by faith and in faith. Observe, Though the grace of faith is of universal use throughout our whole lifes, yet it is especially so when we come to die. Faith has its greatest work to do at last, to help believers to finish well, to die to the Lord, so as to honour him, by patience, hope, and joy - so as to leave a witness behind them of the truth of God's word and the excellency of his ways, for the conviction and establishment of all who attend them in their dying moments. The best way in which parents can finish their course is blessing their families and worshipping their God. We have now come to,

X. The faith of Joseph, Heb 11:22. And here also we consider,

1. What he did by his faith: He made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones. The passage is out of Gen 50:24, Gen 50:25. Joseph was eminent for his faith, though he had not enjoyed the helps for it which the rest of his brethren had. He was sold into Egypt. He was tried by temptations, by sin, by persecution, for retaining his integrity. He was tried by preferment and power in the court of Pharaoh, and yet his faith held out and carried him through to the last. (1.) He made mention by faith of the departing of the children of Israel, that the time should come when they should be delivered out of Egypt; and he did this both that he might caution them against the thoughts of settling in Egypt, which was now a place of plenty and ease to them; and also that he might keep them from sinking under the calamities and distresses which he foresaw were coming upon them there; and he does it to comfort himself, that though he should not live to see their deliverance, yet he could die in the faith of it. (2.) He gave commandment concerning his bones, that they should preserve them unburied in Egypt, till God should deliver them out of that house of bondage, and that then they should carry his bones along with them into Canaan and deposit them there. Though believers are chiefly concerned for their souls, yet they cannot wholly neglect their bodies, as being members of Christ and parts of themselves, which shall at length be raised up, and be the happy companions of their glorified souls to all eternity. Now Joseph gave this order, not that he thought his being buried in Egypt would either prejudice his soul or prevent the resurrection of his body (as some of the rabbis fancied that all the Jews who were buried out of Canaan must be conveyed underground to Canaan before they could rise again), but to testify, [1.] That though he had lived and died in Egypt, yet he did not live and die an Egyptian, but an Israelite. [2.] That he preferred a significant burial in Canaan before a magnificent one in Egypt. [3.] That he would go as far with his people as he could, though he could not go as far as he would. [4.] That he believed the resurrection of the body, and the communion that his soul should presently have with departed saints, as his body had with their dead bodies. [5.] To assure them that God would be with them in Egypt, and deliver them out of it in his own time and way.

2. When it was that the faith of Joseph acted after this manner; namely, as in the case of Jacob, when he was dying. God often gives his people living comforts in dying moments; and when he does it is their duty, as they can, to communicate them to those about them, for the glory of God, for the honour of religion, and for the good of their brethren and friends. We go on now to,

XI. The faith of the parents of Moses, which is cited from Exo 2:3, etc. Here observe, 1. The acting of their faith: they hid this their son three months. Though only the mother of Moses is mentioned in the history, yet, by what is here said, it seems his father not only consented to it, but consulted about it. It is a happy thing where yoke-fellows draw together in the yoke of faith, as heirs of the grace of God; and when they do this in a religious concern for the good of their children, to preserve them not only from those who would destroy their lives, but from those who would corrupt their minds. Observe, Moses was persecuted betimes, and forced to be concealed; in this he was a type of Christ, who was persecuted almost as soon as he was born, and his parents were obliged to flee with him into Egypt for his preservation. It is a great mercy to be free from wicked laws and edicts; but, when we are not, we must use all lawful means for our security. In this faith of Moses's parents there was a mixture of unbelief, but God was pleased to overlook it. 2. The reasons of their thus acting. No doubt, natural affection could not but move them; but there was something further. They saw he was a proper child, a goodly child (Exo 2:2), exceedingly fair, as in Act 7:20, asteios tō Theō - venustus Deo - fair to God. There appeared in him something uncommon; the beauty of the Lord sat upon him, as a presage that he was born to great things, and that by conversing with God his face should shine (Exo 34:29), what bright and illustrious actions he should do for the deliverance of Israel, and how his name should shine in the sacred records. Sometimes, not always, the countenance is the index of the mind. 3. The prevalency of their faith over their fear. They were not afraid of the king's commandment, Exo 1:22. That was a wicked and a cruel edict, that all the males of the Israelites should be destroyed in their infancy, and so the name of Israel must be destroyed out of the earth. But they did not so fear as presently to give up their child; they considered that, if none of the males were preserved, there would be an end and utter ruin of the church of God and the true religion, and that though in their present state of servitude and oppression one would praise the dead rather than the living, yet they believed that God would preserve his people, and that the time was coming when it would be worth while for an Israelite to live. Some must hazard their own lives to preserve their children, and they were resolved to do it; they knew the king's commandment was evil in itself, contrary to the laws of God and nature, and therefore of no authority nor obligation. Faith is a great preservative against the sinful slavish fear of men, as it sets God before the soul, and shows the vanity of the creature and its subordination to the will and power of God. The apostle next proceeds to,

XII. The faith of Moses himself (Heb 11:24, Heb 11:25, etc.), here observe,

1. An instance of his faith in conquering the world.

(1.) He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, whose foundling he was, and her fondling too; she had adopted him for his son, and he refused it. Observe, [1.] How great a temptation Moses was under. Pharaoh's daughter is said to have been his only child, and was herself childless; and having found Moses, and saved him as she did, she resolved to take him and bring him up as her son; and so he stood fair to be in time king of Egypt, and he might thereby have been serviceable to Israel. He owed his life to this princess; and to refuse such kindness from her would look not only like ingratitude to her, but a neglect of Providence, that seemed to intend his advancement and his brethren's advantage. [2.] How glorious was the triumph of his faith in so great a trial. He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter lest he should undervalue the truer honour of being a son of Abraham, the father of the faithful; he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter lest it should look like renouncing his religion as well as his relation to Israel; and no doubt both these he must have done if he had accepted this honour; he therefore nobly refused it.

(2.) He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, Heb 11:25. He was willing to take his lot with the people of God here, though it was a suffering lot, that he might have his portion with them hereafter, rather than to enjoy all the sensual sinful pleasures of Pharaoh's court, which would be but for a season, and would then be punished with everlasting misery. Herein he acted rationally as well as religiously, and conquered the temptation to worldly pleasure as he had done before to worldly preferment. Here observe, [1.] The pleasures of sin are and will be but short; they must end in speedy repentance or in speedy ruin. [2.] The pleasures of this world, and especially those of a court, are too often the pleasures of sin; and they are always so when we cannot enjoy them without deserting God and his people. A true believer will despise them when they are offered upon such terms. [3.] Suffering is to be chosen rather than sin, there being more evil in the least sin than there can be in the greatest suffering. [4.] It greatly alleviates the evil of suffering when we suffer with the people of God, embarked in the same interest and animated by the same Spirit.

(3.) He accounted the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, Heb 11:26. See how Moses weighed matters: in one scale he put the worst of religion - the reproaches of Christ, in the other scale the best of the world - the treasures of Egypt; and in his judgment, directed by faith, the worst of religion weighed down the best of the world. The reproaches of the church of God are the reproaches of Christ, who is, and has ever been, the head of the church. Now here Moses conquered the riches of the world, as before he had conquered its honours and pleasures. God's people are, and always have been, a reproached people. Christ accounts himself reproached in their reproaches; and, while he thus interests himself in their reproaches, they become riches, and greater riches than the treasures of the richest empire in the world; for Christ will reward them with a crown of glory that fades not away. Faith discerns this, and determines and acts accordingly.

2. The circumstance of time is taken notice of, when Moses by his faith gained this victory over the world, in all its honours, pleasures, and treasures: When he had come to years (Heb 11:24); not only to years of discretion, but of experience, to the age of forty years - when he was great, or had come to maturity. Some would take this as detracting from his victory, that he gained it so late, that he did not make this choice sooner; but it is rather an enhancement of the honour of his self-denial and victory over the world that he made this choice when he had grown ripe for judgment and enjoyment, able to know what he did and why he did it. It was not the act of a child, that prefers counters to gold, but it proceeded from mature deliberation. It is an excellent thing for persons to be seriously religious when in the midst of worldly business and enjoyments, to despise the world when they are most capable of relishing and enjoying it.

3. What it was that supported and strengthened the faith of Moses to such a degree as to enable him to gain such a victory over the world: He had respect unto the recompense of reward, that is, say some, the deliverance out of Egypt; but doubtless it means much more - the glorious reward of faith and fidelity in the other world. Observe here, (1.) Heaven is a great reward, surpassing not only all our deservings, but all our conceptions. It is a reward suitable to the price paid for it - the blood of Christ; suitable to the perfections of God, and fully answering to all his promises. It is a recompense of reward, because given by a righteous Judge for the righteousness of Christ to righteous persons, according to the righteous rule of the covenant of grace. (2.) Believers may and ought to have respect to this recompense of reward; they should acquaint themselves with it, approve of it, and live in the daily and delightful expectation of it. Thus it will prove a land-mark to direct their course, a load-stone to draw their hearts, a sword to conquer their enemies, a spur to quicken them to duty, and a cordial to refresh them under all the difficulties of doing and suffering work.

4. We have another instance of the faith of Moses, namely, in forsaking Egypt: By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, Heb 11:27. Observe here, (1.) The product of his faith: He forsook Egypt, and all its power and pleasures, and undertook the conduct of Israel out of it. Twice Moses forsook Egypt: [1.] As a supposed criminal, when the king's wrath was incensed against him for killing the Egyptian (Exo 2:14, Exo 2:15), where it is said he feared, not with a fear of despondency, but of discretion, to save his life. [2.] As a commander and ruler in Jeshurun, after God had employed him to humble Pharaoh and make him willing to let Israel go. (2.) The prevalency of his faith. It raised him above the fear of the king's wrath. Though he knew that it was great, and levelled at him in particular, and that it marched at the head of a numerous host to pursue him, yet he was not dismayed, and he said to Israel, Fear not, Exo 14:13. Those who forsook Egypt must expect the wrath of men; but they need not fear it, for they are under the conduct of that God who is able to make the wrath of man to praise him, and restrain the remainder of it. (3.) The principle upon which his faith acted in these his motions: He endured, as seeing him that was invisible. He bore up with invincible courage under all danger, and endured all the fatigue of his employment, which was very great; and this by seeing the invisible God. Observe, [1.] The God with whom we have to do is an invisible God: he is so to our senses, to the eye of the body; and this shows the folly of those who pretend to make images of God, whom no man hath seen, nor can see. [2.] By faith we may see this invisible God. We may be fully assured of his existence, of his providence, and of his gracious and powerful presence with us. [3.] Such a sight of God will enable believers to endure to the end whatever they may meet with in the way.

5. We have yet another instance of the faith of Moses, in keeping the passover and sprinkling of blood, Heb 11:28. The account of this we have in Exo 12:13-23. Though all Israel kept this passover, yet it was by Moses that God delivered the institution of it; and, though it was a great mystery, Moses by faith both delivered it to the people and kept it that night in the house where he lodged. The passover was one of the most solemn institutions of the Old Testament, and a very significant type of Christ. The occasion of its first observance was extraordinary: it was in the same night that God slew the first-born of the Egyptians; but, though the Israelites lived among them, the destroying angel passed over their houses, and spared them and theirs. Now, to entitle them to this distinguishing favour, and to mark them out for it, a lamb must be slain; the blood of it must be sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop upon the lintel of the door, and on the two side-posts; the flesh of the lamb must be roasted with fire; and it must be all of it eaten that very night with bitter herbs, in a travelling posture, their loins girt, their shoes on their feet, and their staff in their hand. This was accordingly done, and the destroying angel passed over them, and slew the first-born of the Egyptians. This opened a way for the return of Abraham's posterity into the land of promise. The accommodation of this type is not difficult. (1.) Christ is that Lamb, he is our Passover, he was sacrificed for us. (2.) His blood must be sprinkled; it must be applied to those who have the saving benefit of it. (3.) It is applied effectually only to the Israelites, the chosen people of God. (4.) It is not owing to our inherent righteousness or best performances that we are saved from the wrath of God, but to the blood of Christ and his imputed righteousness. If any of the families of Israel had neglected the sprinkling of this blood upon their doors, though they should have spent all the night in prayer, the destroying angel would have broken in upon them, and slain their first-born. (5.) Wherever this blood is applied, the soul receives a whole Christ by faith, and lives upon him. (6.) This true faith makes sin bitter to the soul, even while it receives the pardon and atonement. (7.) All our spiritual privileges on earth should quicken us to set out early, and get forward, in our way to heaven. (8.) Those who have been marked out must ever remember and acknowledge free and distinguishing grace.

XIII. The next instance of faith is that of the Israelites passing through the Red Sea under the conduct of Moses their leader, Heb 11:29. The story we have in Exodus, ch. 14. Observe,

1. The preservation and safe passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, when there was no other way to escape from Pharaoh and his host, who were closely pursuing them. Here we may observe, (1.) Israel's danger was very great; an enraged enemy with chariots and horsemen behind them; steep rocks and mountains on either hand, and the Red Sea before them. (2.) Their deliverance was very glorious. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; the grace of faith will help us through all the dangers we meet with in our way to heaven.

2. The destruction of the Egyptians. They, presumptuously attempting to follow Israel through the Red Sea, being thus blinded and hardened to their ruin, were all drowned. Their rashness was great, and their ruin was grievous. When God judges, he will overcome; and it is plain that the destruction of sinners is of themselves.

XIV. The next instance of faith is that of the Israelites, under Joshua their leader, before the walls of Jericho. The story we have Jos 6:5, etc. Here observe, 1. The means prescribed to God to bring down the walls of Jericho. It was ordered that they should compass the walls about once a day for seven days together and seven times the last day, that the priests should carry the ark when they compassed the walls about, and should blow with trumpets made of rams' horns, and sound a longer blast than before, and then all the people should shout, and the walls of Jericho should fall before them. Here was a great trial of their faith. The method prescribed seemed very improbable to answer such an end, and would doubtless expose them to the daily contempt of their enemies; the ark of God would seem to be in danger. But this was the way God commanded them to take, and he loves to do great things by small and contemptible means, that his own arm may be made bare. 2. The powerful success of the prescribed means. The walls of Jericho fell before them. This was a frontier town in the land of Canaan, the first that stood out against the Israelites. God was pleased in this extraordinary manner to slight and dismantle it, in order to magnify himself, to terrify the Canaanites, to strengthen the faith of the Israelites, and to exclude all boasting. God can and will in his own time and way cause all the powerful opposition that is made to his interest and glory to fall down, and the grace of faith is mighty through God for the pulling down of strong-holds; he will make Babylon fall before the faith of his people, and, when he has some great thing to do for them, he raises up great and strong faith in them.

XV. The next instance is the faith of Rahab, Heb 11:31. Among the noble army of believing worthies, bravely marshalled by the apostle, Rahab comes in the rear, to show that God is no respecter of persons. Here consider,

1. Who this Rahab was. (1.) She was a Canaanite, a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel, and had but little help for faith, and yet she was a believer; the power of divine grace greatly appears when it works without the usual means of grace. (2.) She was a harlot, and lived in a way of sin; she was not only a keeper of a public house, but a common woman of the town, and yet she believed that the greatness of sin, if truly repented of, shall be no bar to the pardoning mercy of God. Christ has saved the chief of sinners. Where sin has abounded, grace has superabounded.

2. What she did by her faith: She received the spies in peace, the men that Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho, Jos 2:6, Jos 2:7. She not only bade them welcome, but she concealed them from their enemies who sought to cut them off, and she made a noble confession of her faith, Jos 2:9-11. She engaged them to covenant with her to show favour to her and hers, when God should show kindness to them, and that they would give her a sign, which they did, a line of scarlet, which she was to hang forth out of the window; she sent them away with prudent and friendly advice. Learn here, (1.) True faith will show itself in good works, especially towards the people of God. (2.) Faith will venture all hazards in the cause of God and his people; a true believer will sooner expose his own person than God's interest and people. (3.) A true believer is desirous, not only to be in covenant with God, but in communion with the people of God, and is willing to cast in his lot with them, and to fare as they fare.

Barclay: Heb 11:7

The Old Testament story of Noah is in Gen 6-8. The earth was so wicked that God decided that there remained nothing to do but destroy it. He told Noah his purpose of judgment and instructed him to build an ark in which he and his family and the representatives of the animal creation might be saved. With reverence and obedience Noah took God at his word and so in the destruction of the world he was preserved.

As is usually the case, legend adds many a detail to this story. The writer to the Hebrews must have known these legends and they must have helped to add vividness to the picture in his mind. One story tells how Noah was in doubt as to the shape he was to give the ark. God revealed to him that it was to be modelled on a bird's belly and was to be constructed of teak wood. Noah planted a teak tree and in twenty years it grew to such a size that out of it he was able to build the entire ark. Another story tells that, after he had been forewarned by God, Noah made a bell of plane wood, about five feet high, and that he sounded it every day, morning, noon and evening. When he was asked why, he answered: "To warn you that God will send a deluge to destroy you all." Another story tells that, when Noah was building the ark, the people laughed at him and counted him mad. But he said to them: "Though you rail at me now, the time will come when I shall rail at you; for you will learn to your cost who it is that punishes the wicked in this world and reserves for them a further punishment in the world to come."

Even more than Abel and Enoch, Noah stands out as a man of faith.

(i) Noah took God at his word. He believed the message which God sent him. God's message might look foolishness at the moment; but Noah believed it and staked everything on it. Obviously if he was going to accept that word of God, he had to lay aside his normal activities and concentrate on doing what his message commanded. Noah's life was one continued and concentrated preparation for what God had said would come.

The choice comes to every man either to listen to or to disregard the message of God. He may live as if that message is of no importance or as if it is the most important thing in the world. We may put it in another way--Noah was the man who heeded the warning of God; and because he heeded he was saved from disaster. God's warning comes to us in many ways. It may come from conscience; it may come from some direct word of God to our souls; it may come from the advice or the rebuke of some good and godly man; it may leap out at us from God's Book or challenge us in some sermon. Wherever it comes from, we neglect it at our peril.

(ii) Noah was not deterred by the mockery of others. When the sun was shining, his conduct must have looked like that of a fool. Who ever in his senses built a great hulk of a ship on dry land far from the sea? The man who takes God's word may often have to adopt a course of action which looks like madness.

We have only to think of the early days of the Church. One man meets a friend. He says to him: "I have decided to become a Christian." The other man replies: "Do you know what happens to Christians? They are outlaws. They are imprisoned, thrown to the lions, crucified, burned." The first man replies: "I know." And the other says despairingly: "You must be mad."

It is one of the hardest challenges of Christianity that we have to be prepared to be sometimes a fool for Jesus' sake. We should never forget that there was a day when his friends came and tried to get him to go home because they thought that he was mad. The wisdom of God is so often foolishness with men.

(iii) Noah's faith was a judgment on others. That is why, at least in one sense, it is dangerous to be a Christian. It is not that the Christian is self-righteous; it is not that he is censorious; it is not that he goes about finding fault with other people; it is not that he says: "I told you so." It often happens that simply by being himself the Christian passes judgment on other people. Alcibiades that brilliant but wild young man of Athens used to say to Socrates: "Socrates, I hate you, for every time I meet you, you show me what I am." One of the finest men who ever lived in Athens was Aristides, who was called "the just." But they voted to banish him. One man, asked why he had so voted, answered: "Because I am tired of hearing Aristides called 'the just.' " There is danger in goodness, for in its light evil stands condemned.

(iv) Noah was righteous through faith. It so happens that he is the first man in the Bible to be called dikaios (1342), righteous (Gen 6:9). His goodness consisted in the fact that he took God at his word. When other men broke God's commandments, Noah kept them; when other men were deaf to God's warnings, Noah listened to them; when other men laughed at God, Noah reverenced him. It has been said of Noah that "he threw the dark scepticism of the world into relief against his own shining faith in God." In an age when men disregarded God, for Noah he was the supreme reality in the world.

Constable: Heb 11:1--12:14

IV. THE PROPER RESPONSE 11:1--12:13

"In chapter 10:22-25 there were three exhortations, respectively to Faith, Hope and Love. These are elaborated in turn: chapter 11 dealing with Faith; chapter 12 with Hope; chapter 13 with Love."³³⁸

In this fourth major section of the epistle, the writer concentrated on motivating his readers to persevere in their faith with steadfast endurance. He continued the idea that he introduced in 10:35-39.³³⁹ Having introduced "faith" and "endurance" in 10:39, the writer proceeded to develop these concepts further in inverted order. He celebrated the character of faith in chapter 11 and then summoned the readers to endurance in 12:1-13. The first of these sections is exposition and the second exhortation.

"The characteristic vocabulary of this section relates to the vital issue of enduring disciplinary sufferings. Anticipating the subsequent development in 12:1-13, the writer underscored the community's need for hypomone, endurance,' in 10:36. That note is resumed in 12:1, when the commitment required of the Christian life is reviewed under the metaphor of an athletic contest, and the key to victory is found in endurance.'"³⁴⁰

"The story of God's people includes a succession of examples of persistent, forward-looking faith. The story is not complete without us. We, in our turn, must submit to God's fatherly discipline and stand firm together in the faith."³⁴¹

Constable: Heb 11:1-40

A. Perseverance in Faith ch. 11

The writer encouraged his readers in chapter 11 by reminding them of the faithful perseverance of selected Old Testament saints. The section is expository in form but parenetic in function, inviting the readers to emulate the example of the heroes listed. The linking word that ties this section to what precedes is "faith" or "faithfulness," which the Habakkuk 2:4 quotation introduced (10:38-39; cf. 10:20).³⁴² The writer repeated this word (Gr. pistis) 24 times in chapter 11. It occurs in the first and last sentences of the section forming an inclusio. Classical orators and authors frequently used lists of examples to motivated their hearers and readers to strive for virtue.³⁴³ These lists also appear in Jewish and early Christian literature indicating that this was a distinctive literary form.³⁴⁴

"As J. W. Thompson has observed, a catalogue of heroes of pistis, introduced as patterns of imitation, is unthinkable in any Greek tradition.'³⁴⁵ The reason for this is that to the formally educated person, pistis, faith,' was regarded as a state of mind characteristic of the uneducated, who believe something on hearsay without being able to give precise reasons for their belief. The willingness of Jews and Christians to suffer for the undemonstrable astonished pagan observers.³⁴⁶ Yet this is precisely the conduct praised in Heb 11:1-40. This fact constitutes the note of offense in this section of the homily."³⁴⁷

Another feature of this chapter is the anaphoric use of pistis, "faith."³⁴⁸ Pistis occurs 18 times without an article (anarthrous) in verses 3-31 but nowhere else in Hebrews. This literary device serves to stress the importance of faith and to unite the chapter.³⁴⁹

This chapter is one of the strongest proofs that eschatological reward is the full inheritance (rest) that the writer urged his readers not to sacrifice. The reward of these saints in the past lay beyond the grave (cf. vv. 1, 13).

Constable: Heb 11:1-7

1. Faith in the Antediluvian Era 11:1-7

The writer began by stating three facts about faith. These are general observations on the nature of faith, some of its significant features. He then illustrated God's approval of faith with examples from the antediluvian era.

11:1 Essentially faith is confidence that things yet future and unseen will happen as God has revealed they will. This is the basic nature of faith. Verse 1 describes faith rather than defining it.

"This word hypostasis [assurance, NASB] has appeared twice already in the epistle. In Ch. 1:3 the Son was stated to be the very image of God's hypostasis; in Ch. 3:14 believers are said to be Christ's associates if they hold fast the beginning of their hypostasis firm to the end. In the former place it has the objective sense of substance' or real essence' (as opposed to what merely seems to be so). In the latter place it has the subjective sense of confidence' or assurance.' Here it is natural to take it in the same subjective sense as it bears in Ch. 3:14, and so ARV and RSV render it assurance.'"³⁵⁰

"Faith is the basis, the substructure (hypostasis means lit. that which stands under') of all that the Christian life means, all that the Christian hopes for."³⁵¹

". . . faith celebrates now the reality of the future blessings that constitute the objective content of hope."³⁵²

Someone else observed that faith is the spiritual organ that enables a person to perceive the invisible realities of life.

11:2 God has approved such confidence as is clear from His commendations of Old Testament men and women who walked by faith.

11:3 However faith is a way of viewing all of life, what lies ahead as well as what is in the past. It involves accepting God's viewpoint as He has revealed it in His Word. This extends to how the universe came into being (cf. 1:2-3) as well as how it will end.

"Belief in the existence of the world is not faith, nor is it faith when men hold that the world was made out of some preexisting stuff.' (In the first century there were people who did not believe in God but who held to some kind of creation.') But when we understand that it was the Word of God (God's command,' NIV) that produced all things, that is faith."³⁵³

Notice that the writer did not say that God created the universe out of nothing (creation ex nihilo). He simply said that the universe did not originate from primal material or anything observable. His description does not rule out creation ex nihilo, but neither does it affirm it. Genesis 1:1-3 and logic seem to indicate that God did indeed create the universe, something visible, out of His word, something invisible.

11:4 The readers could identify with Abel because he, too, had a better sacrifice. Those who based their hope of God's acceptance on an inferior sacrifice would experience disappointment, as Cain did.

By the way, what made Abel's offering superior to Cain's was evidently its being an offering of the "firstlings" (first-born) and its including the "fat" (Gen. 4:4). Ancient Near Easterners commonly held that a deity deserved the first of whatever man, beast, or crop brought forth. The fat likewise represented the best part of an animal offering. Abel's offering shows the respect he gave God as worthy of the best whereas Cain's offering, as Moses described it in Genesis 4, indicates that he did not so reverence God.³⁵⁴ Another view is as follows.

"The general tenor of Scripture indicates that the superior quality of Abel's offering derived from the integrity of his heart rather than from the nature of the offering itself. This is the clear implication of Gen 4:7, where the Lord says to Cain, If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?'"³⁵⁵

". . . what gave Abel's offering greater value was his faith, not the fact that it was an animal sacrifice."³⁵⁶

11:5 Enoch set an example of walking by faith all his life that readers would do well to follow.³⁵⁷ The Lord may return at any time to take modern Enoch's into His presence just as He took that great saint.

11:6 Walking by faith involves not only believing that God exists but also believing that he will reward the faithful. The original readers faced temptation to abandon that hope, as we do. Note that those He will reward are those who "are seeking after Him" (present tense in Greek), not believers who have stopped seeking after Him. Ultimately we know God's will by faith.

In almost all of the following exemplars of faith that the writer cited, there is a clear and direct relationship between faith and reward.³⁵⁸

"The best way to grow in faith is to walk with the faithful."³⁵⁹

11:7 Noah prepared for things to come. He did not live for the present. By continuing to believe the promises of God even when everyone else disbelieved them Noah inherited a new world after the Flood. The writer had promised the readers "the world to come" (2:5-8). Noah's faith led to the preservation of his family. Likewise as we continue to trust God we will encourage others to do so and they will also enter into their inheritance if they follow our example of faithful perseverance.

College: Heb 11:1-40

HEBREWS 11

VII. GOD EXPECTS US TO SHOW FAITH (11:1-40)

A. THE NATURE OF FAITH (11:1-3)

¹ Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. ² This is what the ancients were commended for.

³ By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is the famous chapter on faith. The last paragraph of chapter 10 (Heb 10:35-39) actually introduced the idea of faith with an OT quotation from Habakkuk 2:3-4, "My righteous one will live by faith." The first verse of the chapter gives a general description of faith. The second verse functions as a kind of heading for the eighteen pivstei ( pistei , "by faith") statements of the chapter. In the NIV fifteen of these eighteen statements begin a new paragraph. Heb 1Verses 9, 27 and 28 do not.

11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

The chapter begins with a general description of faith that is twofold. Faith is (1) the uJpovstasi" ( hypostasis ), the essence, the realization (NIV: "being sure") of what we hope for, and (2) the e[legco" ( elengchos ), the proof, the conviction (NIV: "being certain") of what we do not see. The precise meaning of these two nouns has been widely discussed. The problem is more difficult because of the infrequent use of both words in the NT. The word hypostasis occurs five times, three in Hebrews (1:3; 3:14; and here); while elengchos occurs only twice (2 Tim 3:16 and here).

Louw and Nida put the first word in the category of words that mean "nature, character" and the second in the group meaning of "true, false" suggesting that it means, "evidence that what we cannot see really exists." Ellingworth summarizes the problem by saying that we understand these two nouns (a) objectively, something we have, for example a "guarantee" (NJB), or (b) subjectively, something we do or feel, for example "being sure" (NIV).

G. Harder has a helpful discussion of the Hebrews passages which use hypostasis . On 11:1 he says its alternative translations are (i) "confidence, expectation; (ii) "pledge, security;" or (iii) "realization, actualization." H.G. Link rejects a subjective (lacking doubt), hortatory (directing correction) or intellectual sense (meaning evidence) for elengchos , preferring "a strictly theological sense, as referring to conviction, about the power of the future world promised by God." He says it would then mean, "But faith is the pledge of things hoped for, the conviction of things we cannot see." The NIV prefers the idea of the inner confidence about things which lack visible evidence.

11:2 This is what the ancients were commended for.

The ancients were commended by God for this faith in his promises and in the future which he held before them, even though there may have been no tangible proof of that future other than God's total truthfulness. The examples that finish the chapter show this confidence. Similar lists of honorable men of old may be found in Sirach 44-50; 4 Maccabees 16:17-23; 18:11-19 and M Taanith 2:4. Verse two begins with the phrase, "in this" (ejn tauvth/ , en tautç - fem. sing. because "faith" is fem. sing.), thus setting up the structure of the following eighteen statements which begin with the phrase, "in faith" or "by faith" ( pistei ). The NIV hides this nice introductory touch of the author's pen when it translates, "This is what the ancients were commended for."

The first sixteen of these eighteen "by faith" statements only take us through Genesis and half of Exodus. In these first chapters of the Bible it is difficult to find good people not listed in Heb 11, but the list does not claim to be exhaustive.

It may be helpful to list the kinds of things people did "by faith." See the following table. The responses of faith include all kinds of things - construction, travel, worship and sacrifice, clear thinking, avoiding death; even miracles like having a son when past age, or describing an event hundreds of years before it happened, or crossing a sea on dry land, or making city walls fall, or leaving life without dying. The record of faith is a remarkable record.

VS PERSONS WHAT THEY DID "BY FAITH"

2 ancients Were commended

3 "We" Understand creation

4 Abel Offered a better sacrifice

*Was commended as a righteous man

*Still speaks, though dead

5 Enoch Avoided death

7 Noah Built the ark

*Condemned the world

*Became heir of righteousness

8 Abraham Left home for an unknown destination

9 Made his home in tents like a stranger in the promised land

11 Was enabled to become a father when past age

Summary statement:

("All these people" **Were still living by faith when they died

**Did not receive the things promised, but saw them from a distance

**Longed for a better, a heavenly, country

17 Abraham Offered Isaac as a sacrifice

19 (Abraham) **Reasoned that God could raise the dead

**Received Isaac back from death

20 Isaac Blessed the future of Jacob and Esau

21 Jacob Blessed Joseph's sons

Worshiped

22 Joseph Spoke of the exodus, instructing about his bones

23 Moses' parents Hid baby Moses for three months

24 Moses Refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter

Chose to be mistreated with the people of God

**Regarded disgrace for Christ greater than treasures of Egypt

27 Moses Left Egypt

28 Kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood

29 The people Passed through the Red Sea

30 The walls of Jericho fell down, after the people marched around them

31 Rahab Was not killed with those who were disobedient

+ 6 + "the prophets" + 20 other deeds

Note: An asterisk (*) means the NIV text says "by faith," but the Greek text is not the formula pistei .

Note: A double asterisk (**) implies, but does not state, that the deed was based on faith.

11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

In his first example of faith, we understand , the writer draws his readers with himself into the company of the faithful. Ever so gently he stands alongside his readers. At several critical points in the epistle he uses the first person plural, "we" (2:1-3, 8; 3:6, 14; 4:1, 11, 14-16; etc.). It is the shepherd's heart that draws his flock close to himself so that he may impart some of his strength to them in their weakness. They worried him with their dangerously immature condition (Heb 5:11-6:8). In opening his Roman letter, Paul similarly expressed this desire to give strength to his readers (Rom 1:11-13). The mother of the seven Maccabean martyrs urged the last one to be faithful by reminding him that God who made everything, "did not make them out of things that existed" (2 Macc 7:28, NRSV). So here the first example encouraging us to staunch faith is an example of trusting that at God's command "what is seen was not made out of what was visible."

"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command." The author of Hebrews agrees with the uniform perspective of biblical authors that God spoke the universe into a fully functioning system, including the sun, moon, stars and earth. Before he spoke there was nothing. After he said the words, instantly what he commanded became. Psalm 33:6-9 is typical:

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

No one was there when the universe began. Therefore, whether one believes that it generated itself or that God spoke it into existence is a matter of faith. Both those who believe in creation and those who believe in evolution hold a faith system. The question is simple. Which explanation best integrates all the data which we possess?

Whitcomb says the fundamental issue is:

. . . whether one puts his trust in the written Word of the personal and living God who was there when it all happened, or else puts his trust in the ability of the human intellect, unaided by divine revelation, to extrapolate presently observed processes of nature into the eternal past (and future). Which faith is the most reasonable, fruitful, and satisfying? (Italics are his.)

The word " formed" (katartivzw , katartizô ) points more toward earth as a finished product fully adequate for man's temporary home, rather than backward toward the nothingness out of which God made the earth. The latter idea would have been in the word ktivzw (ktizô , "to create"). The text here explicitly states that "what is seen was not made out of what was visible." It was all formed at God's command (lit., by the word of God). The word rJh'ma (rhçma , "word") used here should be contrasted with the word logo" ( logos , "word"). Rhçma points more clearly to the spoken utterance of God, for example, "Let there be light." The most frequent verb of God's activity in Genesis 1 is speech.

B. FAITH ILLUSTRATED BY ABEL, ENOCH, AND NOAH (11:4-7)

⁴ By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.

⁵ By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. ⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

⁷ By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

11:4 By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.

Jesus put Abel at the head of the list of righteous people whom the Jews had killed in their resistance of God's invitations to them:

And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar (Matt 23:35; Luke 11:51).

Abel is also the first hero of faith named in this list. His death, literally his blood, will be mentioned again in 12:24 in contrast with the blood of Jesus to which all Christians have come.

Cain is mentioned outside of Genesis 4 only three times in the Bible. In 1 John 3:12 he is held up as a bad example who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother because his deeds were evil while his brother's were righteous. It becomes the basis for explaining that the wicked world will hate righteous people. Jude 11 mentions "the way of Cain" as one illustration of godless people who speak abusively against whatever they do not understand. They are "like unreasoning animals." Even after God confronted him, Cain invited Abel out to the field where he killed him. His anger certainly made him act "like unreasoning animals."

The point of this passage is that God commended Abel as a righteous man because his faith led him to do what God asked to be done. His obedience is held up before us as an example to be copied even though it eventually cost him his life. This is why he still speaks, even though he is dead . Cain and Abel may have talked about what God required as a sacrifice before either of them brought his sacrifice. Let Abel's determination to obey God whatever others would do be an encouragement to us.

In the face of the speculation about what made Abel's sacrifice better than that of Cain, our text simply explains that it was because of his faith. There is no suggestion that God required an animal which Cain refused, or that Cain did not bring the best from what he had. The very anger of Cain upon having his offering refused indicates an arrogant distrust of God (Gen 4:5). Cain knew better than God what he should offer! Faith is so important that Paul could say whatever does not originate in faith is sin (Rom 14:23). Jesus explained to the disciples that the reason the Holy Spirit would convict people of sin was because they did not believe in him (John 16:8-9). Disbelief is the central problem of sin. Belief is mandatory. Our author waits till after his third illustration of faith to explain this same concept that without faith it is impossible to please God (11:6).

11:5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.

Enoch 's faith led to a most unusual blessing. He was "translated," i.e., " taken from this life without dying." The word "translate" (metativqhmi , metatithçmi ), literally means "to convey to another place." It is often used in a nonliteral sense, simply "to change, alter" for example of changing one's mind (LS). Hebrews has three of its six NT uses. Acts 7:16 reported that when Jacob's family died their bodies were "brought back" (metatithçmi ) to Shechem in Canaan. The Galatian believers "so quickly deserted" (metatithçmi ) Christ and turned to another gospel that it astonished Paul (Gal 1:6). Certain men were "changing (metatithçmi ) the grace of our God into a license for immorality" (Jude 4).

Hebrews usage adds the changing (metatithçmi ) of the priesthood when Christ became our new high priest (7:12), and Enoch's being taken (metatithçmi ) from this life (said twice in 11:5). The related noun metavqesi" ( metathesis , "removal, change") should also be considered. Its three appearances in the NT are all in Hebrews. Besides Enoch's "removal" (NIV: "before he was taken"), Hebrews mentions the "removal" of the law which accompanied the change of priesthood (7:12). In the other instance, the "removal" of what can be shaken is done so that what cannot be shaken may remain (12:27).

The tenses of three verbs in this verse are especially interesting. Enoch "could not be found" (hJurivsketo , hçurisketo, imperfect tense; lit., "was not being found"), "was commended" (memartuvrhtai , memartyrçtai , perfect tense), and "pleased" (eujaresthkevnai , euarestçkenai , perfect tense). The first verb indicates that they kept looking for him unsuccessfully. Again and again they looked. It was not like Enoch to wander off with no explanation. They cared for him. Their continued looking shows that they did not know that he was "translated." Perhaps Moses was the first to receive this information from God by inspiration. If so, it would elevate the magnitude of Abraham's faith when he reasoned that God would resurrect Isaac from the dead. See further discussion of this in the notes on verses 17-19.

The other two verbs are both perfect tenses. Blass and DeBrunner call the perfect tense "a condition or state as the result of a past action" and illustrates by explaining, "e{sthken 'he placed himself there and stands there now.'" In our verbs, this means that God became pleased with Enoch and the new status and enjoyment of this new bliss should be borne in mind. One of these new conditions is God's open endorsement of Enoch's character, for he gave a witness, and a new state of endorsement existed.

The special description of Enoch in the Hebrew text of Genesis 5:24 is that he " walked with God ." The LXX, which our author consistently follows, reads that he "pleased God." While the wording is different, the thought is not. To "walk" with God obviously implies a close companionship on a spiritual plane, which would mean that God was pleased with Enoch.

11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Like a clever homiletician our author began his stories of faith before he had fully explained the role and necessity of faith. Now that he has indicated that Enoch was "one who pleased God," he expands on this feature of faith, i.e., faith pleases God. He says, " Without faith it is impossible to please God ." Two facets of faith are necessary for anyone to be able to come to God. (1) He must believe that God exists. (2) He must believe that God rewards those who earnestly seek him. It would be reasonable to expect to find both of these traits in each example of faith laid before us.

Some may not believe that God exists. There are many more who believe that God exists, but who do not believe that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. In a crisis they prayed, and God did not do what they asked of him. Therefore they conclude that God is at least unresponsive, if not wicked; and they turn away from him. They "know" God does not reward those who seek him. Such people could very profitably examine the examples of faith in this chapter. The tense of two verbs may help here. Both participles, "one who comes" (prosercovmenon , proserchomenon ) and "who earnestly seek" (ejkzhtou'sin , ekzçtousin ) are present tenses. This indicates continual coming and continual seeking. God does not respond to the occasional seeker. One must keep coming as a lifestyle. One must keep seeking as a regular, habitual predominant way of life. A single cry never indicates the real nature of our heart. A perpetual cry does.

11:7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Noah's expression of faith consisted of a construction project. He built an ark, a huge boat 450 feet long. Until 1858 the largest boat besides the ark was the P&O liner called "Himalaya," which was barely half as long as the ark! In that year Filby says, "Isambard Brunel launched the Great Eastern, 692 feet by 83 feet by 30 feet . . . five times the tonnage of any ship then afloat." It was another forty years before a boat was built bigger than the Great Eastern.

When warned by God, Noah acted on things which could not be seen (cf. v. 1). He trusted the truth of the message given him by God. Though God is not named here as the source of the warning, it is so sure an inference that translators generally insert the word "God" with no special marking that it has been added. See notes on the word "warned" (crhmativzw , chrçmatizô ) at 8:5.

Jude gave one general clue of God's coming judgment on the ungodly, but his words seem to point to the second coming rather than the flood.

Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him" (Jude 1:14-15).

Unless one gives an early date for Pseudepigraphical books, which no one seems to even suggest, there is no known information before this warning by which Noah could have anticipated the coming of a flood of the magnitude which the Bible describes. Only God's plans for this gigantic boat undergirded his pronouncement, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark . . ." (Gen 6:13-14).

The warning from God moved Noah " in holy fear" (eujlabevomai , eulabeomai ). The verb appears in the NT elsewhere only where the Pharisees and Sadducees so strongly argue about the resurrection that the commander "was afraid" Paul would be torn to pieces by them (Acts 23:10). Bauer describes the adjective eujlabhv" , (eulabçs , "devout") as "in our lit. only of relig. attitudes devout, God-fearing" and the noun eulabeia ("reverent awe") as "in our lit. prob. only of reverant awe in the presence of God, fear of God ." The former is only in Luke 2:25; Acts 2:5 and 8:2 in the NT. Both NT occurrences of the latter are in Hebrews (5:7; 12:28). Louw and Nida suggest the verb means here "to obey, with the implication of awe and reverence for the source of a command," and would translate, "he obeyed (God) and built an ark." One should be cautious about criticizing the use of fear in motivating people to respond to the gospel. Here God himself used fear to motivate Noah. It would result in saving his family.

The Genesis account said Noah "found favor in the eyes of the Lord" and that he was "a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God" (Gen 6:8-9). Indeed, he was the first man in Genesis to be called "righteous." See Gen 6:9; 7:1; and Ezek 14:14,20. The verse reminds us that this righteousness came because he clung tenaciously to God. His was the righteousness that comes by faith. Noah acted on God's word alone, without any other "evidence" of the impending flood. Our text, like Genesis, applauds the character of Noah, not that of his family. Still, the family enjoyed the benefits of Noah's labors born out of his faith. Their own faith must have been greatly strengthened by the faith of their grand patriarch. Evidently there were no grandchildren till after the flood (Gen 11:10).

Noah is called "a preacher of righteousness" in 2 Peter 2:5, which must indicate some kind of open stand and clear message against the evil of his day. Mankind was so wicked the text says, "Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time" (Gen 6:5). The NIV says, "By his faith (lit., "by which") he condemned the world." Technically the "which" could refer to salvation or the ark. But Ellingworth is right that it is much better to relate the phrase "to the dominant theme of faith, as in v. 4."

Thus the text says that by faith Noah did three things: (1) he built an ark; (2) he condemned the world; and (3) he became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

C. FAITH ILLUSTRATED BY ABRAHAM (11:8-19)

⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

¹¹ By faith Abraham, even though he was past age - and Sarah herself was barren - was enabled to become a father because he ^a considered him faithful who had made the promise. ¹² And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

¹³ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. ¹⁴ People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ Instead, they were longing for a better country - a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, ¹⁸ even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring ^b will be reckoned." ^{c 19} Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

This chapter gives more space to discussing the faith of Abraham than of anyone else, vv. 8-19. This is proper, for he is held up before Christians as the main model of faith in Romans 4:1-25; Galatians 3:6-9 and James 2:20-24. Three main illustrations from Abraham's life are chosen here to display his faith. (1) He obeyed God's call to go to a new unknown land. (2) He became able to have a son when he was too old. (3) He was willing to offer his only son Isaac.

11:8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

Abraham was so important to the Jews that they said he was one of five possessions God took to himself in his world: the Law, heaven and earth, Abraham, Israel, and the Temple (M Aboth 6:10). They said Abraham had performed the whole Law before it was given (M Kidd. 4:14). Several works in varying amounts embellish the Biblical data relating his struggles with the surrounding idolatry and his teaching people various subjects, especially the laws of God. Josephus tells the story of Abraham in Antiquities , I.vi.5-xvii.1 (I.148-256) in which he includes citations from numerous ancient sources that describe Abraham, but are no longer extant. Of the three incidents presented in Hebrews, Josephus gives the greatest space to the sacrifice of Isaac.

The Muslim faith also gives great honor to Abraham. Gottheil says, "Of all the Biblical personages mentioned in the Koran, Abraham is undoubedly the most important." He says further that Mohammed claimed "that Abraham was the real founder of the religion that he himself was preaching; that Islam was merely a restatement of the old religion of Abraham and not a new faith now preached for the first time;" and that Mohammed even went so far as to assert that Abraham built Kaaba, the holy house of Islam in Mecca, and that the son he offered was Ishmael, not Isaac.

The first illustration in Hebrews of Abraham's faith concerns his original call by God. The Greek text gives a sharp contrast by putting both of the first two verbs at the beginning of the sentence, "By faith, being called , Abraham obeyed . . ." His obedience was immediate. Even the present participle encourages this idea of immediacy, "While he being called," not "After he was called," as the aorist participle would have suggested. Genesis gives the same impression of immediate obedience. The very next words after God's call and promise are, "So Abram left, as the Lord had told him" (Gen 12:4). At this point he did not know the country, the distance, not even the exact direction of his destination. Attridge suggests that he learned what land God had in mind for him only after arriving in Canaan. He simply obeyed God's call.

11:9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.

Even when he arrived in the promised land, Abraham lived in tents, like a stranger in a foreign land . It is ironic for the owner of the land to have to live in temporary quarters. Acts 7:5 says, "He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child." In a similar situation Paul described an adolescent heir, treated like a slave while a minor, though he owned the whole estate (Gal 4:1-2). Several words in this chapter show Abraham's lack of connection with the land. He "made his home" (parwv/khsen , parôkçsen , lit., "live as a stranger") in the promised land like a "stranger" (ajllotrivan , allotrian ).

The first of these words appears only here and in Luke 24:18, where the two disciples heading for Emmaus find Jesus so out of touch with current events about the Messiah's death that they conclude that Jesus must only "live as a stranger" [BAGD definition] in Jerusalem. The NIV omits the "stranger" idea by translating, "Are you the only one living in Jerusalem . . ." The noun form paroikiva , ( paroikia , "a sojourn in a strange place") is only used of the Jews in Egyptian bondage (Acts 13:17) and of Christians in this world (1 Pet 1:17). The noun form pavroiko" , ( paroikos , "stranger, alien") describes Moses in Egypt (Acts 7:29), Jews in Egypt (Acts 7:6), Christians in the world (1 Pet 2:11) and Gentiles who through Christ are no longer "foreigners" and "aliens" ( paroikoi ) of God's people.

Part of the reason God repeatedly directed the Jews to deal kindly with the aliens among them was that they had been aliens in Egypt. So Exodus 23:9; Leviticus 19:33-34; 25:35; Deuteronomy 10:18-19 and 23:17. For additional Scriptures on the special treatment he required for aliens see Exodus 22:21; Leviticus 23:22; Deuteronomy 24:14-21 and 26:11-13. There is an additional reminder of earth as a temporary residence of God's people in Leviticus 25:23, "The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants."

The idea of Canaan as the inheritance of Abraham, and by extension, the Jewish people, must be modified by what was said in Hebrews 3-4 about the people's not entering God's rest. Their early and perpetual breaking of the covenant must also preclude any claim to the offer God made in the covenant. Jews who resisted Jesus fell from this inheritance. Only a remnant remained. All believers became participants in this inheritance, and most of these were Gentiles (Rom 9-11).

11:10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Jesus has been appointed heir of all things (Heb 1:2). Abraham was destined to share in Jesus' inheritance. Though God gave him the land replacing the seven nations who were there before him (Acts 13:19), Abraham knew that this was not the best part of the inheritance. The promise God gave to Abraham made him look forward to "a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." He also knew that the promise was not obtainable by law but by faith. "Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness" (Gen 15:6). See also Romans 4:15ff. Galatians 3:18 adds, " If the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise." Even the birth of a son, the second incident used here to show Abraham's faith, was the result of a promise (Gal 4:23).

The beauty of the offer of God through the gospel is that Christians become heirs with Abraham of this grand promise from God. " If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal 3:29). Even Gentiles can participate equally with Jews as "fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household" (Eph. 2:19). This is the mystery of the gospel that had been made especially plain to Paul (Eph 3:1-21). The end result is that all of God's children are "heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ" (Rom 8:17) in "an inheritance that can never perish" (1 Pet 1:4).

Abraham's real expectation is a divinely built city, not a wind-blown country. Bengel reminds us that "a tent has no foundations." In the ancient world cities were places of permanence and culture, of refuge and commerce. Pygmy city-states and giant empires had a city as their center. God, indeed, "has prepared a city for them" (11:16), "the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God" (12:22). This is what the readers had already acknowledged as their "better and lasting possessions" (10:34). It is natural for Jerusalem and its location on Mt. Zion to become the terminology of promise for the people of God. The most famous description of this future city of God is found in Revelation 21-22. The most widely known extrabiblical description of this city is probably Augustine's The City of God . McCown explains that "whereas Judaism and the gospels had a distinctly agricultural background, Christianity almost immediately gravitated toward the city. . . . No book in the Bible is more thoroughly bound to the city than the book of Revelation."

11:11 By faith Abraham, even though he was past age - and Sarah herself was barren - was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.

The second incident used to express Abraham's faith is his miraculous return to fertility, accompanied by Sarah's rejuvenation. Both Abraham and Sarah were "barren," " past age ." Yet through faith God enabled them to have the promised son, Isaac. Faith in this instance was trusting that God was faithful, when all the physical evidence pointed the other way. Paul said God "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us" (Eph 3:20). In this instance, by faith Abraham and Sarah reached out into that capability beyond where others could see and knew that God would do the impossible thing, because he had said he would.

This was not a virgin birth, but it was definitely a miraculous birth. What could not happen did happen "because he (or she) considered him faithful who had made the promise." There is a textual difficulty here. The NIV margin more closely follows the established Greek text, "Or: By faith even Sarah, who was past age, was enabled to bear children because she ." Abraham's ability to have the promised son was dependent on Sarah's fertility. Thus whether Sarah alone was "past age," or both of them were, makes no difference in the final outcome.

11:12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

The NIV expression, "as good as dead," which it also uses for the same form in Romans 4:19, is so soft it is misleading if not plainly erroneous. Nenekrwmevno" (nenekrômenos , "having died") is a perfect participle. It means he had died with all its effects including barren childlessness and an evidently thwarted promise. Both passages also speak of Sarah's deadness. If there is something in genetics by which women come past age and men do not, it is not indicated by the text.

The promise was that, "I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore" (Gen 22:17). See also Genesis 15:5; 26:4; 32:12. Moses told the people of Israel as they were about to enter Canaan that they had become as numerous as the stars and the sand, i.e., the promise was fulfilled (Deut 1:10; 10:22; 28:62). Eventually, the addition of Gentile believers to Abraham's seed would expand this number even more. Isaiah challenged those who sought the Lord to "look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone [Or: "when he was but one" NIV first edition, 1975], and blessed him, and increased him (Isa 51:1-2, KJV).

It is ironic that physical genealogical descent from Abraham which came about through faith would later come to be used as a substitute for faith. See Matt 3:9; Luke 3:8; Matt 8:10-12; John 8:39; Rom 2:28-29; 4:11-12; 9:6.

11:13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.

The author pauses for a parenthetical admiration of these giants of faith. "All these people were still living by faith when they died." He has been urging his readers to be faithful "till the end" (3:14) or "till the very end" (6:11). See also 4:9-11; 5:11-6:6; 9:27 and 10:26-31. Now he shows that the "greats" of faith kept the faith and died still waiting for the unfulfilled promises. He will remind them again at the end of the chapter (v. 39) that "none of them received what had been promised." Faith sharpened their vision and strengthened their commitment to God's future provisions for them.

They " saw" and " welcomed" the promises " from a distance ." Abraham "rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad" (John 8:56). Moses "regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ [i.e., the Messiah] as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward" (11:26). Peter says of the prophets in general,

Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things (1 Pet 1:10-12).

"Seeing what was ahead, he [David] spoke of the resurrection of the Christ" (Acts 2:31). Isaiah saw so many things about Jesus and the whole Messianic era which he brought that he has been called "the fifth Evangelist." Jesus told his disciples that others knew enough about the coming days of the Messiah but that they "longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it" (Matt 13:17).

The word for "welcomed" (ajspavzomai , aspazomai ) is normally used of greeting people, and the NT often uses it in this way. The end of Hebrews has this normal use twice (13:24). Ellingworth thinks that "The unusual, apparently impersonal object here suggests that for the author, the heavenly city is primarily a community." They admitted that they were aliens (xevnoi , xenoi ) and strangers (parepivdhmoi , parepidçmoi ) on earth . This is the perspective God had taught them in Leviticus 25:23 when he prohibited permanent land sales. The words "on earth" clearly contrast with the "heavenly" country (v. 16) for which they are longing. Christians join the patriarchs in this feeling of anticipation. This world is not our home. We are looking for "the city that is to come" (13:14), "the kingdom that cannot be shaken" (12:28). In their early days of faith the readers had held their possessions of this world very lightly (10:32-34).

11:14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 11:15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.

This admission of a temporary status also confirmed the fact they they were looking for another country which they could call their own. This was certainly not Ur of Chaldees from which they had come. They could have returned at any time, but Abraham made his servant swear (Gen 24:4-9) that he would not let Isaac return to the country they "left," ejkbaivnw (ekbainô ). This word appears nowhere else in the NT. Here the structure is, "If (but they were not) . . ." as in 4:8; 8:4 and 7.

11:16 Instead, they were longing for a better country - a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

For this faith in the future which God had in mind, God is not ashamed to be called their God . Stated positively, God is proud to be called their God. We met the same idea in 2:11 where Jesus is not ashamed to call those who are made holy, "brothers." Beginning in Genesis 17:7-8 the OT has numerous statements of God's offer to be their God and they his people. Leviticus 26:12 says it succinctly, "I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people" (Lev 26:12). This same relationship is repeated in the new covenant as was already mentioned in Hebrews 8:10 quoting Jeremiah 31:33, "I will be their God, and they will be my people." In addition one should consider the hundreds of instances where God is simply called "their God" or "the Lord your God."

God's preparation of a city for them is a promise very much like Jesus' promise to the disciples in John 14:1-3. Since the father and the son had worked very closely together in the preparation of this world, it is fitting that they would both be involved in the preparation of the next. God had "prepared" the land of Canaan for his people (Exod 23:20). The LXX used the same word as in Hebrews. God has "prepared" a dinner (Matt 22:4), a kingdom (Matt 25:34), indeed, many things (1 Cor 2:9) for his people. God "prepared" a "place" to escape the dragon for the woman who bore a son (Rev 12:6). The holy city which descends from heaven has been "prepared" as a bride adorned for her husband (Rev 21:2).

11:17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.

The third illustration of Abraham's faith concerns his offering of Isaac as a sacrifice. Our text says, "God tested him." James says God tempts no one; rather one's own evil desire tempts him (James 1:13-14). Does God generally not tempt people, but broke the general rule on this occasion? That is not very palatable. Did a Demiurge tempt him, i.e., some intermediate angel? This is even weaker. Should we say a "testing" to let one's true character become known is not the same as a "tempting" which would lure one into sin? James' discussion continues in this direction (James 1:13-18).

The Rabbis taught that Abraham faithfully withstood ten temptations, of which this one was the greatest (M Avoth 5:3). The Midrash Rabbah on Numbers (XVII.2) says when the test with Isaac was finished, Abraham asked God never to put him to any test again, because it almost destroyed him. After discussing this trial another midrash asks the penetrating question, "Can you do what Abraham did?" (Midrash Rabbah on Genesis LV.1).

He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,

The word prosfevrw (prospherô , "offered . . . as a sacrifice") appears twice in verse 17. The first time is a perfect tense drawing the deed plus its consequences before our eyes. The second is an imperfect tense showing that he was in the midst of doing the sacrifice. The NIV translates " was about to sacrifice ." Although adding the words "about to" may be an accepted way of translating an imperfect tense, in my judgment it appears unnecessarily interpretive here. This would narrowly limit the sacrifice to killing the victim. If the preparation for sacrificing is also viewed as part of the "bringing near" of a sacrifice, then Abraham would be already in the process of sacrificing when God stopped him. Turner calls this verb in Hebrews 11:17 "a conative or Desiderative imperfect, of incomplete or interrupted action" and translates, " tried to offer ."

Strangely, Louw and Nida give no hint that any meaning of this verb falls in domain # 53, "Religious Activities" or that it is used for bringing a sacrifice to God. The LXX uses the verb dozens of times in describing the sacrifices in the book of Leviticus, half of its OT appearances. Vorlander recognizes this "connection with the OT sacrifice system." Upon reading the book of Hebrews one should notice the connection of this verb with sacrificing in 5:1, 3; 8:3, 4; 9:7, 9, 14, 25, 28; 10:1, 2, 8, 11, 12; 11:4 and here). Once it is of "offering" prayers to God (5:7). Only once in Hebrews is the verb not used in the sense of an offering to God (12:7).

The editors of the Greek text make verses 17-19 a single sentence. The following indentation may help clarify this interconnectedness which is diminished in the NIV by dividing it into three separate sentences:

"By faith Abraham offered Isaac

while he was being tested;

and he was offering his only [son] -

[i.e.,] the one who had received the promises [was offering his only [son]]

[i.e., the one] to whom it was said that 'In Isaac your offspring will be reckoned' -

after he had reasoned that God was also able to raise him from the dead

from whence he also received him figuratively."

Abraham had received the promises . This was already said of Abraham in 6:13-15 and 7:6. The heirs also held these promises (Heb 6:17; 9:15; 10:36; 11:9, 17, 33). Yet 11:13 and 39 said they did not receive the promises. The NIV aims to solve this problem by translating "promise" as "what was (or: has been) promised" or "things promised" (6:15, 17; 10:36; 11:13, 33, 39). Though the same word is used in each instance, this differentiates between the word given, and the deed fulfilled. Abraham knew what God said would happen, but it had not yet been done. Hebrews is full of such forward-looking expectation of God's rewards that are still future.

In one sense Isaac was not Abraham's one and only son . He had Ishmael; and after Sarah died, by Keturah he had six more sons named in Genesis 25:1-2. The phrase "one and only" is an attempt to express in more comfortable English an old phrase "only begotten" for the word monogenhv" (monogençs ). BAGD translates the word "only, unique." The lineage of the Messiah would pass uniquely through Isaac. Christians are most familiar with this word from John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (NIV). The word is used of the only son of a widow, whom Jesus raised to life (Luke 7:12), of Jairus' daughter (Luke 8:42), of the boy with convulsions (Luke 9:38), and of Isaac (Heb 11:17). Usually the NT uses this word to show Jesus' unique relation to God (John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9).

11:18 even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."

The words " even though"are added by the NIV to express the unusual contrast between verses 17 and 18. The verse quotes Genesis 21:12. While Abraham did have another son, Ishmael, it is not this son of the slave woman through whom Abraham's covenant descendants would come. God's choice fell on Isaac to be the son of the covenant. God stopped Abraham from taking Isaac's life as Genesis 22 dramatically relates.

11:19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

Both were from God: both the promise of future children through Isaac and the requirement to offer him as a human sacrifice. That put Abraham in a dilemma. (1) The boy must die. (2) This boy must have future children. (3) The only conclusion that fit both of these was for God to raise Isaac back to life again after he died as a sacrifice.

There is no record that Abraham had ever seen a resurrection or had information about resurrection from the dead. The lack of our information does not prove that he did not have this information. It is hard to imagine that the ancients never knew anything but those things which we are sure they knew. Perhaps the translation of Enoch was the nearest thing to a resurrection that had happened up to Abraham's lifetime. But Moses may have been the first one to learn from God what had happened to Enoch. Abraham believed God could do anything. In the current dilemma he reasoned that God would do this unprecedented thing. Since Abraham reasoned that Isaac would die and God would raise him back to life, in his mind he did receive Isaac back from death . Our author says this can be called "figuratively speaking" he received him back from death.

D. FAITH ILLUSTRATED BY ISAAC,

JACOB, AND JOSEPH (11:20-22)

²⁰ By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.

²¹ By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

²² By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.

11:20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.

Very briefly Isaac, Jacob and Joseph are presented as heroes of faith. Isaac blessed Jacob (Gen 27:27-29) and Esau (Gen 27:39-40). The whole story of deception by which Jacob stole the special blessing from Esau and had to flee for his life consumes Genesis 27. Their reunion is reported in Genesis 32-33. In Hebrews the term for the future , "the coming things" (mellovntwn , mellontôn ) usually is used for spiritual things concerning the salvation which Christ brought (1:14; 9:11 variant; 10:1), if not the future world (2:5; 6:5; 13:14). There is no hint in Isaac's words in Genesis that he was talking about anything more than physical prosperity of Jacob's descendants and their being honored by surrounding peoples. The blessing for Esau has only physical prosperity and eventually throwing off his brother's yoke.

11:21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

Jacob is credited with two deeds of faith. He blessed each of Joseph's sons (Gen 48:1-22), and he worshiped on his staff (Gen 47:29-31). The Genesis account indicates that Jacob knew very well what he was doing when he crossed his arms and elevated Ephraim above Manasseh, although this displeased Joseph. Jacob himself had been elevated above his older twin Esau. And Joseph had been favored above his eleven brothers, though not with the blessing of the lineage. The touching with the right hand is the only indication that Ephraim is preferred. There is only one blessing recorded. Jacob asks God to "bless these boys . May they be called by my name . . . and may they increase greatly." One might almost expect the fuller blessings of all the tribes to be noted here from Genesis 49. By the singling out of the proper grandson for preeminence, Jacob was exercising remarkable faith.

Jacob called Joseph to him and made him take an oath that he would bury him back in Canaan where "my fathers" were buried. Then he "worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff." His heart was in the promised land. His orientation was still looking toward the future that God had promised even when he was in the midst of the comforts and safety provided for his family in Egypt. It is a strong evidence of faith when adequate care for one's family does not dim the anticipation of the better blessings which God has promised for the future.

11:22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.

Joseph spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt (Gen 50: 24-26). He referred back to the oath God had given Abraham that after four hundred years in Egypt he would bring his descendants back to the land of Canaan (Gen 15:13-21). Then he made his brothers swear an oath that when they returned they would bring his bones up with them out of Egypt. Moses brought Joseph's bones with him when Israel came out of Egypt (Exod 13:19). They were eventually buried in Shechem in the land which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor (Josh 24:32). It is easy to forget that they carried his bones around with them during the forty years in the desert. It is also easy to forget that they were kept somewhere in somebody's house during the four hundred years in Egypt.

E. FAITH ILLUSTRATED BY MOSES (11:23-28)

²³ By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

²⁴ By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. ²⁵ He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. ²⁶ He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. ²⁷ By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. ²⁸ By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

Five incidents of faith are chosen from Moses' life. Actually three are his. His parents' hiding him at birth is reported almost as an introduction to his life of faith. The people's passing through the Red Sea then would be almost a conclusion of these examples. Moses lived another forty years of great faith after these events. Perhaps his faith is best expressed by the faith-deeds of the people he led to trust God. By faith Moses himself (1) refused the privileges of being a royal son, (2) left Egypt, and (3) kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood.

11:23 By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

Moses' birth is a nice change after dealing with the deaths of Jacob, Isaac (twice seen dying) and Abraham, whose body was dead. What did Moses' parents see in their baby that "he was no ordinary child?" What made them preserve him from the mandated death? There must have been something more than a mother's natural love for her baby or the Nile River would have been filled with babies in baskets whom caring parents were trying to save. Let us address three subjects: the meaning of the word "ordinary," the involvement of God, and the involvement of the whole family. First, what does the phrase " no ordinary child" mean? The Hebrew in Exodus 2:2 simply called him bwf (tôv , Hebrew for "good"), which is about as ambiguously general as a word could be. The LXX used a rare word to describe the baby, ajstei'o" ( asteios "good"). This same rare word is in the NT only in Acts 7:20 and Hebrews 11:23, both of baby Moses. In the LXX this word describes baby Moses (Exod 2:2), Eglon, King of Moab (Judg 3:17 - the Hebrew calls him "fat"), Judith (Judith 11:23), Susanna (Daniel LXX Susanna 2 or 7), and the "good" resolve of Eleazar not to renounce the law (2 Macc 6:23). Balaam's road/way in resisting God was "not good" (Num 22:32).

Second, Acts 7:20 ties God to the description of the baby. The Greek phrase there is ajstei'o" tw/' qew/' (asteios tô theô ) , literally "good to God," i.e., good with relation to God. BAGD explains the use in this verse as an ethical dative, " in the sight of God , hence with superlative force . . . very ." The NIV translates Acts 7:20 simply, "he was no ordinary child." The NIV margin shows more precisely how the Greek text of Acts 7:20 relates this goodness to God by translating, " was fair in the sight of God ."

Third, he was hidden by " his fathers ." In the NT, like the book of Hebrews, the word "fathers" commonly means one's ancestors (Heb 1:1; 3:9; 8:9). Exodus had only said his mother hid him. In some way this three month effort to conceal the baby must have involved the whole family - mother, father, brother, sister, grandparents, great grandparents, neighbors, aunts and uncles. In this time of crisis births would be more certainly noticed, especially births of baby boys. The Egyptians were not dumb. It would be hard to hide from them any signs of a pregnant woman or a newborn child. One slipup by any Israelite would have betrayed their precious secret to the Egyptians. How would a mother feel when she knew that the community was protecting the baby of her sister or cousin and they had not protected her baby from death? Surely God helped them.

We know the edict of death had just recently been given because Moses had an older brother Aaron who escaped the fresh decree that newborn baby boys must die (Exod 1:11-22). The midwives feared God rather than the king and let the boys live. Similar divine protection later surrounded the birth of the Messiah in the face of Herod's murderous intentions. God led the wise men to directly disobey Herod's command (Matt 2:8-12, 16). Joseph also eluded Herod's plot by using the recently received rich gifts in order to hire the fastest transportation possible in the nighttime escape to Egypt (Matt 2:13-14).

A second evidence of the faith of Moses' parents was that they were not afraid of the king's edict . It is hard to believe that there was no fear in their hearts when this terrible pronouncement was made, but fear did not determine their actions. Hence it could be said that they were not afraid of the king's edict. Moses himself displayed this same courage in the second illustration of his faith, his departure from Egypt (v. 27).

11:24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

Moses is first introduced as a baby (v. 23). Now his adult decisions of faith are sampled. When he refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter , he turned his back on the fabulous personal wealth of a Pharaoh, the national wealth of the mightiest nation on earth, and the tremendous treasures of its culture, influence and prestige. And he is commended for it. The examples of this chapter are certainly not presented as foolish choices of faith. It is difficult for Christians of the western world to appreciate this kind of decision. Over and over people are praised for seeking and using positions of power and wealth to enhance Christianity. Yet at a deeper level all understand Paul's words,

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God (Rom 8:18-21).

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Cor 4:17-18).

11:25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.

Was Moses masochistic? Did he just like suffering? No. He saw something in God's future for God's people that was a far greater reward than Pharaoh's future apart from God. The word "suffer with" (sugkakoucevw , synkakoucheô ) is only here in the NT, never in LXX, rare in the church fathers. Even without the prefix " syn" (with) it appears only in Hebrews 11:37 and 13:3 in the NT, but three times in the LXX (3 Kings [=English 1 Kings] 1Kg2:26 [twice] and 11:39, and rarely in the church fathers. The readers had made a similar choice of "co-suffering" with those in prison (10:34). The exact word in that verse is sumpaqevw (sympatheô ) from which the English word "sympathy" is derived. BAGD even translates the word " sympathize with, have or show sympathy with ." This word appears in the NT elsewhere only in Hebrews 4:15, where Jesus is said to "sympathize with our weaknesses."

Moses chose against the pleasures of sin . His position in Egypt would let him explore many of the indulgences Solomon had examined - pleasure, laughter, wine, great projects, horticulture, money, a harem, learning, work (Eccl 2). There was a certain "pleasure" in them all. But like Solomon, Moses also found them quite unfulfilling, "meaningless," "vanity." The imperfect tense of the verb ajpevblepen ( apeblepen , " was looking ahead") in verse 26, indicates that he kept looking off into the future again and again. Finally he made a decision. Both verbs " chose" (eJlovmeno" , helomenos ) and " regarded" (hJghsavmeno" , hçgçsamenos ) are aorist tenses showing a single decisive event.

11:26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

As Moses examined the faith of "these slaves of ours," he found something far more significant and satisfying than anything Egypt could offer. There were some ancient roots they had that reached farther back than Egypt's history, and some expectations that reached much farther forward than Egypt's anticipations. There was a reward much larger and clearer than the foggy sayings of Egyptian soothsayers. There was something about a "Messiah" (Hebrew for "Christ" v. 26) sent from the single god over all gods, who simply spoke and everything came to be. Moses was drawn to that. He could see the difference between being "rich in this present world" and putting one's hope in God, "who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment" including a rich full future reward (1 Tim 6:17). What would Alexander the Great at his zenith, or other great men of the world, have done if confronted with such a message?

Ellingworth reminds us that Psalms 69:9 and 89:51 discuss the same "reproach" (ojneidismov" , oneidismos , v.26) which David found against those who choose for God. He enumerates the many times the NT uses these two Psalms.

The text of Exodus tells the story of Moses' punishing the cruel Egyptian taskmaster at the time of the critical break with his position of favor in Egypt (Exod 2:11-15). It does not explain as fully as this NT text all that went into his decision. Nor does the NT text tell what incident first expressed his decision "to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin." How did this additional information rise? Was it (1) from the creative insight of our author? Or (2) from some extrabiblical text, whether apocryphal, pseudepigraphical, rabbinic, Egyptian, etc.? Or (3) from some non-written oral tradition embellished with each retelling? Or (4) from God himself giving the author of Hebrews information he could not otherwise have known? How did the Gospel writers know what Jesus prayed when he was alone in the garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:36-46 and parallels)? How can Peter tell us how this universe will end (2 Pet 3:10)? How could Moses know that the great flood covered "all the high mountains under the entire heavens" (Gen 7:19), or that God created the world by speaking it into existence (Gen 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 29; so Ps 33:9)? How could the author of Hebrews know what Jesus did in heaven (Heb 9:11-14, 24-28; 10:12-14)? There is a far more significant source here than astute scholarship or creative writing, or we are all in deep trouble.

11:27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.

Moses' second great deed of faith was also prompted by his vision. This is probably Moses' second departure at the time of the Exodus. At his first departure he killed the Egyptian who was beating an Israelite. Exodus says, "When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh" (Exod 2:15). Although the text does not directly say Moses feared the Pharaoh, the account looks like he did. There could have been other motives besides fear which mingled in his rapid exit.

Forty years later he returned at God's direction, led in causing the ten plagues, and appeared always in command of the situation. When Moses left Pharaoh upon announcing the last plague, it was Moses who was angry (Exod 11:8). During the night when death struck, Pharaoh summoned Moses and told them to leave, and he added, almost timidly, "And also bless me" (Exod 12:32). The Egyptians also urged them to leave expressing their own fear that "otherwise we will all die!" Further the text relates the generous gifts the Egyptians gave the Israelites and explains, "The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people" (Exod 12:31-36; so 11:3). The LXX adds the phrase "and by Pharaoh" to the Hebrew text of Exodus 11:3, "The LORD made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people [LXX "and by Pharaoh"]."

The word "persevered" (karterevw , kartereô ) and its cognate forms appear only about a dozen times in the LXX, nowhere else in the NT. If this departure is his second, Moses took all the Israelites with him in departing. His persevering must have included convincing them all to start the Passover celebration, to leave the only home they knew, and not to collapse when trapped between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea. The last of these is expanded into its own statement of faith in the next verse. Perhaps one should paraphrase verse 27, "By faith Moses led two million slaves to march boldly out of the grip of the mightiest nation on earth, fearlessly plundering them as they went; and they were able to persevere in this daring deed primarily because of the persistent vision of one man who kept looking at the God who is invisible."

The NIV puts the word "because" in an odd place. Its grammatical structure more naturally relates the word gar ("because") to the whole second half of the verse, not just to the adverbial participle "seeing." It appears that NIV has ignored the conjunction ("because"), which it often does, and interpreted the adverbial participal as a causal participal. The following structure may suggest a better translation:

"By faith he left Egypt

not fearing the king's anger;

for

as one seeing him who is invisible

he persevered."

The present tense of the participle "seeing" indicates that he kept looking at the invisible one, over and over again. A sound vision continually held before us will strengthen us to do our finest deeds. When that perpetual vision is of the invisible God who can only be seen on earth with the mind's eye of faith, wonderful things happen. This is how to build faith. This was how Moses built his own faith that helped him overcome a hostile environment. This was how Moses' faith could turn a land full of crying, groaning slaves into a people whom God could use for his glory. HE "left Egypt." Indeed! Look at the train who followed in the wake of his faith. It is no accident that our author urges his readers to "fix your thoughts on Jesus" (3:1). "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus" (12:2). The book of Hebrews is full of looking at Jesus.

11:28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

Moses' third deed of faith was keeping the Passover and its attendant sprinkling of blood (v. 28). This was more than just "doing" the Passover. The verb is a perfect tense of poievw (poieô , to do). What he did had lasting consequences. It may be translated "instituted" the Passover. It was to be "a lasting ordinance" (Exod 12:24), "a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord - a lasting ordinance" (Exod 12:14). Its permanence is prescribed throughout the Pentateuch.

This first Passover was accompanied by the sprinkling of the blood of the Passover lamb on the top and both sides of the doorframe (Exod 12:21-23). When the Lord went through the land at midnight and struck dead the firstborn of every home and animal, he would not enter any house with the blood on the doorframe. No one knows how well Moses persuaded the people. No one knows how many Israelite families left their firstborn dead in Egypt that night because of their disobedient disdain of blood on their doors. No one knows how many Egyptians decided that night, like Moses had decided long before, to join the people of God in their privations rather than remain in wealthy, mourning Egypt. The text simply reports, "Many other people went up with them" (Exod 12:38).

The covenant at Mt. Sinai was confirmed by sprinkling blood on the people (Exod 24:3-8). Hyssop is mentioned in connection with various offerings (Exod 12:22; Lev 14:4-6, 49-52; Num 19:6 and 19). Blood was to be sprinkled as part of the ceremony in various offerings, purifications and consecrations. The most notable may be the original entrance into the covenant agreement, the consecration of new priests, the endless sacrifices of lambs, and the ceremonies on the Day of Atonement. The Passover ceremony, celebrated on the same night in which all of Egypt's firstborn died, knit the Israelites into a single mobile family. Before this Passover night, they were slaves. After it, they were a free people leaving Egypt. That freedom allowed them to worship God as he directed , i.e., there would be an endless sprinkling of blood under his Sinai covenant.

Because of the blood sprinkled around their doorframes, the destroyer of the firstborn would not hurt them. The NIV tries to make the text perfectly clear by ending verse 28 with the phrase, "the firstborn of Israel," instead of the slightly ambiguous "them." The word "firstborn" is neuter here probably because it included animals with people. Surely far more animals than people died in the tenth plague. The word for "destroyed" (ojloqreuvw , olothreuô ) appears only here in the NT. Exodus only said the destroyer would not enter their houses and strike them down. Hebrews says he would not even touch them.

By naming three great deeds of Moses and Abraham, they are honored more than any others in this list of the faithful. Only by anticipation did Abraham's deeds which are reported here touch more than a very few people. On the other hand, Moses' exercise of faith immediately changed the lives of thousands. He led the people in leaving Egypt and in keeping the Passover. The next three examples of faith express deeds which Moses largely stimulated by his faithful leadership.

F. FAITH ILLUSTRATED IN ISRAEL (11:29-38)

²⁹ By faith the people passed through the Red Sea ^a as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

³⁰ By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.

³¹ By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. ^b

³² And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, ³³ who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. ³⁵ Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. ³⁶ Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. ³⁷ They were stoned ^c ; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated - ³⁸ the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

^a 29 That is, Sea of Reeds ^b 31 Or unbelieving ^c 37 Some early manuscripts stoned; they were put to the test;

Three more specific examples of faith yet remain. None of them are by people who would normally be classed as giants of faith. The Israelites cross the Red Sea in terror at the pursuing Egyptians. The walls of Jericho fall down after Israel has simply marched around them for seven days. Rahab sees an invincible people approaching and stays alive by joining them. These are not so much illustrations of great depth of faith, but of the fact that faith does something.

11:29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

In the previous two illustrations of faith (vv. 27-28), Moses' faith carried the people of Israel along with him. In this illustration of faith (v. 29) the people have risen to their own trust in God. " By faith the people passed through the Red Sea ." The account is in Exodus 13:17-15:21. The path of the people on leaving Egypt which led to their militarily vulnerable position beside the sea was directly dictated by God. After giving his verbal direction, he led them with the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night (13:17-22). Looking back on what happened is almost humorous. It was not humorous for them. Israel was "marching out boldly" until they saw the Egyptian chariots coming. Immediately "they were terrified" (v. 10). But when the Israelites had crossed the sea and saw the pursuing Egyptians dead on the shore, "the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant" (Exod 14:29-31). To say that it was "by faith" that the people passed through the Red Sea can only mean that faith is there when there is obedience. However small, however full of fear, it is still faith, if there is obedience. They certainly did not feel calm, or even "trusting" before the crossing. They were "terrified."

A few words must be said about the place of crossing. At all twenty-six occurrences of the phrase "the Red Sea" the NIV margin prefers, "Sea of Reeds." It is fashionable for many texts and atlases to locate Israel's "crossing" at some marshy area north of the deep water. The text of Hebrews makes four points about their crossing: (1) It was done "by faith." (2) They passed "through" the Red Sea. (3) They did it "on dry ground." (4) The Egyptians were drowned when they tried to follow. It would be hard to drown all the Egyptians if Israel did not cross at some deep water. The biblical picture of a deep water crossing is quite certain.

11:30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.

The second general expression of the effect of faith involves all the people at the conquest of Jericho (v. 30). "By faith the walls of Jericho fell ." The only thing it said they did was march around the city for seven days. This is not a very deep level of faith. Nevertheless, there is the clear element of DOING what God required, even if it is doing what the crowd does, as long as it is what God said should be done. A messenger from God, an angel (?), called "a man" and "the commander of the Lord's army" met Joshua before the attack and told him that the method of attack would be by marching around the city in this unusual way (Josh 5:13-6:5). The whole story is told in Joshua 5-7.

11:31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

The story about Rahab also teaches the value of obedience even if it is a small deed (v. 31). Certainly she knew the risk of helping the spies, worse, of concealing them. She was especially aware at the inn of the travelers' talk about the approaching Israelites. She would later tell them, "All who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed" (Josh 2:9-10).

There was more in her heart. She had seen the frustrating impotence and degrading immorality of the gods around her. The stories coming from spies and travellers who kept an eye on the Israelites suggested that their God was a far different kind of god, a good god. She knew little more than his name. Perhaps she had heard some of the very fair laws of this god.

Suddenly two strange men appeared at her inn. Guessing that they were Israelite spies she had to make a quick decision. Should she help them and risk death herself, or expose them and become a heroine in Jericho? For what? Jericho could not stand against them if Egypt could not. There was no time to inquire about their god now. She had only a few moments to decide and to act. She hid them quickly. One last time she approached them just before they lay down for the night, and she blurted out the growing confidence in her heart, "The LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below" (Josh 2:11).

From tiny bits of information came enough faith to do one little thing. It was enough to show where her heart was. Faith without accompanying deeds is a useless thing. With them it is powerful. James uses both Abraham's offering of Isaac and Rahab's helping the spies as evidence that faith must do something to be real (James 2:17-26). In Hebrews the only evidence presented of her faith is that she did not "perish with, be destroyed with" (sunapovllumi , synapollymi ) those who were disobedient. The word occurs nowhere else in the NT, and is not very frequent in the LXX. In this instance Rahab's faith helped her leave the group.

As it did in verse 27 the NIV adds the word "because" as an interpretation of an adverbial participle. The Greek text does not require "welcoming the spies" to be seen as the reason that she escaped death. It may as correctly be translated simply "after she welcomed the spies." Nothing is mentioned here about her saving her whole family, nor about the scarlet cord which was the means of this preservation. A small deed, done quickly with little advance notice, built on a general fear of dire consequences, was all she had available. It was all she needed. By that one little deed she won for herself a place in the hall of fame of the faithful and in the lineage of the Messiah (Matt 1:5).

These concrete examples show that faith always looks to God. It seeks him out and aims to please him by doing whatever he says to do. God is trusted to be the designer, the builder and the host of a better city in a better country with better people. In honoring this faith God guides the steps, enlightens the mind and enlarges the influence. Faith gives strength to do what men in their weakness could not do. Faith knows that if its own strength fails, God will assist, even if he must do a miracle. When faith seizes the moment, it seizes God.

Though faith leads to new places, new privileges, new privations, it never leads away from God. Faith expects a better future full of God's own rewards. Faith keeps the eyes on heaven while driving the nails on earth. Faith sees the end past long costly projects or large luring pleasures.

A believer draws others along in his train. He aims to save his family. He works to save the world. He leaves a clear voice when he has gone. God commends the faithful.

11:32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets,

To the eighteen examples of faith already given our author appends a few names and a large list of wonderful deeds that this faith has stimulated (vv. 32-38). The previous examples are enough to demonstrate that those with faith do not "shrink back" but "persevere." They "will be richly rewarded" (10:35-39). Faith gives confidence and improves the understanding of what cannot be seen. Westcott capsulizes this summary in Hebrews, "In part (a) they wrought great things (32-35a): in part (b) they suffered great things (35b-38)." Then he draws attention to the "remarkable symmetry" of the nine phrases in vv. 33-34. The first triplet has only two accents in each phrase; the second and third triplets have three.

In 11:32 the author lists four judges, then David, Samuel, and "the prophets," explaining, "I do not have time to tell about them." How did each of these exercise faith? Gideon seemed very reluctant to respond to God's call to save Israel. He wanted a sign before each major event to which God called him. When God had him tear down his father's altar to Baal and its accompanying Asherah pole, he did it at night, because he was afraid; but because he believed, he did it. Later, with only 300 men holding trumpets and torches, he attacked and routed the army of Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern people who were "thick as locusts" having camels that "could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore" (Judg 7:12). His faith seemed very timid, but he did what God directed him to do.

Barak defeated Sisera the Canaanite and his 900 iron chariots. Barak refused to go to battle until Deborah the prophetess agreed to go with him. She "was leading Israel at that time" (Judg 4:4). In the Bible text Deborah is always mentioned before Barak.

Samson has little evidence in the Bible text that he trusted God. His parents raised him as a Nazirite as the angel had directed when he explained that "he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines" (Judg 13:5). Four times are recorded that "the Spirit of the Lord came upon him," once when a lion attacked him (Judg 14:9), twice to fight Philistines (Judg 14:19; 15:14). See also Judges 13:25. His whole life seemed to be an expression of trusting God for superhuman strength as a Nazirite until Delilah lured him to uncover his vow. The clearest expression of his faith came at the end of his life. Taunted as a prisoner in the temple of Dagon, he prayed for his strength to return. With it he pulled down the temple killing more Philistines at his death than during his life. Evidently, faith may return when one repents and asks to be used again by God.

Jephthah's remarkable faith is seen in keeping a careless vow, even though it was very costly to him (Judg 11:29-40). He made a solemn agreement with God before the battle. God kept his part and helped him win, so Jephthah determined to keep his part. The vow may have been foolish. The faith in God was not. Scholars offer different interpretations of whether Jephthah kept his vow by killing or by banishing his daughter. Either way, Jephthah's faith is indeed remarkable.

David is the only person whom God calls "a man after my own heart" (Acts 13:22 based on 1 Sam 13:14). His life is so full of deeds of faith that anyone interested in pursuing this feature of his life should read 1 Samuel 16-31; 2 Samuel; 1 Kings 1-2; 1 Chronicles 11-29 and the many Psalms bearing his name. In addition, there are many indications of David's faith in the character and writings of his son Solomon. One caution must be taken in examining every one of these models of faith. Great faith does not mean perfect life or character.

Samuel marks the transition from judges to kings and prophets. He was the last of the judges (1 Sam 7:6, 15-17; etc.) and the first of the prophets (1 Sam 3:20; 2 Chr 35:18; especially Acts 3:24 and 13:20). His deeds of faith, like David's, are numerous, and may be read at leisure in 1 Samuel 1-19 and Jeremiah 15:1.

The faith of " the prophets" is generally seen as they deliver God's messages in the face of difficulties of all kinds. It may be almost a rule of thumb that the only prophets who have no recorded difficulty because of delivering their messages are those of whom no narrative at all is recorded. The book of Hebrews began by noticing "the prophets" (1:1). At this point, after mentioning the prophets, Hebrews simply lists numerous afflictions and achievements of the faithful (vv. 33-38).

The most prominent judges who appear in the book of Judges are selected in Hebrews 11:32, two who are earlier and two later. The names can been seen as pairs, though the grammatical structure of the Greek text does not suggest pairing except for David and Samuel. The chronological order within each of the three pairs is reversed. This may reflect their relative importance in the pair. Attridge thinks it is more likely that "the systematic departure from a strict scriptural sequence is a part of the attempt to create an image of a vast horde of exemplars of faith." That impression had begun by the time the author got to these names. Three of these judges are mentioned with Samuel in 1 Samuel 12:11 as examples of those whom God sent to deliver Israel when they cried out for mercy from their oppression, "Then the LORD sent Jerub-Baal [also called Gideon], Barak, Jephthah and Samuel, and he delivered you from the hands of your enemies on every side, so that you lived securely."

The Bible makes Joshua a transition figure between Moses and the judges in much the same way Samuel was a transition figure between judges and kings. Samuel himself became in a sense the first of the prophets (1 Sam 3:20; 9:9; Acts 3:24; 13:20-21). Technically, there were "prophets" before Samuel, but with him the emphasis shifted from the independent rule of individual judges to the sustained rule of a succession of kings assisted by prophets. The author of Hebrews appears to notice this transition with "David and Samuel" being followed simply by "the prophets." Samuel and David are very closely related in Scripture. For example, in setting up the order of worship and the personnel for the temple, the gatekeepers were "assigned their positions of trust by David and Samuel the seer" (1 Chr 9:22).

11:33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions,

The conquering (ajgwnivzomai , agônizomai ) of kingdoms probably means literal warfare, not spiritual warfare or sports, although the word is used of all three. Many of those already named in the chapter conquer kingdoms - Barak (Judg 4:24); Gideon (Judg 7, here the conquest is especially ascribed to God); Jephthah (Judg 11); Samson (Judg 16). David conquered Philistines, Moabites, Zobah, Damascus, Hamath, and others (2 Sam 8).

" Administering justice" (lit., "worked righteousness") may be said of individuals (as Acts 10:35; 1 John 2:29 and 3:7) or especially of judges or rulers who cause righteousness, then uphold it (as Isa 58; Amos 1-2). In the OT righteousness is predominantly a quality of God. In the NT it is predominantly a gift of God to believers. It may be seen both in Joseph's fleeing the advances of Potiphar's wife and in saving Egypt's food and overseeing its proper use. Hebrews shows that Jesus loves righteousness (1:8), in fact, he is "king of righteousness" like Melchizedek (7:2). By faith he permits believers to inherit his righteousness (11:7).

It was specifically said of Abraham in 6:15 that he gained or "received (ejpitugcavnw , epityngchanô ) what was promised ." It is the only other place in Hebrews where this verb is used, and it happens to be used with "receiving" the promise. The OT verse quoted in 6:14 is Genesis 22:17 immediately after Abraham has "offered" Isaac on the altar. God's response to this trusting obedience of Abraham was, "Now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son" (Gen 22:12). See notes on 11:17-19.

What Israel sought so earnestly they did not "receive" and became hard; while the elect, i.e., those who believed, did receive it (Rom 11:9). In the only other NT use of this verb, James 4:2-3 says some things are not received because we do not ask God for them or because we have wrong motives in our requests. One of its two LXX uses describes Joseph "prospering, gaining" in Potiphar's house (Gen 49:2).

Daniel was saved in the den of lions by God's angel coming to "shut the mouths of the lions" (Dan 6:22). Daniel's accusers were immediately devoured by the lions when they were thrown into the den. Similarly by faith Samson overpowered a lion (Judg 14:5-6), and David killed both lions and bears (1 Sam 17:34-37).

Benaiah, one of David's valiant warriors, also overcame a lion, though the OT text does not state that it was because of his faith (2 Sam 23:20; 1 Chr 11:22). On two occasions young men of God were killed by lions because they disobeyed God (1 Kgs 13:24-26; 20:35). The foreigners who entered Samaria after the deportation of the northern kingdom were plagued by lions because they did not live for God (2 Kgs 17:25-26). Isaiah used the picture of transforming the violent nature of lions as a strong indication of the power of the Messiah to change the character of people (Isa 11:6-7).

11:34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.

The three Hebrew lads in Babylon may be the first to come to mind. Refusing to worship the ninety foot statue of the king, they chose rather to be thrown into the fiery furnace. They emerged unsinged and unscented by the fire that was heated seven times hotter than usual. The fire was so hot it killed the men who threw them into the furnace (Dan 3). Westcott quotes an observation of Theophlet that it does not say they quenched the fire , but the power of the fire, which is even greater.

Others died by fire because they did not trust God: Nadab & Abihu (Lev 10:1-2); Korah and the 250 men with him (Num 16:35); and the two groups of fifty military men sent to capture Elijah (1 Kgs 1:10, 12, 14). If the idea is understood figuratively, then passages like Isaiah 43:2 should be considered.

Some escaped the edge of the sword , literally a plural word "mouths" of a sword. The plural here may indicate the same as the "two-edged sword" of 4:12; or it may be plural to match the plural "mouths" of lions in v. 33.

If this phrase means to avoid being killed with a literal sword, as in war, then there are numerous examples of individuals and whole armies where faith achieved this end. Moses held up his hands in an act of faith by which Israel defeated the Amalekites (Exod 17:8-16). By faith David escaped Goliath's sword (1 Sam 17). By faith Jehoshaphat was saved from a huge army from the east (1 Chr 20). Cf. Luke 21:24. The sword was so widely used in the ancient world that Liddell and Scott say it sometimes "stands for violent death" of any kind or even for war.

Sometimes physically weak persons became strong through faith. Samson became weak like ordinary men because of breaking his trust with God about his hair. He became super-strong again at the end of his life when he prayed and trusted God once again (Judg 16). Elijah beat the 450 prophets of Baal. Then weakened by fear of Jezebel, and fleeing for his life, he became strong enough to travel for forty days and forty nights on the strength of two successive meals (1 Kgs 19:1-9).

Sometimes people were strengthened when weak in some other way. Abraham was weak in lying to Pharaoh to save his life (Gen 12:10-20), but he became courageous enough to risk his life to rescue Lot (Gen 14:1-24). Gideon was overly timid when called by God, but then routed an army far outnumbering his own (Judg 6-7).

It may indicate strength of character. Micaiah stood up against the uniform voice of the king's prophets (1 Kgs 22). Jeremiah faced the threats of his own family (Jer 11:21-23). Ezekiel described the faithful prophet's heart, "Whether they listen or fail to listen - for they are a rebellious house - they will know that a prophet has been among them" (Ezek 2:5).

When the Spirit of the Lord came on Othniel (Judg 3:10), and later Jephthah (Judg 11:29), they went out to victorious war. Young David's military prowess entered the lyrics of songs in ancient Israel, "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands" (1 Sam 18:7). He conquered Philistines, Moabites, Zobah, Damascus, Hamath, Edom, Ammon and Amalek (2 Sam 8). Israel's enemies were God's enemies. Ellingworth says that this is the only place in the NT where faith is associated with military conquest. Contrast Matthew 5:44f. Jesus will eventually make all the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord (Rev 11:15). Zechariah used this imagery of the increased strength of those who follow God, "On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the Angel of the LORD going before them" (12:8). To the exploits of Othniel, Gideon, Jephthah, David and Jehoshaphat, which are given above, many more could be added throughout the history of God's people.

11:35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.

It is significant that women are mentioned as receiving their dead back to life . They were more vulnerable than men in the event of the death of a spouse or an only son. Widows are often grouped with aliens and the fatherless as needing special kindness and receiving God's careful attention (Exod 22:22-24; Deut 14:29; 24:19-21; Isa 1:23; etc.) They were supported in part together with the Levites, aliens and fatherless by the third tithe, taken from every wage-earner every third and sixth year of the seven year cycle (Deut 14:28-29; 26:12-13). De Vaux claims that "the social and legal position of an Israelite wife was . . . inferior to the position a wife occupied in the great countries round about [i.e., Egypt or Babylon]. . . . Judith was a rich widow. More commonly widows, especially those with children to support, were in a piteous condition."

Elijah gave a son back to the widow of Zarephath (1 Kgs 17:7-24; Sir 48:5). Elisha brought the Shunammite's son back to life (2 Kgs 4:8-37). Jesus resurrected an only child and gave him back to his widowed mother (Luke 7:12-17). In Lazarus' resurrection account we only read of the two sisters left in the family, Martha and Mary (John 11).

There were other resurrections. When Jesus sent his disciples on a mission to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, part of their assignment was to "raise the dead" (Matt 10:8). The fact that the people were raised from the dead was part of Jesus' proof to John that he was the Messiah who was to come (Matt 11:5; Luke 7:22). There was a general expectation among the populace in Jesus' day that there could be resurrection from the dead (Matt 27:64). Herod thought John the Baptist had risen from death when he heard about Jesus' works (Mark 6:14, 16; Luke 9:7). Many people were resurrected when Jesus died. Matthew reports that "The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people" (Matt 27:52-53).

During the intertestamental period there was an awareness of resurrection. When the seven famous martyr brothers were executed, the second brother said as he approached death, "You dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws" (2 Macc 7:9, NRSV). The fourth brother, while being tortured said, "One cannot but choose to die in the hands of mortals and to cherish the hope God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life" (2 Macc 7:14, NRSV). Judas and his men went to take up the bodies of Jews fallen in battle. Finding sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia under each fallen man's tunic, Judas collected money for a sin offering for them and sent it to Jerusalem. They were commended in 2 Maccabees 12:43-44,

In doing this he acted very well and honorably, taking account of the resurrection. For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought (NRSV).

Mothers, in 2 Esdras 2:15-16, are urged to bring up their children with gladness, for God has promised, "I will raise up the dead from their places, and bring them out of their tombs, because I recognize my name in them" (NRSV). They are further encouraged to help widows, orphans, the needy, the old, etc., "When you find any dead, commit them to the grave and mark it, and I will give you the first place in my resurrection" (2 Esdras 2:20-24, NRSV).The OT had already begun this expectation of resurrection (Job 19:25-26; Ps 16:8-11; 17:15; 49:12-15; 73:24; 102:25-28; Isa 53:10-12; Dan 12:2).

Part of the torture was the offer of release at any moment during the torture if some token would be given of renouncing the Jewish law. See 4 Maccabees 11:9-11 for one method of torture. BAGD defines tumpanivzw (tympanizô ) as " torture with the tympanon, a certain kind of instrument of torture," citing 2 Maccabees 6:19, 28; or " torment, torture generally" adding "The compound apotump . in the same sense" and citing 3 Maccabees 3:27; Josephus Contra Apion 1,148; and others. Liddell and Scott says it means " to beat a drum" or "generally, to beat with a stick, bastinado ." Its other words built on the same root are associated with drums and sticks. In the Greek OT tympanon is customarily used for the Hebrew toph , ("a drum"), but in 2 Maccabees 6:19 and 28 it is evidently an instrument of torture. NRSV in these two verses says "the rack."

Many suffered faithfully to "gain a better resurrection ." This shows an awareness of both the fact of resurrection and a differentiation in that resurrection. Resurrection was known to Daniel (Dan 12:2-3), to Isaiah (Isa 53: 10, 12) and to Abraham (Heb 11:17-19), and probably the Psalm writers (Ps 22:29; 49:12-15; 73, especially v. 24; 102:25-28). See Job 19:25-27 and Jeremiah 31:15-17.

11:36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.

Jeers and flogging appear together in the NT only when describing Jesus' abuse. The first noun " jeers" (ejmpaigmov" , empaigmos ) occurs only here in the NT, although its cognate verb, ejmpaivzw (empaizô , "to ridicule, mock") is used thirteen times. The second noun " flogging" (mavstix , mastix, "lashes" or "torment"), on the other hand, appears six times in the NT, while its cognate verbs, mastigovw (mastigoô , "to whip, flog, scourge") and mastivzw (mastizô , "to strike with a whip"), appear respectively seven times and only in Acts 22:25.

In the NT these words appear together only when Jesus predicts his mistreatment in Jerusalem. Matthew records "mock, flog and crucify" (20:19); Mark and Luke add "spit" (Mark 10:34; Luke 18:32-33); and Luke further adds "insult." The word "mock" is used almost exclusively of Jesus' abuse, either being predicted or carried out (Matt 27:29,31,41; Mark 15:20,31; Luke 22:63; 23:11, 36). The only two exceptions are the wise men mocking Herod by not returning to tell him about the baby king (Matt 2:16) and the mocking of the man who only half built a tower (Luke 14:29).

Upon the death of Judas Maccabee, the Syrian leader Bacchides sought out the friends of Judas and "mocked" them, taking vengeance on them (1 Macc 9:26). Saul feared this abuse at the hands of the Philistines and prefered death (1 Sam 31:4; 1 Chr 10:4). The torture and slow death of the seven martyr brothers is called "mocking" or "sport" (2 Macc 7:10). The general "mocking" of the the people of God is mentioned in Isaiah 33:4; Ezekiel 22:3; Zechariah 12:3 and 2 Maccabees 8:17.

The claim that "still others were put in prison ," should perhaps be better translated with the rough addition, "and even fetters and prison." This would match the striking Greek syntax where the genitive forms seem to couple with the genitives of the previous phrase. Verse 36 would then read more literally, "And others received a trial of mockings and of lashes, and even of fetters and of prison."

These two words are never joined as a pair like this anywhere else in the NT or LXX, although many were bound and imprisoned for their faith, for example, Joseph (Gen 39:6-20), Hanani (2 Chr 16:7-10), and Paul (Acts 16:22-24). God broke Israel's "bond" of slavery in Egypt (Lev 26:13; Ps 107:14). Many others were put in prison or in bonds for their faith in God.

11:37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated -

The Bible record tells of several people who were stoned for their faith: Naboth (1 Kgs 21:13-15); Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the priest (2 Chr 24:19-22); Stephen (Acts 7:59); Paul (Acts 14:19; 2 Cor 11:25). Jesus was attacked by stoning (John 10:31-33). Moses and Aaron were nearly stoned (Exod 17:4; Num 14:10), as was David (1 Sam 30:6). Jesus' parable was not foreign to real life when he described wicked men's stoning the messengers and the heir of a vineyard-owner to get possession of a vineyard (Matt 21:33-44).

Stoning was the prescribed death penalty for a number of crimes: worshipping other gods (Deut 17:1-7); tempting people to turn away from God (Deut 13:1-11); offering children to Moloch (Lev 20:2); wizardry or having a familiar spirit (Lev 20:27); blasphemy (Lev 24:10-16, 23); gathering wood on the Sabbath (Num 15:32-36); being a rebellious son (Deut 21:18-21); not penning up a goring ox (Exod 21:28-32); adultery or even slandering a new wife (Deut 22:13-24). Montefiore reminds us that the land of Israel was full of stones which could be used for this purpose.

The verb " sawed in two" may be from privzw (prizô ) or privw (priô ), both of which Liddell and Scott defines as "to saw." Their fuller discussion is given under privw , " to saw, saw asunder; sever, cut in twain ; II to grind or gnash the teeth, esp. with rage; generally to bite ; III. to seize as with the teeth, grip ." There is some textual uneasiness since this word occurs only here in the NT. BAGD makes prizô primary over priô . The sin of Damascus was seen at its worst when "she threshed (e[prizon , eprizon ) Gilead with sledges having iron teeth" (Amos 1:3). Here the LXX adds "the pregnant women (of Gilead)." The verb appears a second time in the apocryphal Daniel (Sus, 59) where Daniel told the second evil judge who wrongfully condemned Susanna that the angel of God was waiting with his sword to "saw him in two so as to destroy them both." He told the first judge (Daniel, Sus, 55) that the angel of God would "cut him in two" (scivzw , schizô , " to split, cleave ; generally, to part asunder").

The death of Isaiah is frequently presented as the clearest example of a believer who was sawed in two. In one place the Talmud says that in Babylon 2 Kings 21:16 is interpreted to mean that Manasseh killed Isaiah (Sanh. 103b). In another account the story says that Isaiah pronounced the unpronounceable Name of God and was swallowed up by a cedar. The cedar, however, was brought and sawn asunder. When the saw reached his mouth he died. This was his penalty for having said, 'And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips .' (Yeb. 49b). Rist presents the version in the Jerusalem Talmud (Sanh 10) that Isaiah, fearing Manasseh, hid in a cedar-tree. Seeing the fringes of his garment which were not hidden, Manasseh caused the tree to be sawn in half. The Ascension of Isaiah, a pseudepigraphical work, said Isaiah made some dire predictions about Manasseh. Belchira, a false prophet, then offered Isaiah his freedom if he would renounce his prophecies as lies. Isaiah refused and died bravely.

" Put to death by the sword" is the expression ejn fovnw/ macaivrh" ajpevqanon (en phonô machairçs apethanon , lit., "in murder of a sword they died"). BAGD translates, " (by being murdered) with the sword ." [they died]. This exact expression occurs in Exodus 17:13 of Joshua's routing the Amalekites; in Numbers 21:24 of Israel's destroying Sihon, king of the Amorites; in Deuteronomy 13:15 of Israel's destroying any idolatrous city of Israelites; and in Deuteronomy 20:13 of killing all the men of a city which refused to make peace with Israel.

A list of good people who died by the sword because they were trusting people must include the people of Nob who helped David (1 Sam 22:19), the prophets of God killed by Jezebel (1 Kgs 18:4; 19:10, 14); James (Acts 12:2), perhaps Uriah (2 Sam 12:9), perhaps even Abner and Amasa (1 Kgs 2:32). The Apocrypha reported several people who died by the sword in the Maccabean era because they adhered to God's laws: Jonathan and his men (1 Macc 12:46), the people of Jamnia (1 Macc 15:38), the people of Jerusalem (2 Macc 5:23, 26), and numerous unnamed Jews (2 Macc 6:1-7).

The sword was widely used because it was such an effective and inexpensive weapon of death. Examples of death by the sword could be multiplied. As the final statement in a list of many different kinds of suffering, death by the sword could representative of many other kinds of violent death which believers endured. See, for example, Numbers 20:18; 21:24; 1 Chronicles 21:12, 16, 27, 30; 2 Chronicles 20:9; 36:20 and Psalm 22:20. Foxe's Book of Martyrs records many kinds of extreme torture used against believers in the beginning church.

Our author moves now from extreme physical abuse to economic abuse and privation. They wore sheepskins and goatskins . Either they were barred from labor to earn money or barred from shops to spend money to purchase normal clothing. In either case they would have homemade clothes. Driven from ordinary society, "they wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground." It appears that many of them had to make their own clothing directly from animal products. So these were not top quality leather luxuries, but crude, homemade necessities. The phrase is included here in a list of things which people suffered because of their faith.

The two phrases, "in sheepskins" (ejn mhlwtai'" , en mçlôtais ) and "goatskins" (ejn aijgeivoi" devrmasin , en aigeiois dermasin ), should be taken together. The first phrase is used "of the cloak worn by prophets" (BAGD), specifically of Elijah's mantle (1 Kgs 19:13, 19; 2 Kgs 2:8) which subsequently came into Elisha's possession (2 Kgs 2:13-14). Liddell and Scott gives the classical Greek meaning as "a sheep's skin." The word appears nowhere else in the Greek Bible. Lampe defines the word as used by the church fathers as " sheepskin , hence rough hairy cloak worn by monks." Ahab's messengers observed that Elijah "was a man with a garment of hair and a leather belt around his waist" (2 Kgs 1:8; cf. Matt 3:4). Elijah's mantle, then, may have been (1) an additional leather ("sheepskin") garment he occasionally wore over his usual "garment of hair" to display his prophetic role. This fits Myers' idea of a "mantle of distinction" (trda , 'addereth ) which kings and prophets wore. It may have been (2) a "sheepskin" in the modern sense of the skin of a sheep dressed with the fleece still on it. There is no direct indication that Elijah had to wear this kind of clothing because of privation or punishment. Levites shared the third tithe along with the very poor (Deut 14:28-29; 16:11, 14), but they were never associated directly with the prophets. John the Baptist wore clothes made of camel's hair and a leather belt. His fare of locusts and wild honey suggests privation. Motyer says the "curds and honey" of Isaiah 7:15 is "the food of poverty. . . . The divine child is to be born into the poverty of his people."

They were " destitute, persecuted and mistreated ." The word uJsterevw (hystereô) means "to be in need of, to lack." The prodigal son had spent everything. He was " destitute" in a distant country when the famine came. He began "to be in need." His condition was so poor he wanted to eat what he fed to the pigs (Luke 15:14-16). The word describes how far beneath the glory of God the lives of men may fall. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23). The cognate noun uJstevrhma (hysterçma , "need, deficiency") describes the poor widow who out of her "need, poverty" gave two very small copper coins to God. While others gave out of their wealth, this was "all the living that she had"(Luke 21:1-4). Though "destitute" of the world's goods, in a sense these believers lacked nothing when following God, for he provides for his own (Neh 9:21; Ps 23:1 and Luke 22:35).

The ten NT references of qlivbw (thlibô , "to press together, oppress") help focus the meaning of " persecution ." The "way" which Jesus' followers much walk is "narrow, confined," the opposite of the broad way which others preferred (Matt 7:14). Jesus told the disciples to have a boat ready to keep people from "crowding, pressing upon" him (Mark 3:9). Paul was often persecuted in his work (2 Cor 1:6; 4:8; 7:5; 1 Thess 3:4). Sometimes relief would come from a courageous believer (1 Kgs 18:3-4; 1 Tim 5:10; Heb 10:32-34).

This is the word the LXX uses to describe the persecution of the Jews by various nations in the period of the judges (Judg 4:3; 6:9; 8:34; 10:8,9,12; 11:7 and summary 1 Sam 10:18). It is a common term of warfare. The oppression is usually of the whole nation, not of individuals, as here. It is also usually because of sin, not because of mistreatment for being faithful to God. Wicked enemies are often called "oppressors." Isaiah said the Messianic influence would bring an end to oppressing one another (Isa 11:13). In its summary of the oppression of the people of God, Psalm 107 (106 LXX) itemizes traits like those in Hebrews 11:37.

The word for " maltreated ," kakoucevw (kakoucheô , "to maltreat, torment"), appears only twice in the NT, both in Hebrews (here and 13:3). It is also rare in the LXX, and found only a few times in other OT Greek versions. BAGD says it is used in marriage contracts. Perhaps that is why marriage is discussed immediately after this rare word in Hebrews 13:3.

11:38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

These believers were clinging to God in faith. They were fugitives and outcasts, the displaced persons of the world. Accepted by no one, treated like "the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world" (1 Cor 4:13), these homeless wanderers longed to be home in heaven. Their citizenship was in heaven (Phil 3:20). All they had left on earth was the promise of God. To this they clung as they wandered about in deserts and mountains, in caves and holes in the ground .

Israel hid in caves from the Midianites (Judg 6:2) and later from the Philistines (1 Sam 13:5). David escaped from Saul by hiding in the caves of Adullam and Engedi (1 Sam 22:1; 24:3). Obadiah kept 100 prophets alive in caves to escape the murderous apostasy of Ahab and Jezebel (1 Kgs 18:3-4, 13). Upon recapturing the temple after three years of absence the Maccabees "celebrated it for eight days with rejoicing, in the manner of the festival of booths, remembering how not long before, during the festival of booths, they had been wandering in the mountains and caves like wild animals" (2 Macc 10:6; see 6:7-11). Montefiore says the description in Hebrews "suits the freedom fighters against the Seleucids (1 Macc. ii. 31; 2 Macc. v. 27; vi. 11; x. 6)," then adds,

Israel abounds in uninhabitable territory with excellent hiding-places for fugitives and outcasts, and these were later used in guerrilla warfare against Herod (cf. Josephus, Bell. Jud . I. 16. 4) and against Rome (cf. P. Benoit and others, Discoveries in the Judaean Desert , II (Oxford, 1961), and Y. Yadin and others, Judaean Desert Caves , I and II (Jerusalem, 1961 and 1962).

The "world" here means the world "as that which is hostile to God," the seventh definition BAGD gives for kovsmo" ( kosmos ). Ironically, the world rejected as unworthy the very ones of whom the world itself was not worthy . Men of faith were the ones commended by God (cf. vv. 4 and 5). "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Sam 16:7).

G. GOD PLANNED TO MAKE THEM PERFECT WITH US (11:39-40)

³⁹ These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. ⁴⁰ God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

They were all commended for their faith . In discussing the word "commended" (marturhqevnte" , martyrçthentes) BAGD defines the active voice, " bear witness, be a witness ;" and the passive voice, " be witnessed, be well spoken of." Six of the seven appearances of this word in Hebrews are in the passive voice, four are in this chapter (7:8, 17; 11:2, 4, 5, 39). Only 10:15 is active, where it says the Holy Spirit bears witness to us, then quotes an OT passage which is that witness. Melchizedek was "declared to be living" (7:8). Jesus was "declared" to be "a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek" (7:17). In this chapter the ancients are commended for their faith (11:2), Abel was commended as a righteous man (11:3), and Enoch was commended as one who pleased God (11:5). Then, all the people of the chapter "were commended for their faith" (11:39).

Though commended for their faith , these heroes and others like them only had the promise that good things were coming if they remained faithful. They had not received the things promised. God's plan was to join believers of the Old Covenant with believers of the New Covenant, redeem them all with the blood of Christ and place them together in his blessed future city. There is something better for us than our current abundant blessings in the church.

Before he ever created the world, God made the plan and the commitment that Jesus would die for fallen man (1 Pet 1:18-21; Rev 13:8). He evidently planned then the things that are described in Hebrews 5-7 about Jesus' being our high priest and the things described in Hebrews 9-10 about Jesus' being our perfect sacrifice for sins, hence also Jesus' high priestly activities in the "greater and more perfect tabernacle," i.e., "heaven itself" (Heb 9:11-14, 23-25). Other NT writers reveled in this glorious future God is preparing for man (Rom 8:18-39; Eph 2-3; Rev 21-22).

The only other place in the LXX or NT where the word problevpw (problepô , "to plan, foresee") is Psalm 37:13 (LXX Ps 336:13), where the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he "plans or foresees" what their future holds. To balance the scales of right and wrong, the future holds heavy blessings for those faithful to God and heavy punishment for those who oppose him. Jesus said, "A time is coming when all who are in their graves will . . . come out - those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned" (John 5:28-29). The Son of Man will sit on his throne and divide all nations, rewarding some and punishing others appropriately (Matt 25:31-46; Rev 20:11-15). It is this blessed future heavenly country for which the patriarchs longed (11:17).

The previous paragraph assumes that the perfecting of verse 40 is to be future for us. The perfecting may be done now. Jesus has already died for us. Upon accepting him anyone becomes perfected. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ (Rom 8:1). Sins are forgiven (Acts 2:38; 1:3; 2:17; 7:27; 8:12; 9:28). "By one sacrifice he [Jesus] has made perfect forever those who are being made holy" (Heb 10:14). Hebrews 12:22-23 points the same direction. The believing readers have already come "to Mt. Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, . . . to the spirits of righteous men made perfect ." This is the perfecting which the Law could not achieve (Heb 7:19; 9:7, 9; 10:1). "He has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant" (Heb 9:15).

There is a third sense of "perfection" as growing to maturity, but this is not in the author's mind as he finishes the chapter on faith. See Colossians 1:28; 4:12; Hebrews 5:14; 6:1; James 1:4. It is not clear whether Philippians 3:12 points to maturing in Christ or to the final end.

Here, the best sense is probably the current perfection of forgiveness given to all through the sacrifice of Jesus. It is in the church that he has purposed to create in himself one new man out of people from various backgrounds and times; "in this one body he reconciles both of them to God through the cross" (Eph 2:15-16). They were not perfected apart from us. We are not perfected apart from them. While on earth Jesus promised that there would be one flock and one shepherd (John 10:16; Isa 19:23-25; 49:6; Joel 2:28, 32; Amos 9:11-12; Mic 4:1-3; etc.). Paul said he was "confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil 1:6).

It is strange that in this concluding paragraph the readers are not asked to copy the faith of the believers who are on the list. They had been asked not to follow the unbelievers discussed in chapter three (4:1). They will be asked to "imitate the faith" of their leaders (13:7), like they had been asked to "imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised" (6:12). In the introduction to this section on faith (10:35-39) they were asked not to throw away their "confidence," but to "persevere." Then they were almost assumed into the circle of the faithful with the words, " we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved." Though they believed, they, too, like these heroes of faith, had not received the final reward. They must keep believing till the very end. Perhaps their faith felt tiny like the faith of Rahab. Maybe they felt their faith brought mistreatment like the faith of Moses. Whatever the size or nature of their faith, it was faith. The size of their faith did not matter. It was the presence of faith that knit them to Enoch and Noah and Abraham. God's plan was that believers of all ages, OT and NT, would one day be joined together and rewarded together. The text says, "together with us they would be made perfect" (11:40).

The readers will be asked to fix their eyes on Jesus (12:1-3), as they had been urged to fix their thoughts on him (3:1). It was this fixing of his vision on the Messiah that helped Moses make his decision of faith (11:24-26). He kept looking off at him who is invisible (11:27).

None received what was promised . Let us briefly trace the connection between God's promise and his covenant. At his call God made a promise (ejpaggeliva , epangelia ) to Abraham that consisted of several parts: (1) God would make him into a great nation; (2) he would make his name great; (3) he would bless those who blessed Abraham and curse those who cursed him; and (4) all peoples on earth would be blessed through him (Gen 12:1-3). The promise was formalized into a covenant with accompanying sacrifices (Gen 15). Then circumcision was added as "a sign of the covenant" (Gen 17:11). Isaac was singled out as the child through whom the covenant would be established (Gen 17:17-21; 21:13; 22:15-18). It was confirmed to Isaac (26:1-6). It was for this covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that God brought the Israelites out of Egypt (Exod 2:24-25). The land of Canaan was given as part of this covenant (Exod 6:4). God offered to make Israel his "treasured possession" when he gave them the law at Mt. Sinai, "Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession" (Exod 19:5, emphasis added). When they heard the laws of God, they agreed to do all that God said. This further advance in their relationship was sealed with blood,

Then he [Moses] took the Book of the Covenant, and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey." Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words" (Exod 24:7-8).

In Exodus 34 Moses was allowed to see a limited vision of God. At that time God was making a covenant that he would drive out the nations of the land of Canaan before Israel; but they should be careful to destroy their altars, make no treaty with them, plus, plus. The condition of obedience is repeated that was given in Exodus 19:5. The ten commandments are called "the words of the covenant" (Exod 34:28; see Deut 4:13).

What began as a promise to Abraham of posterity and honor from God, who is always faithful to his word, was expanded into a formal covenant agreement including a sign, laws, sacrifices, protection and blood confirming the covenant. What began as a response from Abraham, who trusted God, was expanded into a lifetime of expectation, privation and even heavy abuse for a whole group of people whose eye was on God and his future reward as being far superior to anything this world could offer.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

Commentary -- Other

Evidence: Heb 11:7

The writer of the Book of Hebrews believed the Genesis account of Noah’s Flood.

Introduction / Outline

Robertson: Hebrews (Book Introduction)

The Epistle to the Hebrews

By Way of Introduction

Unsettled Problems

Probably no book in the New Testament presents more unsettled problems than does the Epistle to the Hebrews. On that score it ranks with the Fourth Gospel, the Apocalypse of John, and Second Peter. But, in spite of these unsolved matters, the book takes high rank for its intellectual grasp, spiritual power, and its masterful portrayal of Christ as High Priest. It is much briefer than the Fourth Gospel, but in a sense it carries on further the exalted picture of the Risen Christ as the King-Priest who reigns and pleads for us now.

The Picture of Christ

At once we are challenged by the bold stand taken by the author concerning the Person of Christ as superior to the prophets of the Old Testament because he is the Son of God through whom God has spoken in the new dispensation (Heb_1:1-3), this Son who is God’s Agent in the work of creation and of grace as we see it stated in Phi_2:5-11; Col_1:13-20; John 1:1-18. This high doctrine of Jesus as God’s Son with the glory and stamp of God’s nature is never lowered, for as God’s Son he is superior to angels (Heb 1:4-2:4), though the humanity of Jesus is recognized as one proof of the glory of Jesus (Heb_2:5-18). Jesus is shown to be superior to Moses as God’s Son over God’s house (Heb 3:1-4:13), But the chief portion of the Epistle is devoted to the superiority of Jesus Christ as priest to the work of Aaron and the whole Levitical line (Heb 4:14-12:3). Here the author with consummate skill, though with rabbinical refinements at times, shows that Jesus is like Melchizedek and so superior to Aaron (Heb 4:14-7:28), works under a better covenant of grace (Heb_8:1-13), works in a better sanctuary which is in heaven (Heb_9:1-12), offers a better sacrifice which is his own blood (Heb 9:13-10:18), and gives us better promises for the fulfilment of his task (Heb 10:19-12:3). Hence this Epistle deserves to be called the Epistle of the Priesthood of Christ. So W. P. Du Bose calls his exposition of the book, High Priesthood and Sacrifice (1908). This conception of Christ as our Priest who offered himself on the Cross and as our Advocate with the Father runs all through the New Testament (Mar_10:46; Mat_20:28; Joh_10:17; Mat_26:28; Rom_8:32; 1Pe_1:18.; 1Jo_2:1.; Rev_5:9, etc.). But it is in Hebrews that we have the full-length portrait of Jesus Christ as our Priest and Redeemer. The Glory of Jesus runs through the whole book.

The Style

It is called an epistle and so it is, but of a peculiar kind. In fact, as has been said, it begins like a treatise, proceeds like a sermon, and concludes like a letter. It is, in fact, more like a literary composition than any other New Testament book as Deissmann shows: " It points to the fact that the Epistle to the Hebrews, with its more definitely artistic, more literary language (corresponding to its more theological subject matter), constituted an epoch in the history of the new religion. Christianity is beginning to lay hands on the instruments of culture; the literary and theological period has begun" ( Light from the Ancient East , pp. 70f.). But Blass ( Die Rhythmen der asianischen und romischen Kunstprosa , 1905) argues that the author of Hebrews certainly and Paul probably were students of Greek oratory and rhetoric. He is clearly wrong about Paul and probably so about the author of Hebrews. There is in Hebrews more of " a studied rhetorical periodicity" (Thayer), but with many " parenthetical involutions" (Westcott) and with less of " the impetuous eloquence of Paul." The eleventh chapter reveals a studied style and as a whole the Epistle belongs to the literary Koiné rather than to the vernacular. Moulton ( Cambridge Biblical Essays , p. 483) thinks that the author did not know Hebrew but follows the Septuagint throughout in his abundant use of the Old Testament.

The Author

Origen bluntly wrote: " Who wrote the Epistle God only knows certainly" as quoted by Eusebius. Origen held that the thoughts were Paul’s while Clement of Rome or Luke may have written the book. Clement of Alexandria (Eusebius says) thought that Paul wrote it in Hebrew and that Luke translated it into Greek. No early writer apparently attributed the Greek text to Paul. Eusebius thought it was originally written in Hebrew whether by Paul or not and translated by Clement of Rome. But there is no certainty anywhere in the early centuries. It was accepted first in the east and later in the west which first rejected it. But Jerome and Augustine accepted it. When the Renaissance came Erasmus had doubts, Luther attributed it to Apollos, Calvin denied the Pauline authorship. In North Africa it was attributed to Barnabas. In modern times Harnack has suggested Priscilla, but the masculine participle in Heb_11:32 ( me diēgoumenon ) disposes of that theory. The oldest Greek MSS. (Aleph A B) have simply Pros Hebraious as the title, but they place it before the Pastoral Epistles, while the Textus Receptus puts it after the Pastoral Epistles and Philemon. In the light of all the facts one can only make a guess without a sense of certainty. For myself I should with Luther guess Apollos as the most likely author of this book which is full of the Spirit of God.

The Recipients

If the title is allowed to be genuine or a fair interpretation of the Epistle, then it is addressed to Jewish (Hebrew) Christians in a local church somewhere. Dr. James Moffatt in his Commentary (pp. xv to xvii) challenges the title and insists that the book is written for Gentile Christians as truly as First Peter. He argues this largely from the author’s use of the lxx. For myself Dr. Moffatt’s reasons are not convincing. The traditional view that the author is addressing Jewish Christians in a definite locality, whether a large church or a small household church, is true, I believe. The author seems clearly to refer to a definite church in the experiences alluded to in Heb_10:32-34. The church in Jerusalem had undergone sufferings like these, but we really do not know where the church was. Apparently the author is in Italy when he writes (Heb_13:24), though " they of Italy" ( hoi apo tēs Italias ) can mean those who have come from Italy. These Jewish Christians may even have lived in Rome itself.

The Date

Here again modern scholars differ widely. Westcott places it between a.d. 64 and 67. Harnack and Holtzmann prefer a date between a.d. 81 and 96. Marcus Dods argues strongly that the Epistle was written while the temple was still standing. If it was already destroyed, it is hard to understand how the author could have written Heb_10:1.: " Else would they not have ceased to be offered?" And in Heb_8:13 " nigh to vanishing away" ( eggus aphanismou ) is only intelligible with the temple service still going on. The author makes use of the tabernacle instead of the temple because the temple was patterned after the tabernacle. On the other hand, the mention of Timothy in Heb_13:23 as being " set free" ( apolelumenon ) raises an inquiry concerning Paul’s last plea to Timothy to come to him in Rome (2Ti_4:11-13). Apparently Timothy came and was put in prison. If so, since Paul was put to death before Nero’s own death (June 8, a.d. 68), there is left only the years 67 to 69 a.d. as probable or even possible. It is thus the last of the New Testament books before the Johannine Writings all of which come towards the close of the century and after the destruction of Jerusalem.

The Purpose

The author states it repeatedly. He urges the Jewish Christians to hold fast the confession which they have made in Jesus as Messiah and Saviour. Their Jewish neighbours have urged them to give up Christ and Christianity and to come back to Judaism. The Judaizers tried to make Jews out of Gentile Christians and to fasten Judaism upon Christianity with a purely sacramental type of religion as the result. Paul won freedom for evangelical and spiritual Christianity against the Judaizers as shown in the Corinthian Epistles, Galatians, and Romans. The Gnostics in subtle fashion tried to dilute Christianity with their philosophy and esoteric mysteries and here again Paul won his fight for the supremacy of Christ over all these imaginary aeons (Colossians and Ephesians). But in Hebrews the author is battling to stop a stampede from Christ back to Judaism, a revolt (apostasy) in truth from the living God. These Jews argued that the prophets were superior to Jesus, the law came by the ministry of angels, Moses was greater than Jesus, and Aaron than Jesus. The author turns the argument on the Jews and boldly champions the Glory of Jesus as superior at every point to all that Judaism had, as God’s Son and man’s Saviour, the crown and glory of the Old Testament prophecy, the hope of mankind. It is the first great apologetic for Christianity and has never been surpassed. Moffatt terms it " a profound homily."

JFB: Hebrews (Book Introduction)

CANONICITY AND AUTHORSHIP.--CLEMENT OF ROME, at the end of the first century (A.D), copiously uses it, adopting its words just as he does those of the other books of the New Testament; not indeed giving to either the term "Scripture," which he reserves for the Old Testament (the canon of the New Testament not yet having been formally established), but certainly not ranking it below the other New Testament acknowledged Epistles. As our Epistle claims authority on the part of the writer, CLEMENT'S adoption of extracts from it is virtually sanctioning its authority, and this in the apostolic age. JUSTIN MARTYR quotes it as divinely authoritative, to establish the titles "apostle," as well as "angel," as applied to the Son of God. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA refers it expressly to Paul, on the authority of Pantænus, chief of the Catechetical school in Alexandria, in the middle of the second century, saying, that as Jesus is termed in it the "apostle" sent to the Hebrews, Paul, through humility, does not in it call himself apostle of the Hebrews, being apostle to the Gentiles. CLEMENT also says that Paul, as the Hebrews were prejudiced against him, prudently omitted to put forward his name in the beginning; also, that it was originally written in Hebrew for the Hebrews, and that Luke translated it into Greek for the Greeks, whence the style is similar to that of Acts. He, however, quotes frequently the words of the existing Greek Epistle as Paul's words. ORIGEN similarly quotes it as Paul's Epistle. However, in his Homilies, he regards the style as distinct from that of Paul, and as "more Grecian," but the thoughts as the apostle's; adding that the "ancients who have handed down the tradition of its Pauline authorship, must have had good reason for doing so, though God alone knows the certainty who was the actual writer" (that is, probably "transcriber" of the apostle's thoughts). In the African Church, in the beginning of the third century, TERTULLIAN ascribes it to Barnabas. IRENÆUS, bishop of Lyons, is mentioned in EUSEBIUS, as quoting from this Epistle, though without expressly referring it to Paul. About the same period, Caius, the presbyter, in the Church of Rome, mentions only thirteen Epistles of Paul, whereas, if the Epistle to the Hebrews were included, there would be fourteen. So the canon fragment of the end of the second century, or beginning of the third, published by MURATORI, apparently omits mentioning it. And so the Latin Church did not recognize it as Paul's till a considerable time after the beginning of the third century. Thus, also, NOVATIAN OF ROME, CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE, and VICTORINUS, also of the Latin Church. But in the fourth century, HILARY OF POITIERS (A.D. 368), LUCIFER OF CAGLIARI (A.D. 371), AMBROSE OF MILAN (A.D. 397) and other Latins, quote it as Paul's; and the fifth Council of Carthage (A.D. 419) formally reckons it among his fourteen Epistles.

As to the similarity of its style to that of Luke's writings, this is due to his having been so long the companion of Paul. CHRYSOSTOM, comparing Luke and Mark, says, "Each imitated his teacher: Luke imitated Paul flowing along with more than river fulness; but Mark imitated Peter, who studied brevity of style." Besides, there is a greater predominance of Jewish feeling and familiarity with the peculiarities of the Jewish schools apparent in this Epistle than in Luke's writings. There is no clear evidence for attributing the authorship to him, or to Apollos, whom ALFORD upholds as the author. The grounds alleged for the latter view are its supposed Alexandrian phraseology and modes of thought. But these are such as any Palestinian Jew might have used; and Paul, from his Hebræo-Hellenistic education at Jerusalem and Tarsus, would be familiar with PHILO'S modes of thought, which are not, as some think, necessarily all derived from his Alexandrian, but also from his Jewish, education. It would be unlikely that the Alexandrian Church should have so undoubtingly asserted the Pauline authorship, if Apollos, their own countryman, had really been the author. The eloquence of its style and rhetoric, a characteristic of Apollos' at Corinth, whereas Paul there spoke in words unadorned by man's wisdom, are doubtless designedly adapted to the minds of those whom Paul in this Epistle addresses. To the Greek Corinthians, who were in danger of idolizing human eloquence and wisdom, he writes in an unadorned style, in order to fix their attention more wholly on the Gospel itself. But the Hebrews were in no such danger. And his Hebræo-Grecian education would enable him to write in a style attractive to the Hebrews at Alexandria, where Greek philosophy had been blended with Judaism. The Septuagint translation framed at Alexandria had formed a connecting link between the latter and the former; and it is remarkable that all the quotations from the Old Testament, excepting two (Heb 10:30; Heb 13:5), are taken from the Septuagint. The fact that the peculiarities of the Septuagint are interwoven into the argument proves that the Greek Epistle is an original, not a translation; had the original been Hebrew, the quotations would have been from the Hebrew Old Testament. The same conclusion follows from the plays on similarly sounding words in the Greek, and alliterations, and rhythmically constructed periods. CALVIN observes, If the Epistle had been written in Hebrew, Heb 9:15-17 would lose all its point, which consists in the play upon the double meaning of the Greek "diathece," a "covenant," or a "testament," whereas the Hebrew "berith" means only "covenant."

Internal evidence favors the Pauline authorship. Thus the topic so fully handled in this Epistle, that Christianity is superior to Judaism, inasmuch as the reality exceeds the type which gives place to it, is a favorite one with Paul (compare 2Co 3:6-18; Gal 3:23-25; Gal 4:1-9, Gal 4:21-31, wherein the allegorical mode of interpretation appears in its divinely sanctioned application--a mode pushed to an unwarrantable excess in the Alexandrian school). So the Divine Son appears in Heb 1:3, &c., as in other Epistles of Paul (Phi 2:6; Col 1:15-20), as the Image, or manifestation of the Deity. His lowering of Himself for man's sake similarly, compare Heb 2:9, with 2Co 8:9; Phi 2:7-8. Also His final exaltation, compare Heb 2:8; Heb 10:13; Heb 12:2, with 1Co 15:25, 1Co 15:27. The word "Mediator" is peculiar to Paul alone, compare Heb 8:6, with Gal 3:19-20. Christ's death is represented as the sacrifice for sin prefigured by the Jewish sacrifices, compare Rom 3:22-26; 1Co 5:7, with Heb. 7:1-10:39. The phrase, "God of Peace," is peculiar to Paul, compare Heb 13:20; Rom 15:33; 1Th 5:23. Also, compare Heb 2:4, Margin, 1Co 12:4. Justification, or "righteousness by faith." appears in Heb 11:7; Heb 10:38, as in Rom 1:17; Rom 4:22; Rom 5:1; Gal 3:11; Phi 3:9. The word of God is the "sword of the Spirit," compare Heb 4:12, with Eph 6:17. Inexperienced Christians are children needing milk, that is, instruction in the elements, whereas riper Christians, as full-grown men, require strong meat, compare Heb 5:12-13; Heb 6:1, with 1Co 3:1-2; 1Co 14:20 Gal 4:9; Col 3:14. Salvation is represented as a boldness of access to God by Christ, compare Heb 10:19, with Rom 5:2; Eph 2:18; Eph 3:12. Afflictions are a fight, Heb 10:32; compare Phi 1:30; Col 2:1. The Christian life is a race, Heb 12:1; compare 1Co 9:24; Phi 3:12-14. The Jewish ritual is a service, Rom 9:4; compare Heb 9:1, Heb 9:6. Compare "subject to bondage," Heb 2:15, with Gal 5:1. Other characteristics of Paul's style appear in this Epistle; namely, a propensity "to go off at a word" and enter on a long parenthesis suggested by that word, a fondness for play upon words of similar sound, and a disposition to repeat some favorite word. Frequent appeals to the Old Testament, and quotations linked by "and again," compare Heb 1:5; Heb 2:12-13, with Rom 15:9-12. Also quotations in a peculiar application, compare Heb 2:8, with 1Co 15:27; Eph 1:22. Also the same passage quoted in a form not agreeing with the Septuagint, and with the addition "saith the Lord," not found in the Hebrew, in Heb 10:30; Rom 12:19.

The supposed Alexandrian (which are rather Philon-like) characteristics of the Epistle are probably due to the fact that the Hebrews were generally then imbued with the Alexandrian modes of thought of Philo, &c., and Paul, without coloring or altering Gospel truth "to the Jews, became (in style) as a Jew, that he might win the Jews" (1Co 9:20). This will account for its being recognized as Paul's Epistle in the Alexandrian and Jerusalem churches unanimously, to the Hebrews of whom probably it was addressed. Not one Greek father ascribes the Epistle to any but Paul, whereas in the Western and Latin churches, which it did not reach for some time, it was for long doubted, owing to its anonymous form, and generally less distinctively Pauline style. Their reason for not accepting it as Paul's, or indeed as canonical, for the first three centuries, was negative, insufficient evidence for it, not positive evidence against it. The positive evidence is generally for its Pauline origin. In the Latin churches, owing to their distance from the churches to whom belonged the Hebrews addressed, there was no generally received tradition on the subject. The Epistle was in fact but little known at all, whence we find it is not mentioned at all in the Canon of Muratori. When at last, in the fourth century, the Latins found that it was received as Pauline and canonical on good grounds in the Greek churches, they universally acknowledged it as such.

The personal notices all favor its Pauline authorship, namely, his intention to visit those addressed, shortly, along with Timothy, styled "our brother," Heb 13:23; his being then in prison, Heb 13:19; his formerly having been imprisoned in Palestine, according to English Version reading, Heb 10:34; the salutations transmitted to them from believers of Italy, Heb 13:24. A reason for not prefixing the name may be the rhetorical character of the Epistle which led the author to waive the usual form of epistolary address.

DESIGN.--His aim is to show the superiority of Christianity over Judaism, in that it was introduced by one far higher than the angels or Moses, through whom the Jews received the law, and in that its priesthood and sacrifices are far less perfecting as to salvation than those of Christ; that He is the substance of which the former are but the shadow, and that the type necessarily gives place to the antitype; and that now we no longer are kept at a comparative distance as under the law, but have freedom of access through the opened veil, that is, Christ's flesh; hence he warns them of the danger of apostasy, to which Jewish converts were tempted, when they saw Christians persecuted, while Judaism was tolerated by the Roman authorities. He infers the obligations to a life of faith, of which, even in the less perfect Old Testament dispensation, the Jewish history contained bright examples. He concludes in the usual Pauline mode, with practical exhortations and pious prayers for them.

HIS MODE OF ADDRESS is in it hortatory rather than commanding, just as we might have expected from Paul addressing the Jews. He does not write to the rulers of the Jewish Christians, for in fact there was no exclusively Jewish Church; and his Epistle, though primarily addressed to the Palestinian Jews, was intended to include the Hebrews of all adjoining churches. He inculcates obedience and respect in relation to their rulers (Heb 13:7, Heb 13:17, Heb 13:24); a tacit obviating of the objection that he was by writing this Epistle interfering with the prerogative of Peter the apostle of the circumcision, and James the bishop of Jerusalem. Hence arises his gentle and delicate mode of dealing with them (Heb 13:22). So far from being surprised at discrepancy of style between an Epistle to Hebrews and Epistles to Gentile Christians, it is just what we should expect. The Holy Spirit guided him to choose means best suited to the nature of the ends aimed at. WORDSWORTH notices a peculiar Pauline Greek construction, Rom 12:9, literally, "Let your love be without dissimulation, ye abhorring . . . evil, cleaving to . . . good," which is found nowhere else save Heb 13:5, literally, "Let your conversation be without covetousness, ye being content with," &c. (a noun singular feminine nominative absolute, suddenly passing into a participle masculine nominative plural absolute). So in quoting Old Testament Scripture, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews quotes it as a Jew writing to Jews would, "God spoke to our fathers," not, "it is written." So Heb 13:18, "We trust we have a good conscience" is an altogether Pauline sentiment (Act 23:1; Act 24:16; 2Co 1:12; 2Co 4:2; 2Ti 1:3). Though he has not prefixed his name, he has given at the close his universal token to identify him, namely, his apostolic salutation, "Grace be with you all"; this "salutation with his own hand" he declared (2Th 3:17-18) to be "his token in every Epistle": so 1Co 16:21, 1Co 16:23; Col 4:18. The same prayer of greeting closes every one of his Epistles, and is not found in any one of the Epistles of the other apostles written in Paul's lifetime; but it is found in the last book of the New Testament Revelation, and subsequently in the Epistle of CLEMENT OF ROME. This proves that, by whomsoever the body of the Epistle was committed to writing (whether a mere amanuensis writing by dictation, or a companion of Paul by the Spirit's gift of interpreting tongues, 1Co 12:10, transfusing Paul's Spirit-taught sentiments into his own Spirit-guided diction), Paul at the close sets his seal to the whole as really his, and sanctioned by him as such. The churches of the East, and Jerusalem, their center, to which quarter it was first sent, received it as Paul's from the earliest times according to Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem (A.D. 349). JEROME, though bringing with him from Rome the prejudices of the Latins against the Epistle to the Hebrews, aggravated, doubtless, by its seeming sanction of the Novatian heresy (Heb 6:4-6), was constrained by the force of facts to receive it as Paul's, on the almost unanimous testimony of all Greek Christians from the earliest times; and was probably the main instrument in correcting the past error of Rome in rejecting it. The testimony of the Alexandrian Church is peculiarly valuable, for it was founded by Mark, who was with Paul at Rome in his first confinement, when this Epistle seems to have been written (Col 4:10), and who possibly was the bearer of this Epistle, at the same time visiting Colosse on the way to Jerusalem (where Mark's mother lived), and thence to Alexandria. Moreover, 2Pe 3:15-16, written shortly before Peter's death, and like his first Epistle written by him, "the apostle of the circumcision," to the "Hebrew" Christians dispersed in the East, says, "As our beloved brother Paul hath written unto you" (2Pe 3:15), that is, to the Hebrews; also the words added, "As also in all his Epistles" (2Pe 3:16), distinguish the Epistle to the Hebrews from the rest; then he further speaks of it as on a level with "other Scriptures," thus asserting at once its Pauline authorship and divine inspiration. An interesting illustration of the power of Christian faith and love; Peter, who had been openly rebuked by Paul (Gal 2:7-14), fully adopted what Paul wrote; there was no difference in the Gospel of the apostle of the circumcision and that of the apostle of the uncircumcision. It strikingly shows God's sovereignty that He chose as the instrument to confirm the Hebrews, Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles (Rom 11:13); and on the other hand, Peter to open the Gospel door to the Gentiles (Act 10:1, &c.), though being the apostle of the Jews; thus perfect unity reigns amidst the diversity of agencies.

Rome, in the person of CLEMENT OF ROME, originally received this Epistle. Then followed a period in which it ceased to be received by the Roman churches. Then, in the fourth century, Rome retracted her error. A plain proof she is not unchangeable or infallible. As far as Rome is concerned, the Epistle to the Hebrews was not only lost for three centuries, but never would have been recovered at all but for the Eastern churches; it is therefore a happy thing for Christendom that Rome is not the Catholic Church.

It plainly was written before the destruction of Jerusalem, which would have been mentioned in the Epistle had that event gone before, compare Heb 13:10; and probably to churches in which the Jewish members were the more numerous, as those in Judea, and perhaps Alexandria. In the latter city were the greatest number of resident Jews next to Jerusalem. In Leontopolis, in Egypt, was another temple, with the arrangements of which, WIESELER thinks the notices in this Epistle more nearly corresponded than with those in Jerusalem. It was from Alexandria that the Epistle appears first to have come to the knowledge of Christendom. Moreover, "the Epistle to the Alexandrians," mentioned in the Canon of Muratori, may possibly be this Epistle to the Hebrews. He addresses the Jews as peculiarly "the people of God" (Heb 2:17; Heb 4:9; Heb 13:12), "the seed of Abraham," that is, as the primary stock on which Gentile believers are grafted, to which Rom 11:16-24 corresponds; but he urges them to come out of the carnal earthly Jerusalem and to realize their spiritual union to "the heavenly Jerusalem" (Heb 12:18-23; Heb 13:13).

The use of Greek rather than Hebrew is doubtless due to the Epistle being intended, not merely for the Hebrew, but for the Hellenistic Jew converts, not only in Palestine, but elsewhere; a view confirmed by the use of the Septuagint. BENGEL thinks, probably (compare 2Pe 3:15-16, explained above), the Jews primarily, though not exclusively, addressed, were those who had left Jerusalem on account of the war and were settled in Asia Minor.

The notion of its having been originally in Hebrew arose probably from its Hebrew tone, method, and topics. It is reckoned among the Epistles, not at first generally acknowledged, along with James, Second Peter, Second and Third John, Jude, and Revelation. A beautiful link exists between these Epistles and the universally acknowledged Epistles. Hebrews unites the ordinances of Leviticus with their antitypical Gospel fulfilment. James is the link between the highest doctrines of Christianity and the universal law of moral duty--a commentary on the Sermon on the Mount--harmonizing the decalogue law of Moses, and the revelation to Job and Elias, with the Christian law of liberty. Second Peter links the teaching of Peter with that of Paul. Jude links the earliest unwritten to the latest written Revelation. The two shorter Epistles to John, like Philemon, apply Christianity to the minute details of the Christian life, showing that Christianity can sanctify all earthly relations.

JFB: Hebrews (Outline)

• THE HIGHEST OF ALL REVELATIONS IS GIVEN US NOW IN THE SON OF GOD, WHO IS GREATER THAN THE ANGELS, AND WHO, HAVING COMPLETED REDEMPTION, SITS ENTHRONED AT GOD'S RIGHT HAND. (Heb 1:1-14)
• DANGER OF NEGLECTING SO GREAT SALVATION, FIRST SPOKEN BY CHRIST; TO WHOM, NOT TO ANGELS, THE NEW DISPENSATION WAS SUBJECTED; THOUGH HE WAS FOR A TIME HUMBLED BELOW THE ANGELS: THIS HUMILIATION TOOK PLACE BY DIVINE NECESSITY FOR OUR SALVATION. (Heb. 2:1-18)
• THE SON OF GOD GREATER THAN MOSES, WHEREFORE UNBELIEF TOWARDS HIM WILL INCUR A HEAVIER PUNISHMENT THAN BEFELL UNBELIEVING ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS. (Heb. 3:1-19)
• THE PROMISE OF GOD'S REST IS FULLY REALIZED THROUGH CHRIST: LET US STRIVE TO OBTAIN IT BY HIM, OUR SYMPATHIZING HIGH PRIEST. (Heb. 4:1-16)
• CHRIST'S HIGH PRIESTHOOD; NEEDED QUALIFICATIONS; MUST BE A MAN; MUST NOT HAVE ASSUMED THE DIGNITY HIMSELF, BUT HAVE BEEN APPOINTED BY GOD; THEIR LOW SPIRITUAL PERCEPTIONS A BAR TO PAUL'S SAYING ALL HE MIGHT ON CHRIST'S MELCHISEDEC-LIKE PRIESTHOOD. (Heb 5:1-14)
• WARNING AGAINST RETROGRADING, WHICH SOON LEADS TO APOSTASY; ENCOURAGEMENT TO STEADFASTNESS FROM GOD'S FAITHFULNESS TO HIS WORD AND OATH. (Heb 6:1-14)
• CHRIST'S HIGH PRIESTHOOD AFTER THE ORDER OF MELCHISEDEC SUPERIOR TO AARON'S. (Heb. 7:1-28)
• CHRIST, THE HIGH PRIEST IN THE TRUE SANCTUARY, SUPERSEDING THE LEVITICAL PRIESTHOOD; THE NEW RENDERS OBSOLETE THE OLD COVENANT. (Heb 8:1-13)
• INFERIORITY OF THE OLD TO THE NEW COVENANT IN THE MEANS OF ACCESS TO GOD: THE BLOOD OF BULLS AND GOATS OF NO REAL AVAIL: THE BLOOD OF CHRIST ALL-SUFFICIENT TO PURGE AWAY SIN, WHENCE FLOWS OUR HOPE OF HIS APPEARING AGAIN FOR OUR PERFECT SALVATION. (Heb. 9:1-28)
• PROOF OF AND ENLARGEMENT ON, THE "ETERNAL REDEMPTION" MENTIONED IN. Heb 9:12 (Heb. 9:13-28)
• CONCLUSION OF THE FOREGOING ARGUMENT. THE YEARLY RECURRING LAW SACRIFICES CANNOT PERFECT THE WORSHIPPER, BUT CHRIST'S ONCE-FOR-ALL OFFERING CAN. (Heb. 10:1-39) Previously the oneness of Christ's offering was shown; now is shown its perfection as contrasted with the law sacrifices.
• DEFINITION OF THE FAITH JUST SPOKEN OF (Heb 10:39): EXAMPLES FROM THE OLD COVENANT FOR OUR PERSEVERANCE IN FAITH. (Heb. 11:1-40) Description of the great things which faith (in its widest sense: not here restricted to faith in the Gospel sense) does for us. Not a full definition of faith in its whole nature, but a description of its great characteristics in relation to the subject of Paul's exhortation here, namely, to perseverance.
• EXHORTATION TO FOLLOW THE WITNESSES OF FAITH JUST MENTIONED: NOT TO FAINT IN TRIALS: TO REMOVE ALL BITTER ROOTS OF SIN: FOR WE ARE UNDER, NOT A LAW OF TERROR, BUT THE GOSPEL OF GRACE, TO DESPISE WHICH WILL BRING THE HEAVIER PENALTIES, IN PROPORTION TO OUR GREATER PRIVILEGES. (Heb. 12:1-29)
• EXHORTATION TO VARIOUS GRACES, ESPECIALLY CONSTANCY IN FAITH, FOLLOWING JESUS AMIDST REPROACHES. CONCLUSION, WITH PIECES OF INTELLIGENCE AND SALUTATIONS. (Heb. 13:1-25)

TSK: Hebrews 11 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

Heb 11:1, What faith is; Heb 11:6, Without faith we cannot please God; Heb 11:7, The worthy fruits thereof in the fathers of old time.

Poole: Hebrews 11 (Chapter Introduction)

CHAPTER 11

MHCC: Hebrews (Book Introduction)

This epistle shows Christ as the end, foundation, body, and truth of the figures of the law, which of themselves were no virtue for the soul. The great truth set forth in this epistle is that Jesus of Nazareth is the true God. The unconverted Jews used many arguments to draw their converted brethren from the Christian faith. They represented the law of Moses as superior to the Christian dispensation, and spoke against every thing connected with the Saviour. The apostle, therefore, shows the superiority of Jesus of Nazareth, as the Son of God, and the benefits from his sufferings and death as the sacrifice for sin, so that the Christian religion is much more excellent and perfect than that of Moses. And the principal design seems to be, to bring the converted Hebrews forward in the knowledge of the gospel, and thus to establish them in the Christian faith, and to prevent their turning from it, against which they are earnestly warned. But while it contains many things suitable to the Hebrews of early times, it also contains many which can never cease to interest the church of God; for the knowledge of Jesus Christ is the very marrow and kernel of all the Scriptures. The ceremonial law is full of Christ, and all the gospel is full of Christ; the blessed lines of both Testaments meet in Him; and how they both agree and sweetly unite in Jesus Christ, is the chief object of the epistle to the Hebrews to discover.

MHCC: Hebrews 11 (Chapter Introduction)

(Heb 11:1-3) The nature and power of faith described.

(Heb 11:4-7) It is set forth by instances from Abel to Noah.

(Heb 11:8-19) By Abraham and his descendants.

(Heb 11:20-31) By Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the Israelites, and Rahab.

(Heb 11:32-38) By other Old Testament believers.

(Heb 11:39, Heb 11:40) The better state of believers under the gospel.

Matthew Henry: Hebrews (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Epistle to the Hebrews

Concerning this epistle we must enquire, I. Into the divine authority of it; for this has been questioned by some, whose distempered eyes could not bear the light of it, or whose errors have been confuted by it; such as the Arians, who deny the Godhead and self-existence of Christ; and the Socinians, who deny his satisfaction; but, after all the attempts of such men to disparage this epistle, the divine original of it shines forth with such strong and unclouded rays that he who runs may read it is an eminent part of the canon of scripture. The divinity of the matter, the sublimity of the style, the excellency of the design, the harmony of this with other parts of scripture, and its general reception in the church of God in all ages - these are the evidences of its divine authority. II. As to the divine amanuensis or penman of this epistle, we are not so certain; it does not bear the name of any in the front of it, as the rest of the epistles do, and there has been some dispute among the learned to whom they should ascribe it. Some have assigned it to Clemens of Rome; other to Luke; and many to Barnabas, thinking that the style and manner of expression is very agreeable to the zealous, authoritative, affectionate temper that Barnabas appears to be of, in the account we have of him in the acts of the Apostles; and one ancient father quotes an expression out of this epistle as the words of Barnabas. But it is generally assigned to the apostle Paul; and some later copies and translations have put Paul's name in the title. In the primitive times it was generally ascribed to him, and the style and scope of it very well agree with his spirit, who was a person of a clear head and a warm heart, whose main end and endeavour it was to exalt Christ. Some think that the apostle Peter refers to this epistle, and proves Paul to be the penman of it, by telling the Hebrews, to whom he wrote, of Paul's having written to them, 2Pe 3:15. We read of no other epistle that he ever wrote to them but this. And though it has been objected that, since Paul put his name to all his other epistles, he would not have omitted it here; yet others have well answered that he, being the apostle of the Gentiles, who were odious to the Jews, might think fit to conceal his name, lest their prejudices against him might hinder them from reading and weighing it as they ought to do. III. As to the scope and design of this epistle, it is very evident that it was clearly to inform the minds, and strongly to confirm the judgment, of the Hebrews in the transcendent excellency of the gospel above the law, and so to take them off from the ceremonies of the law, to which they were so wedded, of which they were so fond, that they even doted on them, and those of them who were Christians retained too much of the old leaven, and needed to be purged from it. The design of this epistle was to persuade and press the believing Hebrews to a constant adherence to the Christian faith, and perseverance in it, notwithstanding all the sufferings they might meet with in so doing. In order to this, the apostle speaks much of the excellency of the author of the gospel, the glorious Jesus, whose honour he advances, and whom he justly prefers before all others, showing him to be all in all, and this in lofty strains of holy rhetoric. It must be acknowledged that there are many things in this epistle hard to be understood, but the sweetness we shall find therein will make us abundant amends for all the pains we take to understand it. And indeed, if we compare all the epistles of the New Testament, we shall not find any of them more replenished with divine, heavenly matter than this to the Hebrews.

Matthew Henry: Hebrews 11 (Chapter Introduction)

The apostle having, in the close of the foregoing chapter, recommended the grace of faith and a life of faith as the best preservative against apostasy, he how enlarges upon the nature and fruits of this excellent grace. I. The nature of it, and the honour it reflects upon all who live in the exercise of it (Heb 11:1-3). II. The great examples we have in the Old Testament of those who lived by faith, and died and suffered extraordinary things by the strength of his grace (v. 4-38). And, III. The advantages that we have in the gospel for the exercise of this grace above what those had who lived in the times of the Old Testament (Heb 11:39, Heb 11:40).

Barclay: Hebrews (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS

God Fulfils Himself In Many Ways

Religion has never been the same thing to all men. "God," as Tennyson said, "fulfils himself in many ways." George Russell said: "There are as many ways of climbing to the stars as there are people to climb." There is a well-known saying which tells us very truly and very beautifully that "God has his own secret stairway into every heart." Broadly speaking, there have been four great conceptions of religion.

(i) To some men it is inward fellowship with God. It is a union with Christ so close and so intimate that the Christian can be said to live in Christ and Christ to live in him. That was Paulconception of religion. To him it was something which mystically united him with God.

(ii) To some religion is what gives a man a standard for life and a power to reach that standard. On the whole that is what religion was to James and to Peter. It was something which showed them what life ought to be and which enabled them to attain it.

(iii) To some men religion is the highest satisfaction of their minds. Their minds seek and seek until they find that they can rest in God. It was Plato who said that "the unexamined life is the life not worth living." There are some men who must understand or perish. On the whole that is what religion was to John. The first chapter of his gospel is one of the greatest attempts in the world to state religion in a way that really satisfies the mind.

(iv) To some men religion is access to God. It is that which removes the barriers and opens the door to his living presence. That is what religion was to the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews. With that idea his mind was dominated. He found in Christ the one person who could take him into the very presence of God. His whole idea of religion is summed up in the great passage in Heb_10:19-23 .

"Therefore, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith."

If the writer to the Hebrews had one text it was: "Let us draw near."

The Double Background

The writer to the Hebrews had a double background into both of which this idea came. He had a Greek background. Ever since the time of Plato, five hundred years before, the Greeks had been haunted by the contrast between the real and the unreal, the seen and the unseen, the temporal and the eternal. It was the Greek idea that somewhere there was a real world of which this was only a shadowy and imperfect copy. Plato had the idea that somewhere there was a world of perfect forms or ideas or patterns, of which everything in this world was an imperfect copy. To take a simple instance, somewhere there was laid up the pattern of a perfect chair of which all the chairs in this world were inadequate copies. Plato said: "The Creator of the world had designed and carried out his work according to an unchangeable and eternal pattern of which the world is but a copy." Philo, who took his ideas from Plato, said: "God knew from the beginning that a fair copy could never come into being apart from a fair pattern; and that none of the objects perceivable by sense could be flawless which was not modelled after an archetype and spiritual idea, and thus, when he prepared to create this visible world, he shaped beforehand the ideal world in order to constitute the corporeal after the incorporeal and godlike pattern." When Cicero was talking of the laws men know and use on earth, he said: "We have no real and life-like likeness of real law and genuine justice; all we enjoy is a shadow and a sketch."

The thinkers of the ancient world all had this idea that somewhere there is a real world of which this one is only a kind of imperfect copy. Here we can only guess and grope; here we can work only with copies and imperfect things. But in the unseen world there are the real and perfect things. When Newman died they erected a statue to him, and on the pedestal of it are the Latin words: Ab umbris et imaginibus ad veritatem, "Away from the shadows and the semblances to the truth." If that be so, clearly the great task of this life is to get away from the shadows and the imperfections and to reach reality. This is exactly what the writer to the Hebrews claims that Jesus Christ can enable us to do. To the Greek the writer to the Hebrews said: "All your lives you have been trying to get from the shadows to the truth. That is just what Jesus Christ can enable you to do."

The Hebrew Background

But the writer to the Hebrews also had a Jewish background. To the Jew it was always dangerous to come too near to God. "Man," said God to Moses, "shall not see me and live" (Exo_33:20 ). It was Jacobastonished exclamation at Peniel: "I have seen god face to face and yet my life is preserved" (Gen_32:30 ). When Manoah realised who his visitor had been, he said in terror to his wife: "We shall surely die, for we have seen God." The great day of Jewish worship was the Day of Atonement. That was the one day of all the year when the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies where the very presence of God was held to dwell. No man ever entered in except the High Priest, and he only on that day. When he did, the law laid it down that he must not linger in the Holy Place for long "lest he put Israel in terror." It was dangerous to enter the presence of God and if a man waited too long he might be struck dead.

In view of this there entered into Jewish thought the idea of a covenant. God, in his grace and in a way that was quite unmerited, approached the nation of Israel and offered them a special relationship with himself. But this unique access to God was conditional on the observance by the people of the law that he gave to them. We can see this relationship being entered into and this law being accepted in the dramatic scene in Exo_24:3-8 .

So then Israel had access to God, but only if she kept the law. To break the law was sin, and sin put up a barrier which stopped the way to God. It was to take away that barrier that the system of the Levitical priesthood and sacrifices was constructed. The law was given; man sinned; the barrier was up; the sacrifice was made; and the sacrifice was designed to open the closed way to God. But the experience of life was that this was precisely what sacrifice could not do. It was proof of the ineffectiveness of the whole system that sacrifice had to go on and on and on. It was a losing and ineffective battle to remove the barrier that sin had erected between man and God.

The Perfect Priest And The Perfect Sacrifice

What men needed was a perfect priest and a perfect sacrifice, someone who was such that he could bring to God a sacrifice which once and for all opened the way of access to him. That, said the writer to the Hebrews, is exactly what Christ did. He is the perfect priest because he is at once perfectly man and perfectly God. In his manhood he can take man to God and in his Godhead he can take God to man. He has no sin. The perfect sacrifice he brings is the sacrifice of himself, a sacrifice so perfect that it never needs to be made again. To the Jew the writer to the Hebrews said: "All your lives you have been looking for the perfect priest who can bring the perfect sacrifice and give you access to God. You have him in Jesus Christ and in him alone."

To the Greek the writer to the Hebrews said: "You are looking for the way from the shadows to reality; you will find it in Jesus Christ." To the Jew the writer to the Hebrews said: "You are looking for that perfect sacrifice which will open the way to God which your sins have closed; you will find it in Jesus Christ." Jesus was the one person who gave access to reality and access to God. That is the key-thought of this letter.

The Riddle Of The New Testament

So much is clear but when we turn to the other questions of introduction Hebrews is wrapped in mystery. E. F. Scott wrote: "The Epistle to the Hebrews is in many respects the riddle of the New Testament." When it was written, to whom it was written, and who wrote it are questions at which we can only guess. The very history of the letter shows how its mystery is to be treated with a certain reserve and suspicion. It was a long time before it became an unquestioned New Testament book. The first list of New Testament books, The Muratorian Canon, compiled about A.D. 170, does not mention it at all. The great Alexandrian scholars. Clement and Origen, knew it and loved it but agreed that its place as scripture was disputed. Of the great African fathers, Cyprian never mentions it and Tertullian knows that its place was disputed. Eusebius, the great Church historian, says that it ranked among the disputed books. It was not until the time of Athanasius, in the middle of the fourth century, that Hebrews was definitely accepted as a New Testament book, and even Luther was not too sure about it. It is strange to think how long this great book had to wait for full recognition.

When Was It Written?

The only information we have comes from the letter itself. Clearly it is written for what we might call second generation Christians (Heb_2:3 ). The story was transmitted to its recipients by those who had heard the Lord. The community to whom it was written were not new to the Christian faith; they ought to have been mature (Heb_5:12 ). They must have had a long history for they are summoned to look back on the former days (Heb_10:32 ). They had a great history behind them and heroic martyr figures on which they ought to look back for inspiration (Heb_13:7 ).

The thing that will help us most in dating the letter is its references to persecution. It is clear that at one time their leaders had died for their faith (Heb_13:7 ). It is clear that they themselves had not yet suffered persecution, for they had not yet resisted to the point of shedding their blood (Heb_12:4 ). It is also clear that they have had ill-treatment to suffer for they have had to undergo the pillaging of their goods (Heb_10:32-34 ). And it is clear from the outlook of the letter that there is a risk of persecution about to come. From all that it is safe to say that this letter must have been written between two persecutions, in days when Christians were not actually persecuted, but were none the less unpopular with their fellow-men. Now the first persecution was in the time of Nero in the year A.D. 64; and the next was in the time of Domitian about A.D. 85. Somewhere between these dates this letter was written, more likely nearer to Domitian. If we take the date as A.D. 80 we shall not be far wrong.

To Whom Was It Written?

Once again we have to be dependent on such hints as we get from the letter itself. One thing is certain--it cannot have been written to any of the great Churches or the name of the place could not have so completely vanished. Let us set down what we know. The letter was written to a long-established Church (Heb_5:12 ). It was written to a Church which had at some time in the past suffered persecution (Heb_10:32-34 ). It was written to a Church which had had great days and great teachers and leaders (Heb_13:7 ). It was written to a Church which had not been directly founded by the apostles (Heb_2:3 ). It was written to a Church which had been marked by generosity and liberality (Heb_6:10 ).

We do have one direct hint. Amongst the closing greetings we find the sentence, as the Revised Standard Version translates it: "Those who come from Italy send you greetings" (Heb_13:24 ). Taken by itself that phrase could mean either that the letter was written from Italy or that it was written to Italy, the greater likelihood is that it was written to Italy. Suppose I am in Glasgow and am writing to some place abroad. I would not be likely to say, "All the people from Glasgow greet you." I would be much more likely to say, "All the people in Glasgow greet you." But suppose I am somewhere abroad where there is a little colony of Glaswegians, I might well say, "All the people from Glasgow send you their greetings." So then we may say that the letter was written to Italy; and if it was written to Italy it was almost certainly written to Rome.

But quite certainly it was not written to the Church at Rome as a whole. If it had been it would never have lost its title. Furthermore, it gives the unmistakable impression that it was written to a small body of like-minded persons. Moreover, it was obviously written to a scholarly group. From Heb_5:12 we can see that they had long been under instruction and were preparing themselves to become teachers of the Christian faith. Still further, Hebrews demands such a knowledge of the Old Testament that it must always have been a book written by a scholar for scholars.

When we sum it all up, we can say that Hebrews is a letter written by a great teacher to a little group or college of Christians in Rome. He was their teacher; at the moment he was separated from them and was afraid that they were drifting away from the faith; and so he wrote this letter to them. It is not so much a letter as a talk. It does not begin like Paulletters do, although it ends with greetings as a letter does. The writer himself calls it "a word of exhortation."

By Whom Was It Written?

Perhaps the most insoluble problem of all is the problem of its authorship. It was precisely that uncertainty which kept it so long on the fringes of the New Testament. The title in the earliest days was simply, "To the Hebrews." No authorname was given, no one connected it directly with the name of Paul. Clement of Alexandria used to think that Paul might have written it in Hebrew and that Luke translated it, for the style is quite different from that of Paul. Origen made a famous remark, "who wrote the Letter to the Hebrews only God knows for certain." Tertullian thought that Barnabas wrote it. Jerome said the Latin Church did not receive it as Pauland speaking of the author said, "the writer to the Hebrews whoever he was." Augustine felt the same way about it. Luther declared that Paul could never have written it because the thought was not his. Calvin said that he could not bring himself to think that this letter was a letter of Paul.

At no time in the history of the Church did men ever really think that Paul wrote Hebrews. How then did it get attached to his name? It happened very simply. When the New Testament came into its final form there was of course argument about which books were to be included and which were not. To settle it one test was used. Was a book the work of an apostle or at least the work of one who had been in direct contact with the apostles? By this time Hebrews was known and loved throughout the Church. Most people felt like Origen that God alone knew who wrote it, but they wanted it. They felt it must go into the New Testament and the only way to ensure that was to include it with the thirteen letters of Paul. Hebrews won its way into the New Testament on the grounds of its own greatness, but to get in it had to be included with the letters of Paul and come under his name. People knew quite well that it was not Paulbut they included it among his letters because no man knew who wrote it and yet it must go in.

The Author Of Hebrews

Can we guess who the author was? Many candidates have been put forward. We can only glance at three of the many suggestions.

(i) Tertullian thought that Barnabas wrote it. Barnabas was a native of Cyprus; the people of Cyprus were famous for the excellence of the Greek they spoke; and Hebrews is written in the best Greek in the New Testament. He was a Levite (Act_4:36 ) and of all men in the New Testament he would have had the closest knowledge of the priestly and sacrificial system on which the whole thought of the letter is based. He is called a son of encouragement; the Greek word is paraklesis (G3874); and Hebrews calls itself a word of paraklesis (G3874) (Heb_13:22 ). He was one of the few men acceptable to both Jews and Greeks and at home in both worlds of thought. It might be that Barnabas wrote this letter, but if so it is strange that his name should vanish in connection with it.

(ii) Luther was sure that Apollos was the author. Apollos, according to the New Testament mention of him, was a Jew, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures (Act_18:24 ; 1Co_1:12 ; 1Co_3:4 ). The man who wrote this letter knew the scriptures; he was eloquent; and he thought and argued in the way that a cultured Alexandrian would. The man who wrote Hebrews was certainly a man like Apollos in thought and in background.

(iii) The most romantic of all conjectures is that of Harnack, the great German scholar. He thought that maybe Aquila and Priscilla wrote it between them. Aquila was a teacher (Act_18:26 ). Their house in Rome was a Church in itself (Rom_16:5 ). Harnack thought that that is why the letter begins with no greetings and why the writername has vanished--because the main author of Hebrews was a woman and a woman was not allowed to teach.

But when we come to the end of conjecture, we are compelled to say as Origen said seventeen hundred years ago, that only God knows who wrote Hebrews. To us the author must remain a voice and nothing more; but we can be thankful to God for the work of this great nameless one who wrote with incomparable skill and beauty about the Jesus who is the way to reality and the way to God.

FURTHER READING

Hebrews

J. Moffatt, Hebrews (ICC; G)

W. Neil, Hebrews (Tch: E)

J. H. Robinson, Hebrews (MC; E)

Abbreviations

ICC: International Critical Commentary

MC: Moffatt Commentary

Tch: Torch Commentary

E: English Text

G: Greek Text

Barclay: Hebrews 11 (Chapter Introduction)

The Christian Hope (Heb_11:1-3)

The Faith Of The Acceptable Offering (Heb_11:4)

Walking With God (Heb_11:5-6)

The Man Who Believed In God's Message (Heb_11:7)

The Adventure And The Patience Of Faith (Heb_11:8-10)

Believing The Incredible (Heb_11:11-12)

Sojourners And Strangers (Heb_11:13-16)

The Supreme Sacrifice (Heb_11:17-19)

The Faith Which Defeats Death (Heb_11:20-22)

Faith And Its Secret (Heb_11:23-29)

The Faith Which Defied The Facts (Heb_11:30-31)

The Heroes Of The Faith (Heb_11:32-34)

The Defiance Of Suffering (Heb_11:35-40)

Constable: Hebrews (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Historical background

The writer said that he and those to whom he wrote had come to faith in Jesus Christ through the preaching of others who had heard Jesus (2:3-4). Apparently those preachers had since died (13:7). The original readers had been Christians for an extended period of time (5:12). So probably the earliest possible date of composition was about A.D. 60.

Some scholars believe that the book must have been written before A.D. 70 since the writer spoke of the sacrifices as being offered when he wrote (7:27-28; 8:3-5; 9:7-8, 25; 10:1-3, 8; 13:10-11). However, the writer showed no interest in the temple but spoke of the sacrifices as the Israelites offered them when the tabernacle stood. He evidently used the present tense to give these reference a timeless quality rather than indicating that temple worship was still in practice. Nevertheless a date of composition before A.D. 70 seems probable.¹

"The best argument for the supersession of the old covenant would have been the destruction of the Temple."²

The reference to Timothy's release from imprisonment (13:23) appears to date the book later in the life of that outstanding man.³ No other New Testament writer mentioned his imprisonment. The imprisonment of Christians seems to have been a well-known fact of life (10:34; 13:3). This was true after Nero launched an empire-wide persecution in A.D. 64. All of these factors when taken together seem to point to a writing date near A.D. 68-69.

As to authorship, most students of this subject are not dogmatic or even certain for good reason.⁴ As early as Origen, the Alexandrian church father who died about A.D. 255, no one knew who the writer was for sure. After careful study of the authorship of Hebrews, Origen wrote, "But who it was that really wrote the epistle, God only knows."⁵

"The language of the Epistle is both in vocabulary and style purer and more vigorous than that of any other book of the New Testament.

". . . The vocabulary is singularly copious. It includes a large number of words which are not found elsewhere in the apostolic writings, very many of which occur in this book only among the Greek Scriptures . . ."⁶

"All that can be said with certainty is that Hebrews was composed by a creative theologian who was well trained in the exposition of the Greek Scriptures. . . . He was surely a hellenistic Jewish-Christian."⁷

Commentators have made cases for the writer being Paul, Apollos, Barnabas, Luke, Peter, Jude, Stephen, Silvanus (Silas), Epaphras (Epaphroditus), Philip the Evangelist, Priscilla, Mary the mother of Jesus, Clement of Rome, Aristion, and others.⁸ None of these suggestions has found enthusiastic general reception for various reasons. Probably we should be content to share Origen's agnosticism on this question and look forward to getting the answer in heaven.⁹

The early Christians originally accepted all the New Testament books as inspired by God because they contained apostolic teaching. For this reason the writer was probably either an apostle or a close associate of at least one of the apostles (cf. 13:23).

The original recipients of the epistle are also unknown. The title "The Epistle to the Hebrews" implies that they were Jewish Christians. This title is ancient and is probably a safe guide to the identity of the first readers. References in the epistle also suggest that the original readers were mainly Jewish. The writer assumed that they were very familiar with the institutions of Judaism. The warnings against turning away from Jesus Christ back to the Old Covenant also imply this identity. Other indications are the emphasis on the superior priesthood of Jesus and the many appeals to the authority of the Hebrew Scriptures. However the brand of Judaism in view seems to have been Hellenistic rather than Palestinian.

The reference to the generosity of the readers and their helping other believers (6:10) suggests that the original audience did not live in Palestine. The Palestinian churches had a reputation for needing material assistance rather than for giving it to other Christians (cf. Rom. 15:25-31; 1 Cor. 16:3). Probably they were Jews of the Diaspora therefore. This conclusion has support in the writer's consistent use of the Septuagint Old Testament version. Hellenistic Jews used this translation widely, but Palestinian Jews did not use it as much.¹⁰

In most of the New Testament churches there was a mixture of Jewish and Gentile believers. The appeal of this epistle would certainly have been great to Gentiles tempted to return to paganism as it would have been to Jews facing temptation to return to Judaism. However the writer's primary concern appears to have been that his Jewish readers were failing to appreciate that Christianity is the divinely revealed successor to Judaism. He did not want them to abandon Christianity and return to Judaism.

Probably the letter originally went to a house-church outside Palestine that had a strong Hellenistic Jewish population. This church may have been in or near Galatia in view of conditions that existed there that the Epistle to the Galatians reflects. However they may very well have lived in another area. Many scholars believe that the letter went first to a church in or near Rome.¹¹

In view of 13:24b it has seemed to some scholars that the writer was in Italy when he sent this epistle, perhaps in Rome. However the expression "from Italy" in that verse probably refers to those living outside Italy, such as Priscilla and Aquilla who were Jews forced to leave Rome by Emperor Claudius' edict in A.D. 49 (Acts 18:2).¹² This expression suggests that the writer was not in Italy when he wrote.

Purpose

Many students of the book have observed that Hebrews is more of a sermon in written form than an epistle in the traditional New Testament sense.¹³ The writer even described it as a "word of exhortation" (13:22). He urged the original readers to persevere in their faith rather than turning from Christianity and returning to Judaism. A note of urgency and pastoral concern permeates the whole letter. This tone comes through especially strongly in the five warning passages and in the encouragements that follow these warnings.

". . . the purpose of the writer to the Hebrews is not to give us an interpretation of Old Testament prophecy. . . . Using material not from the prophets but primarily from the Psalms, with other materials added to elaborate the argument, the writer's goal was to establish the superiority of the gospel in contrast to all that went before, particularly the levitical system. The primary evidence of the supremacy of Christianity is presented in its finality. Coming to Christ means final access to God without any barrier."¹⁴

". . . Hebrews is a sermon rooted in actual life. It is addressed to a local gathering of men and women who discovered that they could be penetrated by adverse circumstances over which they exercised no control. It throbs with an awareness of the privilege and the cost of discipleship. It is a sensitive pastoral response to the sagging faith of older and tired individuals who were in danger of relinquishing their Christian commitment. It seeks to strengthen them in the face of a new crisis so that they may stand firm in their faith. It warns them of the judgment of God they would incur if they were to waver in their commitment. Exhortations to covenant fidelity and perseverance are grounded in a fresh understanding of the significance of Jesus and his sacrifice."¹⁵

Message¹⁶

We could summarize the message of this epistle in the following words. We will only realize our full eternal reward as believers if we appreciate the greatness of Jesus Christ and continue to trust God rather than turning away from Him in this life.

The ultimate goal that the writer had in view was our full eternal reward as believers. I do not believe it was the conversion of the unsaved members of his audience. He addressed his readers consistently as believers. He wrote to encourage Christians to persevere faithfully so we will receive all that God wants to give us at the judgment seat of Christ. Our rewards are at issue in this letter. He did not want us to suffer loss but to enter into our full inheritance, our full rest, our full salvation.

To do this he wrote that we must know one thing and do two things, one positive and one negative.

We must know the greatness of Jesus Christ. In this epistle the writer presented Him as the greatest revelation that God has given mankind. God's revelation in His Son is superior to all other revelations He has given in three respects.

1. It supersedes all other revelations: God's revelation through angels (the Mosaic Law), His revelation through humans (the prophets), and His revelation through rituals (the Old Covenant). When Jesus Christ came to reveal God, He brought revelation that superseded what had preceded Him.

2. God's revelation in His Son is sufficient to meet every basic human need. God spoke through His Son, so the need for a prophet (a revealer of God) no longer exists. He established a new Covenant, so the need for a priest (a mediator for man) no longer exists. Moreover He exalted His Son to His right hand, so the need for a king (a righteous ruler) no longer exists.

3. God's revelation in His Son insures final victory in every basic sphere. The individual (the human order) attains perfection through the Son. Society (the social order) will experience perfection through the Son. The universe (the cosmic order) will reach perfection through the Son.

This is what we need to know objectively to do subjectively what is necessary to gain our full reward as believers.

What we must do is continue to trust God. Hebrews places great emphasis on the importance of living by faith. It teaches us three things about faith.

1. Hebrews defines faith. Faith is volitional surrender and obedience to God regardless of appearances. It is not just intellectual conviction. It is the action of the will that expresses intellectual conviction. This epistle regards unbelief as disobedience as does all of Scripture. People in the past who lived by faith made decisions and acted because they believed God in spite of appearances (ch. 11).

2. Hebrews also illustrates faith. It describes faith as doing, as suffering, and as waiting. These are the primary activities of faith that the writer of Hebrews emphasized. They are progressively more difficult. It is harder to suffer persecution for our faith than it is to obey God when obedience does not involve suffering. It is most difficult to keep on trusting God when suffering does not end. Waiting for God to fulfill His promises is hardest of all when our hopes do not materialize (e.g., Christ's return).

3. In addition, Hebrews vindicates faith. It assures us of the ultimate triumph of faith. People in the past who acted in faith achieved. People who suffered for their faith triumphed. People who waited in faith received their reward.

On the positive side we need to continue to trust God to realize our full reward as believers.

What we must not do is turn away from God. This is the negative responsibility that the letter also stresses. If we apostatize, we will lose our full reward. Hebrews teaches us three things about apostasy (as it does about faith).

1. This epistle defines apostasy descriptively. It is the opposite of faith. It consists of disobedience because of appearances (e.g., the 10 spies; cf. Jude). Apostasy for a Christian is turning away from faith having previously embraced faith. An apostate, however, can be a believer or an unbeliever.

2. Hebrews also illustrates apostasy in the same three ways it illustrates faith. Apostasy acts. It involves a deliberate turning away. It also suffers, not now but in the future because of what the apostate loses. It also waits, even though it lives for the present rather than for the future.

3. Likewise Hebrews condemns apostasy. It assures us of the ultimate tragedy of apostasy. Apostates may achieve what they want in the present, namely success, but they lose what is far more valuable in the future. They may avoid suffering now, but later they will be sorry. They may not want to wait for their reward now, but they will wait forever for it later and never get it.

This is the central message of the epistle. We will only realize our full eternal reward as believers if we appreciate the greatness of Jesus Christ and continue to trust God rather than turning away from Him.

The writer urged his readers to persevere in faith by using two appeals, one negative and one positive.

The first appeal is negative: the warnings. There are five warning passages in Hebrews. Each one warns of the danger of apostasy from a different angle.

1. The first passage (2:1-4) warns of the danger of drifting away from the truth (2:1). It pictures a ship dragging its anchor. The tides of our age can draw us away from our moorings. We need to keep on standing firm in faith (cf. Col. 1:23).

2. The second passage (3:7-19) warns of the danger of disbelief (3:12). Disbelief results in heart hardening (3:13). We need to keep on believing rather than ceasing to believe (cf. Luke 17:3).

3. The third passage (5:11-6:12) warns of the danger of immaturity (5:12). When we do not put truth into practice, we do not just remain in the same spiritual state. We regress. Therefore we need to keep on growing (cf. 2 Pet. 3:18).

4. The fourth passage (10:19-39) warns of the danger of willful sinning (10:26-27). If we abandon confidence in the efficacy of Jesus Christ's sacrifice, there is no other sacrifice that can protect us from God's judgment as believers. We need to keep on submitting to God (cf. Rom. 6:16).

5. The fifth passage (12:14-29) warns of the danger of unresponsiveness (12:25). The message of this letter demands positive response. If we do not respond positively, we will lose part of our reward (12:17). We need to keep on obeying God (cf. Titus 3:8).

The second appeal is positive: the encouragements. Accompanying each of the warning passages is at least one word of encouragement. The writer balanced his negative warnings with positive words of encouragement.

1. The first passage (2:1-4) encourages with a reminder of God's confirming His promises with miracles in the apostolic age (2:3b-4).

2. The second passage (3:7-19) encourages by reminding us of Jesus' example of faithfulness (3:1-6) and our resources as believers (4:12-16).

3. The third passage (5:11-6:12) encourages with a reminder of the readers' past faithfulness (6:9-12) and God's firm promises (6:13-20).

4. The fourth passage (10:19-39) also encourages with a reminder of the readers' past perseverance (10:32-39).

5. The fifth passage (12:14-29) encourages by reminding us of Jesus' example of perseverance (12:1-2) and the divine reason for discipline (12:3-11).

By way of application let me make three observations based on the three major revelations in the epistle.

1. An appreciation for Jesus Christ is foundational to faithful perseverance. The reason many Christians turn away from the Lord is that they do not appreciate His greatness. Preach Christ in your ministry.

2. We need to emphasize the Christian's hope more in our ministries. We live in a present oriented culture that values immediate self-gratification. Many Christians are apostatizing because they do not appreciate the reward they will receive if they remain faithful to the Lord. This life is preparation for the next.

3. We need to realize that God will judge Christians who apostatize. We will not lose our salvation, but we will lose much that we will wish we never gave up if we stop walking by faith.

Outline¹⁷

I. The culminating revelation of God 1:1-2:18

A. The agent of God's final revelation 1:1-4

B. The superiority of the Son 1:5-14

C. The danger of negligence (the first warning) 2:1-4

D. The humiliation and glory of God's Son 2:5-9

E. The Son's solidarity with humanity 2:10-18

II. The high priestly character of the Son 3:1-5:10

A. The faithfulness of the Son 3:1-6

B. The danger of disbelief (the second warning) 3:7-19

C. The possibility of rest for God's people 4:1-14

D. The compassion of the Son 4:15-5:10

III. The high priestly office of the Son 5:11-10:39

A. The danger of immaturity (the third warning) 5:11-6:12

1. The readers' condition 5:11-14

2. The needed remedy 6:1-3

3. The dreadful alternative 6:4-8

4. The encouraging prospect 6:9-12

B. The basis for confidence and steadfastness 6:13-20

C. The Son's high priestly ministry 7:1-10:18

1. The person of our high priest ch. 7

2. The work of our high priest chs. 8-9

3. The accomplishment of our high priest 10:1-18

D. The danger of willful sinning (the fourth warning) 10:19-39

1. The three-fold admonition 10:19-25

2. The warning of judgment 10:26-31

3. The encouragement to persevere 10:32-39

IV. The proper response 11:1-12:13

A. Perseverance in faith ch. 11

1. Faith in the antediluvian era 11:1-7

2. Faith in the patriarchal era 11:8-22

3. Faith in the Mosaic era 11:23-31

4. Faith in subsequent eras 11:32-40

B. Demonstrating necessary endurance 12:1-13

1. The example of Jesus 12:1-3

2. The proper view of trials 12:4-11

3. The need for greater strength 12:12-13

V. Life in a hostile world 12:14-13:25

A. The danger of unresponsiveness (the fifth warning) 12:14-29

1. The goal of peace 12:14-17

2. The superiority of the New Covenant 12:18-24

3. The consequences of apostasy 12:25-29

B. Life within the church ch. 13

1. Pastoral reminders 13:1-21

2. Personal explanations 13:22-25

Constable: Hebrews

Hebrews

Bibliography

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Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: Hebrews (Book Introduction)

THE

EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL, THE APOSTLE,

TO THE HEBREWS.

INTRODUCTION.

The Catholic Church hath received and declared this Epistle to be part of the Canonical Scriptures of the New Testament, though some doubted of it in the first ages [centuries], especially in the Latin Church, witness St. Jerome on the 8th chap. of Isaias; Luther and most of his followers reject it, but the Calvinists and the Church of England have received it. Others, who received this Epistle in the first ages [centuries], doubted whether it was written by St. Paul, but thought it was written by St. Barnabas, or by St. Clement, or St. Luke, or at least that St. Paul only furnished the matter and the order of it, and that St. Luke wrote it, and St. Paul afterwards read it and approved it. It was doubted again, whether this Epistle was first written in Hebrew (that is, in Syro-Chaldaic, then spoken by the Jews) or in Greek, as Estius pretends. The ancient writers say it was written in Hebrew, but that it was very soon after translated into Greek either by St. Luke or St. Clement, pope and martyr. Cornelius a Lapide thinks the Syriac which we have in the Polyglot to have been the original; but this is commonly rejected. See Tillemont on St. Paul, Art. 46, and note 72; P. Alleman on the first to the Hebrews, &c. St. Paul wrote this letter about the year 63, and either at Rome or in Italy. See Chap. xii. 24. He wrote it to the Christians in Palestine, who had most of them been Jews before. This seems the reason why he puts not his name to it, nor calls himself their apostle, his name being rather odious to the Jews, and because he was chosen to be the apostle of the Gentiles. The main design is to shew that every one's justification and salvation is to be hoped for by the grace and merits of Christ, and not from the law of Moses, as he had shewn in his Epistles to the Galatians and the Romans, where we many observe this kind of difference: To the Galatians he shews, that true justice cannot be had from circumcision and the ceremonies of the law: to the Romans, that even the moral precepts and works of the law were insufficient without the grace of Christ: and in this to the Hebrews, he shews that our justice could not be had from the sacrifices of the old law. As to the chief contents: He exhorts them to the faith of Christ, by shewing his dignity and pre-eminence above the Angels, and above Moses, Chap. i, ii, iii.; that Christ's priesthood was above that of Aaron, from the 4th to the 8th chap. ver. 6; that the new law and testament is preferable to the old, form thence to the middle of chap. x.; he commends faith by the example of the ancient Fathers, Chap. xi. and in the beginning of the twelfth; then he exhorts them to patience, constancy, brotherly love, &c. The like exhortations are mixed in other parts of this Epistle. (Witham) --- We must here remark, that our separated brethren, relying solely upon tradition, admit in general this Epistle into their canon of Scriptures, though they are necessitated to allow that for some centuries great doubts were entertained on the subject. According to Mr. Rogers, in his Defence of the Thirty-nine Articles, whilst several among the Protestants have rejected as apocryphal the Epistle to the Hebrews, that of James, the 2nd and 3rd of John, and Jude, others have as strenuously maintained that they ought to be admitted into the sacred canon. The Catholic Church admits them as deutero-canonical books, and of equal authority with the proto-canonical books....After the arguments had been justly weighed on both sides, they seem to have been admitted by the general consent of the Latin Church, as they had all along been admitted by the Greek Church. The canon, as it now stands, both of the Old and New Testament, we find enumerated in Pope Innocent's letter to Exuperius, bishop of Toulouse, an. 405 [the year A.D. 405], in St. Augustine, (lib. ii. de doct. christ. chap. viii.) and in the decrees of an African Council, an. 419 [the year A.D. 419], consisting of 217 bishops, who declare that in giving a catalogue of the Holy Scriptures, they only confirm and ratify what they have received from their Fathers. This canon is attributed to the third Council of Carthage, an. 397 [the year A.D. 397]. Dr. Cosin, an eminent Protestant divine, tells us in his canon of Scripture, p. 4, "that to know the books of Scripture, there is no safer course to be taken than to follow the public voice and the universal testimony of the Church." The sixth of the thirty-nine articles gives a similar rule, which excludes private judgment. And "what is this," asks Hooker, "but to acknowledge ecclesiastical tradition?" The mind of man, naturally fickle and unsettled, stands in need of a guide in the road to eternal life. I shall never hesitate, says a spirited author, to take for my guide the Catholic Church, which contains in herself the authority of past and future ages. The Syriac version of the Old and New Testament, which is deservedly allowed to be of greatest antiquity and authority, comprises the same deutero-canonical books as the canon of the Council of Trent; a convincing proof that the Church of Syria, immediately after the times of the apostles, considered them as part of the sacred canon, no less than the Catholics of the present day. For a very satisfactory account respecting the authenticity and inspiration of this Epistle, as also for an excellent commentary with notes moral, doctrinal, and critical, see a late work entitled, An Explanation of St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, by the Rev. Henry Rutter. --- What can be the reason why Protestants admit the deutero-canonical books of the New and reject those of the Old Testament? --- This Epistle merits the particular attention of Christians of every denomination, since it points out to them their various duties in respect to the necessity of faith and the practice of a holy life. In opposition to the Socinians, it tends to shew not only the divinity of Jesus Christ, but also that his death was a true and real sacrifice of atonement for the sins of mankind. See Chap. i, ver. 5, &c. In opposition to other sectarists, it proves that the bloody sacrifice of Christ, once offered on the cross, though a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice of redemption, does not exclude the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass, by which he is a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchisedech. See Chap. v, &c. It is no less applicable to Catholics, in order to confirm them in the faith once delivered to the saints, and to point out the dreadful consequences of abandoning that religion which Jesus Christ came to establish in the world. The just man lives by faith; but if he draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. Let us, therefore, hold fast the confession of our hope, without wavering, or forsaking our assembly, the Catholic Church, as many have done to follow Luther, Calvin, Wesley, and other separatists. But we, says the apostle, are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them who have faith unto the saving of the soul. (Hebrews x. 39.)

====================

Gill: Hebrews (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS

That this epistle was written very early appears from hence, that it was imitated by Clement of Rome, in his epistle to the Corinthians, who took whole sentences out of it; and therefore it could not be a new work, as Eusebius ^a observes: it has been denied to be authentic by some heretics, as the Marcionites and Arians, but has been generally received as such by the orthodox: some indeed doubted of it, because it was not received by the Roman church, as an epistle of the Apostle Paul ^b; though others, who have thought it was not his, as Origen, yet looked upon it as genuine ^c. It has been ascribed to different persons, as to Barnabas, to Apollos, to Luke the Evangelist, and to Clement of Rome, but without any just reason. Clement of Alexandria, a very ancient writer, asserts it to be the Apostle Paul's ^d; and his name stands in the title of it, in all R. Stephens's exemplars, and in all Beza's copies, excepting one, and so it does in the Vulgate Latin and Arabic versions; and that it is his, is highly probable from the agreement there is between this, and other epistles of his; compare Heb 1:2 with Col 1:15 and Heb 5:12 with 1Co 3:1 and Heb 12:1 with 1Co 9:24 and Heb 13:7 with 1Th 5:11, and Heb 13:9 with Eph 4:14 and Heb 13:18 with 2Co 1:12 and Heb 13:20 with Rom 15:13 and many other places; and also from the order and method of it, first treating of doctrines, and then proceeding to practical exhortations, which is the common form of Paul's epistles: to which may be added various circumstances; as that it was written from Italy, where Paul was a prisoner; and the mention the author of it makes of his bonds, and of Timothy, as well known unto him, who was Paul's companion; besides, the token of his epistles appears in this, namely, his usual salutation to the churches; see Heb 13:23. But above all, the testimony of the Apostle Peter is greatly in favour of its being his, 2Pe 3:15 from whence it clearly appears, that the Apostle Paul did write an epistle to the Hebrews; for to them Peter wrote; see 1Pe 1:1 and what epistle could it be but this? and what Peter refers to is to be found in it; see Heb 10:25 and which is written with great wisdom; in none of Paul's epistles is there a greater discovery of his knowledge of divine mysteries than in this; and in it also are things hard to be understood, Heb 5:11. The common objections to its being his are, its not bearing his name, the diversity of its style, and the author of it seeming to be not an apostle, but a disciple of the apostle's: as to his not setting his name to it, the reasons might be, because he was the apostle of the Gentiles, and not so much of the Jews; and because of the prejudice of the Jews against him, both believers, and unbelievers; wherefore had his name been to it, it might have prevented the usefulness of it to the one, and have stirred up the rage of the other: as to the difference of style, different subjects require a different style; and yet in many things there is a likeness, as before observed: and as to the author's not being an apostle, which is concluded from Heb 2:3 the word "us" there is to be understood of the believing Hebrews, the disciples of the apostle, and not inclusive of the author, by a figurative way of speaking often used by Paul; and besides, the apostle received a confirmation of the Gospel from Ananias, who might have been an hearer of Christ, though he was at first taught it by Christ himself; add to this, that whoever was the writer of it, it was written before the destruction of Jerusalem, and when several of the apostles were living, and therefore he could never design by those words to put himself in a succeeding generation. The persons to whom this epistle was written were Hebrews, or Jews; so called, as some think, from the name of Abraham, the father of them; or, as others, from his passing over the river Euphrates, when he came out of Chaldea into Palestine. So Abram the Hebrew, in Gen 14:13 is by the Septuagint rendered, perathv, "one that passes over", taking it to come from the word rbe, which signifies to "pass over"; with this compare Jos 24:3 and this is the opinion of some of the Jewish Rabbins ^e; though it seems rather that they were called so from Heber, who lived at the time of the confusion of languages; see Gen 10:21. And this is the sense of many Jewish writers, ancient and modern, of Josephus ^f, of Jonathan ben Uzziel ^g, of R. Nehemiah ^h, of Aben Ezra ⁱ, and Kimchi ^k, and others; 2Co 11:22. And these were the Hebrews that dwelt in the land of Judea, and particularly at Jerusalem; nor were they the unbelieving inhabitants of those parts, but believers in Christ, who were embodied in a Gospel church state, It was a tradition of the ancients ^l, that this epistle was written originally in Hebrew, and was translated into Greek, either by Luke the Evangelist, or by Clement of Rome. But for this there is no foundation; no Hebrew copy can be produced; Munster's edition of it in Hebrew is a translation from the Greek, in which it was, no doubt, originally written, that being the common language, and well known to the Jews; and which appears from the citations in it out of the Old Testament, which are made, not from the Hebrew text, but from the Greek version; and besides, had it been written in Hebrew, the writer would not have interpreted the Hebrew words, Melchizedek and Salem, as he does, in Heb 7:1. The time of its writing was before the destruction of Jerusalem, which in this book is signified by the coming of the Lord, and the day approaching; and after Timothy was released from prison, and some time within the two years of his own imprisonment at Rome; when he hoped for a release, as his epistles to the Philippians and to Philemon show. Dr. Lightfoot places it in the year 62, and in the eighth of Nero. And the occasion and design of it is, to set forth the superior excellency of Christ to angels and men, to Moses, to Joshua, to Aaron, and his sons, and the preferableness of his priesthood and sacrifice to the Levitical priesthood and its sacrifices; to teach the Hebrews the true knowledge of the mysteries of their law; to point out to them the design, use, and abrogation of its ceremonies; and to prepare them for what afflictions and persecutions they would be called to endure for Christ; and to exhort them to perseverance, and to strengthen them against apostasy, as well as to instruct them in the various duties of religion.

Gill: Hebrews 11 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 11

The apostle having, in the preceding chapter, spoken in commendation of the grace, and life of faith, and of its usefulness to preserve from apostasy, proceeds in this to give some account of the nature and actings of it; and which he illustrates by the examples of many of the Old Testament saints: he begins with a definition of it, which consists of two parts, Heb 11:1 and with an account of the usefulness of it to the elders in general, who by it obtained a good report, Heb 11:2 and of the service it is of in understanding the creation of the worlds, the author and original of them, Heb 11:3 and then goes on to give particular instances and examples of faith among the elders, or ancient believers, which are reduced into several classes; and the first is of the saints before the flood, Abel, Enoch, and Noah. Abel's faith lay in offering a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, in obtaining a testimony from God that he was righteous, and in yet speaking, though dead, Heb 11:4. Enoch's faith is evidenced by his translation of God, that he should not see death, and by the testimony he received from him before it, that he was acceptable to him; by which it is clear he had faith, since, without it, it is impossible to please God; nor can any come aright unto him, without believing that he is, and has a gracious respect to all that diligently seek him, Heb 11:5. Noah's faith was seen in preparing an ark, by the order of God, for the saving of his family, and in condemning the world by so doing, and by becoming an heir of righteousness through faith, Heb 11:7. The next class is that of the saints from the flood, to the times of Moses, in which are Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Abraham's faith is celebrated for his obedience to the divine call, quitting the country where he was, and going he knew not where; and for his sojourning in the promised land, as in a strange one, in which Isaac and Jacob dwelt with him in tents; and for looking by faith for the heavenly city built by the Lord; and for his offering up his son at the command of God, who was the son of promise, believing God was able to raise him from the dead, from whence he received him by faith, Heb 11:8. Sarah's faith lay in receiving strength through it to conceive, bear, and bring forth a child when past age, which was, founded upon the faithfulness of a promising God; hence from Abraham, by her, sprung a large posterity, like the stars of the sky, and the sand on the sea shore, Heb 11:11. Now all these patriarchs, both before and after the flood, as they lived by faith, they died in it; who, though they had not received the things promised, yet by faith saw them at a distance, were very well persuaded they would come to pass, and so, in some sense, enjoyed them; hence, while they lived, they lived like pilgrims and strangers, showing that they had no regard to the country they came from, and had no mind to return thither, but sought another, a better, and an heavenly one; so that God is not ashamed to be called their God, he having prepared a city for them, Heb 11:13. Isaac's faith is commended in blessing his two sons with respect to things future, Heb 11:20 and Jacob's faith is well spoken of for blessing both the sons of Joseph in his last moments, worshipping on the top of his staff, Heb 11:21 and Joseph's faith is instanced in two things; in making mention of the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt, as a certain thing; and in giving them strict orders to carry his bones along with them, when they went from thence, Heb 11:22 the third class of men, famous for faith, is that of such from the times of Moses to the judges, in which are the parents of Moses, Moses himself, the Israelites in general, and the harlot Rahab. The parents of Moses showed their faith in hiding him three months, seeing him to be a lovely child, contrary to the king's edict, Heb 11:23. Moses's faith lay in refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; in preferring afflictions to the pleasures of sin, and the reproach of Christ to the riches of Egypt; he having, by faith, a respect to the heavenly glory, another instance of it; and by forsaking Egypt, without fear of the king's displeasure, by faith seeing a King who is invisible; and by keeping the passover, with the sprinkling of blood, that so the destroyer of the firstborn of Egypt might not touch the Israelites, Heb 11:24. The instances of the faith of the Israelites are their passage through the Red sea, as on dry land, when the Egyptians, who attempted it, were drowned; and their compassing the walls of Jericho seven days, believing they would fall, as accordingly they did, Heb 11:29. The faith of Rahab, the harlot, is commended for two things; for peaceably receiving the spies that came to her; and for the salvation she believed she should have, and had, when the unbelieving inhabitants of Jericho perished, Heb 11:31. And the last class of heroes for faith, includes the times of the judges, kings, prophets, and the Maccabees; the judges, kings, and prophets, are lumped together, and only a few of their names are observed as a specimen of the rest, the apostle not having time to mention particular one, Heb 11:32 and various instances of without reference to particular persons to whom they belong, are recorded; some which lay in doing things greatly heroic, and even miraculous, Heb 11:33 and others in suffering things the most cruel and torturing, and death itself in divers shapes, Heb 11:35. And thus, by an induction of particulars, the apostle proves both his definition of faith, Heb 11:1 and the usefulness of it to the elders, Heb 11:2 they by it obtaining a good report, though they did not receive the thing promised, Heb 11:39 wherefore New Testament saints have great encouragement, and much more reason, to exercise this grace; since God has provided for them the better thing he promised to others, that the one without the other might not be perfect, Heb 11:40.

College: Hebrews (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION

It is difficult to overestimate the significance of Hebrews for understanding the nature of the new covenant. No other document in the New Testament canon comments as directly and extensively upon this covenant as does Hebrews. Its description of Jesus as the great high priest of the believer is a unique contribution to New Testament Christology.

Yet Hebrews is perhaps as well known for the difficulties it presents as it is for its distinctive contributions to our understanding of the ministry of Jesus and the nature of our salvation. It is difficult to be certain about who wrote it, when and to whom. It is a letter and not quite a letter. Many find its line of argument intricate and complex, its theology abstract and obscure, and its use of the Old Testament puzzling if not problematic. This commentary will begin by addressing some of these considerations.

AUTHORSHIP

Over the years, most of the debate about the authorship of Hebrews has focused on whether or not Paul wrote this letter. Arguments have been made for other possible authors as well. What we can know for certain about the author is best gleaned from the letter itself, but many will want to know how this debate affects our confidence in the authority and inspiration of the letter.

Did Paul write the Letter to the Hebrews?

Though few defend Pauline authorship of Hebrews today, in the past this view has enjoyed the support of significant church leaders and traditions. The earliest extant copy of Hebrews (early third century) has been received as part of a collection of Paul's letters, in which it was placed after Romans. Pauline authorship was defended by notable church fathers in the East, e.g., Clement of Alexandria (c.150-c.215) and Origen (185-253) who, despite reservations, defended it as essentially Pauline, at least in part on the weight of what was then received tradition. Later, Jerome and Augustine helped to shift opinion in the West and the Sixth Synod of Carthage (419) established a tradition of support for Pauline authorship which lasted until the Reformation.

However, the weight of the evidence - both historical and texual - is far from clear. Early church opinion was far from universal. In the West, prior to Jerome and Augustine, such leaders as Irenaeus and Hippolytus of Rome did not accept Hebrews as Pauline. The Muratorian Canon (a list of documents accepted as New Testament Scripture, c. 170) included thirteen letters identified as Pauline but excluded Hebrews. When reformers such as Calvin and Luther reexamined the question centuries later, neither concluded that Paul was its author. Contemporary critics consider Pauline authorship implausible in light of clear differences between the vocabulary and style of Hebrews and epistles known to be Pauline. Further, it has been argued as improbable for Paul to refer to himself as the author does in 2:3 ("This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him") in light of what he says of himself in Galatians 1:11-12 ("I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ").

Who else could have written the letter to the Hebrews?

As early as the second century, Tertullian identified Barnabas as the author of the letter. Barnabas was a Levite (Acts 4:26), and there is much about levitical ritual in the epistle. He was also a Hellenistic Jew, a member of the Jerusalem church and a missionary partner of Paul (Acts 9:27; 11:30; 12:1-14:28). All of this evidence is circumstantial, however, and nothing but Tertullian's opinion connects him to the letter directly.

Clement of Alexandria first suggested that Luke translated a Hebrew text written by Paul. Calvin affirmed this possiblity centuries later. There are some similarities in the Greek style of Luke-Acts and Hebrews. But there is little other evidence and there are also some differences in style. Calvin also suggested Clement of Rome as a possibility. However, Clement of Rome widely quoted from the letter himself. It is unlikely that he would quote himself and his use of the Old Testament is often at variance with that in Hebrews.

Luther was the first to suggest Apollos as the possible author of Hebrews, a view which continues to enjoy some popularity. He was a "learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures" who "vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ" (Acts 18:24-28). Presumably, he would have been capable of the careful handling of the LXX found in Hebrews. Also, he probably had some connection to the Pauline mission (1 Corinthians 1-4). But concluding that he was therefore the author of Hebrews is, at best, conjecture.

Among others, arguments have been made for Peter, Jude, Stephen, Aristion, Priscilla, Silas, Timothy, Epaphras, Philip and Mary the mother of Jesus as possible authors of Hebrews. Two other possibilities remain. An associate of Paul could have written the letter for him (a view first suggested by Origen in 220). It is also possible that Hebrews was written by some other anonymous Christian unknown to us. The letter itself does not clearly identify its author. Perhaps the fairest conclusion is that advanced by Origen, in spite of his inclination to defend Pauline authorship: "who wrote the Epistle, God only knows the truth."

How does the debate about authorship affect our view of the letter?

It is important to note that, although the debate over authorship has extended over the centuries, the question of the letter's canonicity (i.e., its inspiration and authority) has not. Even though church fathers in the East may have had doubts about its authorship, there is no evidence that they ever questioned its canonicity. Though the Muratorian Canon excluded Hebrews (as well as James and 1-2 Peter), all four books were included in the New Testament canon by the Synod of Hippo (393) and the Third (397) and Sixth (419) Synods of Carthage. Subsequent questions about its authorship during the Reformation had no effect at all upon the reformers' view of its authority or inspiration.

It is clear that apostolicity, as well as other issues such as universality and the "rule of faith," were important in the early decisions about the New Testament canon. We must keep in mind, however, that a document's "canonical" status is the result of a human process which does not bestow divine authority or inspiration upon a document but recognizes the authority and inspiration which it inherently possesses because it has been "God-breathed" (2 Tim 3:16). In other words, if it is true that Hebrews is a divinely inspired and authoritative document, its inspiration and authority remain factual in an objective sense apart from our own inability to clearly discern the identity of its author. In his providence, God bore witness to the inspiration and authority of this letter in a manner that left little room for doubt, as Hebrews persistently silenced the questions of men who soon found that it "is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Tim 3:16-17).

What do we know about the author?

Though the question of authorship is not determinative of either the letter's inspiration or authority, it is significant for our interpretation of Hebrews. Knowing as much as we can about the author can be helpful for discerning the meaning of a text. We may not be able to know the identify of our author with any degree of certainty, but there is much that we can know about him.

He was probably a Hellenistic Jew for he was both steeped in the LXX and possessed of an excellent vocabulary and a polished style for writing in the Greek language. Presumably, then, he was well educated. He was probably a second generation Christian (2:3) but one with direct connection to apostolic influence since he was a companion of Timothy (13:23) and thus possibly an associate of Paul. It is possible that he wrote from Italy, although 13:24 could also be taken to mean that the recipients were in Italy and some in his own party were from there as well. The rhetoric of the letter and his description of it as "my word of exhortation" (13:22) suggest that he was probably a preacher. His "short letter" reveals a compassionate pastor, a keen theologian and a superior logician who applies all the resources of revelation and rhetoric at his command so that his dear friends will "not drift away" (2:1).

DATE, DESTINATION AND PURPOSE

Three important facts suggest at least a general date for the letter. First, Clement of Rome cited Hebrews frequently. 1 Clement was written in A.D. 95 or 96 and thus Hebrews would not only have been completed but well circulated by this date. Second, there is thus little reason to doubt that the Timothy of 13:23 was the associate of Paul referred to elsewhere in the New Testament. Though we do not know how old Timothy was when he joined Paul in his work, it is unlikely that this reference would place the letter very late in the first century. Finally, much is made of the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in A.D. 70. Although it is possible that the author would not have referred to this event if it had happened by the time of writing, it seems improbable that he would omit reference to an event that not only had a significant effect on the lives of first-century Jews (including Christians) but would have added great force to his own argument. Further, he refers to old covenant worship rituals in the present tense (8:4-5; 10:1-3).

Other considerations as to the probable date of the letter pertain to the identity and location of its recipients. The title "To the Hebrews" may have been added later and reflect later opinions about its contents but it accompanies the letter in all of the oldest Greek manuscripts and there is no evidence that the letter ever bore any other title. Some suggest that the phrase could be translated "against the Hebrews" but it is the same formula used in Paul's letters which were hardly "against" the Romans, Galatians, etc. The title of the letter thus suggests that its recipients were Jewish, and the content that they were both Jewish and Christian.

The letter itself indicates that its recipients were enduring persecution (10:33-34; 12:4; 13:3, 23). The more natural reading of 13:24 suggests that the author wrote to Italy rather than from Italy (for which the expression "those in Italy send you their greetings" would have been more appropriate). The Edict of Claudius had expelled Jews from Rome in 49 but many had returned by the time of the persecution begun by Nero in 64. Since our earliest quotes of Hebrews come to us from Clement of Rome, its circulation there was likely at an early date. The cumulative evidence thus suggests that the letter was addressed to Jewish Christians in Rome who suffered under the persecutions of Nero.

The combination of these circumstances and statements in the letter suggest its purpose. Though some have suggested that Hebrews was written foremost to combat an early Jewish perversion of Christian doctrine or as a generic tract to demonstrate the superiority of Christianity, key verses in the letter suggest that it was addressed to a particular community with a view to responding to an urgent need. The following verses are all suggestive:

Passage Exhortation End in View

2:1 We must pay more careful attention so that we do not . . . to what we have heard drift away

3:1 fix your thoughts on Jesus (cp. 12:2)

3:6 hold on to our courage and the

3:6 hope of which we boast

3:12 See to it . . . that none of you has a

. . . heart that turns away from the

living God

3:13 encourage one another daily so that none of you

may be hardened by

sin's deceitfulness

3:14 . . . if we hold firmly till the end the We have come to

confidence we had at first share in Christ . . .

4:1 let us be careful that none of you be

found to have fallen

short of it [rest]

4:11 Let us . . . make every effort to enter so that no one will

that rest fall

4:14 let us hold firmly to the faith we

profess

6:11 show this same diligence to the very in order to make your

end hope sure

10:23 Let us hold unswervingly to the

hope we profess

10:35 So do not throw away your it will be richly

confidence rewarded

10:36 You need to persevere so that when you

have done the will of

God, you will receive

what he has promised.

12:1 Let us run with perseverance the

12:1 race marked out for us

12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus (cp. 3:1)

12:3 Consider him who endured such so that you will not

opposition from sinful men grow weary and lose

heart

Hebrews is, without doubt, a theologically valuable document which presents a well arranged argument in defense of the superiority of the new covenant. Yet these verses suggest that the author had an immediate purpose in mind for his theology and his rhetoric - the encouragement of Christian brothers and sisters who, suffering under persecutions which threatened even martyrdom, were tempted to abandon their strength. In the midst of their suffering, our author sends his "short letter" and "word of exhortation" (13:22) that they might fix their eyes on Jesus (3:1; 12:2), whose greatness he demonstrates from their own beloved Scriptures and cherished heritage.

FORM AND STRUCTURE

Since Hebrews includes some of the formal features of an epistle (e.g., personal greetings and closing formula) but not others (e.g., typical introductory greeting or address), there has been much debate as to whether it is more of a letter or a sermon. However, this particular formulation of the genre question probably reads a sharper distinction between written and oral communication back into an era when rhetoric rarely made such a rigid separation. Other epistles in the New Testament were clearly written in the knowledge that they would be read in the presence of congregations. It is thus possible to argue that, though written, they should be viewed primarily as oral documents. Writing lengthy treatises with significant oral features was a typical "rhetorical" practice for the ancients (e.g., the "template" or model speeches of Isocrates and others). Hence, Hebrews could well have been constructed as a "written homily," i.e., a letter with sermonic features.

This is to propose a variation of Deissmann's suggestion that Hebrews could have been an example of Christian literary art (i.e., a kind of treatise). Guthrie's criticism - that the writer's purpose was too serious to be regarded in this light - assumes that literary art cannot be addressed to particular communities and urgent occasions, when in fact, rhetoric is chiefly defined by (1) its "addressed" nature and (2) its "contingent" character. The fact that it is addressed to specific communities, their circumstances and the demands of those circumstances is precisely what, according to Aristotle, distinguishes "rhetoric" from its counterpart "dialect." It is quite in keeping with at least one significant ancient rhetorical tradition to regard Hebrews as a written homily - an extended written treatise with significant oral features, addressed to a particular community with a view to responding to an urgent need.

Of what import is this conclusion? There is little value in examining Hebrews for exact correspondence to any particular classical scheme of rhetoric as some have done for (1) a strong case has been made that there is no single classical tradition of rhetoric and (2) our uncertainty about the identity of the author makes it impossible for us to do anything more than speculate about the possible significance of any such similarities.

There are several values, however, in recognizing the "rhetorical" nature of the document. First, this encourages us to keep in mind that, above all, Hebrews is an attempt to persuade its recipients (to take action, i.e., a case of deliberative rhetoric). Close attention should thus be paid to its argumentative dimensions. Also, as we attempt to follow the writer's development of thought, we should be alert for the use of rhetorical devices which signal transitions from argumentative sections to hortatory sections that address the contingiences of the community's situation. Further, apart from the complexities which separated competing rhetorical traditions in the ancient world, it is not inappropriate to look for evidence of the kinds of topoi (argumentative commonplaces) more widely employed and with which a well educated author was likely to be familiar. This should aid our understanding of the nature of the proofs employed by our author. Finally, it reminds us to seek the relevance of the subject matter of Hebrews in relationship to particular sets of life circumstances (persecution, suffering, temptation, and discouragement among them).

Hebrews is organized around a series of quotations from the Old Testament which are not only presented as argument but also developed with a variety of exegetical procedures (see below). If we use these quotations as a guideline for discerning its structure, the following picture of Hebrews emerges.

Chapter One is an introduction. This chapter is full of Old Testament quotations demonstrating Jesus' superiority over angels.

Chapter Two appeals to Psalm 8. Jesus rescues man by coming down beneath angels, joining man in flesh and blood, dying, and then returning to his place of exaltation above the angels. All who cling to him in faith return with him to the throne.

Chapters Three and Four deal with Psalm 95. God offers rest to all who trust him. The land of Canaan was not that rest, for this Psalm spoke of a rest long after the Israelites who wandered in the desert hardened their hearts and lost the rest which God offered to them. God's rest is still available for all who believe him.

Chapters Five, Six and Seven are organized around Psalm 110. Jesus is a priest like Melchizedek, who was also superior to the priesthood of the old covenant. Jesus, in fact, is a priest forever by God's oath.

Chapter Eight introduces Jeremiah 31. The new covenant, created by Jesus our great high priest, is superior to the old covenant. It is founded on better promises than the old covenant, which was a mere copy and shadow of this new covenant.

Chapters Nine and Ten treat Psalm 40. Jesus' living sacrifice of himself through obedience is far superior to the Old Testament sacrifices of dead bulls and goats repeatedly offered in the old tabernacle. Jesus took this sacrifice into the very presence of God, thus fully taking away sins and cleansing our consciences.

Chapter Eleven develops a theme from Habakkuk 2, that the righteous will live by faith. This principle by which we live is illustrated by numerous examples of people living by faith.

Chapter Twelve treats Proverbs 3. We must accept the discipline God brings upon us, for God disciplines those he loves.

Chapter Thirteen is the conclusion. It is full of exhortations on how to give ourselves to God in the life of faith.

Remove the introductory and concluding chapters for a moment and an interesting picture of the structure of the main body of thought emerges. The new covenant (chapter 8) is central, tying together his priesthood (chapters 5-7) and his sacrifice (chapters 9-10). This is prepared for by the offer of rescue (chapter 2) and rest (chapters 3-4) and followed by the re

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Enos, Theresa, ed. Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition: Communication From Ancient Times to the Information Age . New York: Garland Pub., 1996.

Fant, Clyde E. and Pinson, William E., eds. Twenty Centuries of Great Preaching: An Encyclopedia of Preaching . 23 Vols. Waco, TX: Word Books, 1971.

Feinberg, C.L. "Tithe." The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible . Vol. 5. Edited by Merrill C. Tenney. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974-76.

Fensham, F.C. "Oath." International Standard Bible Encyclopedia , Vol. III, ed. by G. Bromiley. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979.

Fiensy, David. New Testament Introduction . The College Press NIV Commentary. Joplin, MO: College Press, 1994.

Gooding, D.W. and D.J. Wiseman. "Censer." The New Bible Dictionary . 2nd ed. Edited by J.D. Douglas. Leicester, England: InterVarsity, 1982.

Gregory, T.M. "Oath." The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible . Vol. 4. Edited by Merrill C. Tenney. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974-76.

Guthrie, Donald. "Epistle to the Hebrews," International Standard Bible Encyclopedia , Vol. 2. Edited by G. Bromiley. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979.

____________ . Hebrews . Tyndale New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983.

____________ . New Testament Introduction . 3rd ed. rev. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1970.

Hatch, Edwin and Henry Redpath. A Concordance to the Septuagint . Two Volumes including supplement. Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck - Univ. Verlagstalt, 1954.

Héring, Jean. The Epistle to the Hebrews. London: Epworth Press, 1970.

Josephus. Jewish Antiquities . Books I-IV. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by H. St. J. Thackeray. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1930.

____________ . The Jewish War . Books IV-VII. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by H. St. J. Thackeray. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1928.

Kittel, Gerhard and Gerhard Friedrich, eds. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament . 10 Vols. Translated and edited by Geoffrey Bromiley. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964-76.

Kistemaker, Simon. Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews . New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984.

Konig, Eduard. "Tabernacle." The Jewish Encyclopedia . Ed. by Isadore Singer. New York: KTAV Publishing House, Inc., n.d.

Lane, William L. Hebrews 1-8 . Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 47A. Edited by David A. Hubbard, John D. W. Watts and Ralph P. Martin. Dallas: Word Books, 1991.

____________ . Hebrews 9-13 . Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 47A. Edited by David A. Hubbard, John D.W. Watts and Ralph P. Martin. Dallas: Word Books, 1991.

Lenski, R.C.H. The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Epistle of James . Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1966.

Liddell, Henry George and Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon . 9th ed. Rev. and augmented by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940.

Lindars, Barnabas. "The Rhetorical Structure of Hebrews." New Testament Studies Vol. 35 (1989), pp. 382-406.

Louw, Johannes and Eugene A. Nida, eds. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains . 2 Vols. New York: United Bible Societies, 1988.

Martin, Ralph P. New Testament Foundations: A Guide for Christian Students . 2 Vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978.

Metzger, Bruce M. A Textual Commentary on the Greek Testament . New York, London: United Bible Societies, 1971, corrected edition, 1975.

Meyer, F.B. The Way into the Holiest: Expositions of the Epistle to the Hebrews . Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1982.

Milligan, R. Epistle to the Hebrews . The New Testament Commentary, Vol. IX. Cincinnati: Standard Pub., n.d.

Moffat, James. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews . The International Critical Commentary. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1924. Reprinted 1968.

Montefiore, Hugh. The Epistle to the Hebrews . Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1964. Reprinted 1987.

Morris, Leon, et al. The Expositor's Bible Commentary , Volume 12. Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1981.

Moule, Charles F. Idiom Book of New Testament Greek . 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959.

Moulton, James H. and George Milligan. The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament: Illustrated from the Papyri and Other Non-Literary Sources . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1930. Reprinted 1980.

Moulton, James H., Wilbert F. Howard and Nigel Turner. A Grammar of New Testament Greek . 4 Vols. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1963-79.

Moulton, W.F. and A.S. Geden. A Concordance to the Greek Testament . Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1897. 5th ed., 1978.

Nairne, A. The Epistle to the Hebrews . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1921.

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Spicq, C. L'Épitre Aux Hebreux . Paris: Librairie Lecoffre, 1952.

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Swetnam, J. "Sacrifice and Revelation in the Epistle to the Hebrews: Observations and Surmises on Hebrew 9, 26." Catholic Biblical Quarterly Vol. 30 (1968), pp. 227-254.

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Thayer, Joseph. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament . 4th Edition. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1901.

Thompson, James. The Letter to the Hebrews . The Living Word Commentary. Edited by Everett Ferguson. Austin, TX: R.B. Sweet Co., 1971.

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Westcott, B.F. The Epistle to the Hebrews . 2nd Edition. 1892. Reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. 1994.

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-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

ABBREVIATIONS

ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary

BAGD Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich-Danker Greek Lexicon (2nd. ed.)

BDB New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew and English

Lexicon

BDF Blass-Debrunner-Funk Greek Grammar

ISBE International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Bromiley)

KJV King James Version

LN Louw & Nida's Lexicon Based on Semantic Domains

LSJ Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek Lexicon

LXX Septuagint

MHT Moulton-Howard-Turner Greek Grammar

MM Moulton & Milligan's Vocabulary of Greek Testament

NASB New American Standard Bible

NIDNTT New International Dictionary of New Testament

Theology

NJB New Jerusalem Bible

RSV Revised Standard Version

TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. by

Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich

ZPED Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

College: Hebrews (Outline)

OUTLINE

I. JESUS IS SUPERIOR TO THE ANGELS - 1:1-14

A. The Preeminence of the Son - 1:1-4

B. The Son Superior to the Angels - 1:5-14

II. JESUS RESCUES MAN - 2:1-18

A. Warning Not to Ignore Such a Great Salvation - 2:1-4

B. Jesus Became a Man to Bring Men to Glory - 2:5-18

III. GOD OFFERS REST TO ALL WHO TRUST HIM - 3:1-4:16

A. Jesus Is Superior to Moses - 3:1-6

B. Psalm 95:7-11 - 3:7-11

C. Hold Firm to the End - 3:12-15

D. Unbelieving Israelites Fell in the Desert - 3:16-19

E. A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God - 4:1-5

F. A Sabbath-Rest Remains - 4:6-11

G. The Message from God Does Its Part to Save Us - 4:12-13

H. Jesus, the Great High Priest - 4:14-16

IV. JESUS IS SUPERIOR TO THE PRIESTHOOD OF THE OLD COVENANT AND A PRIEST FOREVER BY GOD'S OATH - 5:1-7:28

A. Requirements of the High Priest - 5:1-4

B. Jesus Fulfills the Requirements and Offers Eternal Salvation - 5:5-10

C. [Excursus: Responding to God] - 5:11-6:12

1. Still Infants - 5:11-14

2. On to Maturity - 6:1-3

3. Those Who Fall Away - 6:4-8

4. Confident of Better Things - 6:9-12

D. God's Oath Makes His Purpose Sure - 6:13-20

E. Melchizedek Like the Son of God - 7:1-3

F. Melchizedek Greater than Abraham - 7:4-10

G. Jesus Is High Priest Based on His Resurrection which Introduces a Better Hope - 7:11-19

H. Jesus Is High Priest Based on God's Oath which Produces a Better Covenant - 7:20-22

I. Jesus' Resurrection Creates a Permanent Priesthood - 7:23-25

J. Jesus' Death Provides the Perfect Sacrifice - 7:26-28

V. THE NEW COVENANT BROUGHT BY JESUS OUR HIGH PRIEST IS SUPERIOR TO THE OLD COVENANT - 8:1-13

A. Our High Priest Reigns and Serves in the True Tabernacle, Prefigured by Old Testament Shadows - 8:1-5

B. Our High Priest Is Mediator of the New Covenant, Promised through the Prophet Jeremiah - 8:6-13

VI. JESUS' SACRIFICE OF HIMSELF IS SUPERIOR TO THE SACRIFICES OF THE OLD COVENANT AND SETS US FREE FROM SIN - 9:1-10:39

A. The Tabernacle and Its Tools - 9:1-5

B. The Day of Atonement - 9:6-10

C. Jesus' Sacrifice Cleanses Our Conscience - 9:11-14

D. Jesus' Death Inaugurates the New Covenant - 9:15-22

E. Jesus' Sacrifice Was Once for All - 9:23-28

F. Old Covenant Sacrifices Could Not Take Away Sin - 10:1-4

G. Christ Offered His Body to Make Us Holy - 10:5-10

H. Our High Priest Now Reigns - 10:11-14

I. Witness of the Holy Spirit through Jeremiah - 10:15-18

J. Let Us Draw Near to God and Spur One Another On - 10:19-25

K. The Judgment of God on Those Who Keep Sinning - 10:26-31

L. Reminder of Earlier Suffering - 10:32-34

M. The Need to Persevere - 10:35-39

VII. GOD EXPECTS US TO SHOW FAITH - 11:1-40

A. The Nature of Faith - 11:1-3

B. Faith Illustrated by Abel, Enoch, and Noah - 11:4-7

C. Faith Illustrated by Abraham - 11:8-19

D. Faith Illustrated by Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph- 11:20-22

E. Faith Illustrated by Moses - 11:23-28

F. Faith Illustrated in Israel - 11:29-38

G. God Planned to Make Them Perfect with Us - 11:39-40

VIII. GOD EXPECTS US TO ENDURE DISCIPLINE - 12:1-29

A. A Call to Perseverance - 12:1-3

B. The Word of Encouragement - 12:4-6

C. God Disciplines His Children - 12:7-11

D. Practical Actions - 12:12-17

E. Terrifying Mt. Sinai - 12:18-21

F. Mt. Zion, the Heavenly Jerusalem - 12:22-24

G. A Kingdom which Cannot Be Shaken - 12:25-29

IX. CONCLUDING EXHORTATIONS - 13:1-25

A. Keep Loving Each Other - 13:1-3

B. Stay Pure - 13:4-6

C. Remember Your Leaders - 13:7-8

D. Counterparts to Old Covenant Practices - 13:9-16

E. Obey Your Leaders and Pray for Us - 13:17-19

F. Benediction and Closing Exhortations - 13:20-22

G. Personal Greetings - 13:23-25

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV