Hebrews 11
11
Faith That Produces Action
1Faith is being sure of what we hope for. It is being sure of what we do not see. 2That is what the people of long ago were praised for.
3We have faith. So we understand that everything was made when God commanded it. That’s why we believe that what we see was not made out of what could be seen.
4Abel had faith. So he brought to God a better offering than Cain did. Because of his faith Abel was praised as a godly man. God said good things about his offerings. Because of his faith Abel still speaks. He speaks even though he is dead.
5Enoch had faith. So he was taken from this life. He didn’t die. “He couldn’t be found, because God had taken him away.” (Genesis 5:24) Before God took him, Enoch was praised as one who pleased God. 6Without faith it is impossible to please God. Those who come to God must believe that he exists. And they must believe that he rewards those who look to him.
7Noah had faith. So he built an ark to save his family. He built it because of his great respect for God. God had warned him about things that could not yet be seen. Because of his faith Noah showed the world that it was guilty. Because of his faith he was considered right with God.
8Abraham had faith. So he obeyed God. God called him to go to a place he would later receive as his own. So he went. He did it even though he didn’t know where he was going. 9Because of his faith he made his home in the land God had promised him. Abraham was like an outsider in a strange country. He lived there in tents. So did Isaac and Jacob. They received the same promise he did. 10Abraham was looking forward to the city that has foundations. He was waiting for the city that God planned and built. 11And Sarah had faith. So God made it possible for her to become a mother. She became a mother even though she was too old to have children. But Sarah believed that the God who made the promise was faithful. 12Abraham was past the time when he could have children. But many children came from that one man. They were as many as the stars in the sky. They were as many as the grains of sand on the seashore. No one could count them.
13All these people were still living by faith when they died. They didn’t receive the things God had promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a long way off. They openly said that they were outsiders and strangers on earth. 14People who say things like that show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15What if they had been thinking of the country they had left? Then they could have returned to it. 16Instead, they longed for a better country. They wanted a heavenly one. So God is pleased when they call him their God. In fact, he has prepared a city for them.
17Abraham had faith. So when God tested him, Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham had held on tightly to the promises. But he was about to offer his one and only son. 18God had said to him, “Your family line will continue through Isaac.” (Genesis 21:12) Even so, Abraham was going to offer him up. 19Abraham did this, because he believed that God could even raise the dead. In a way, he did receive Isaac back from death.
20Isaac had faith. So he blessed Jacob and Esau. He told them what was ahead for them.
21Jacob had faith. So he blessed each of Joseph’s sons. He blessed them when he was dying. Because of his faith he worshiped God. Jacob worshiped as he leaned on the top of his walking stick.
22Joseph had faith. So he spoke to the people of Israel about how they would leave Egypt someday. When his death was near, he spoke about where to bury his bones.
23Moses’ parents had faith. So they hid him for three months after he was born. They saw he was a special child. They were not afraid of the king’s command.
24Moses had faith. So he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. That happened after he had grown up. 25He chose to be treated badly together with the people of God. He chose not to enjoy sin’s pleasures. They only last for a short time. 26He suffered shame because of Christ. He thought it had great value. Moses considered it better than the riches of Egypt. He was looking ahead to his reward. 27Because of his faith, Moses left Egypt. It wasn’t because he was afraid of the king’s anger. He didn’t let anything stop him. That’s because he saw the God who can’t be seen. 28Because of his faith, Moses was the first to keep the Passover Feast. He commanded the people of Israel to sprinkle blood on their doorways. He did it so that the destroying angel would not touch their oldest sons.
29The people of Israel had faith. So they passed through the Red Sea. They went through it as if it were dry land. The Egyptians tried to do it also. But they drowned.
30Israel’s army had faith. So the walls of Jericho fell down. It happened after they had marched around the city for seven days.
31Rahab, the prostitute, had faith. So she welcomed the spies. That’s why she wasn’t killed with those who didn’t obey God.
32What more can I say? I don’t have time to tell about all the others. I don’t have time to talk about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah. I don’t have time to tell about David and Samuel and the prophets. 33Because of their faith they took over kingdoms. They ruled fairly. They received the blessings God had promised. They shut the mouths of lions. 34They put out great fires. They escaped being killed by swords. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became powerful in battle. They beat back armies from other countries. 35Women received back their dead. The dead were raised to life again. There were others who were made to suffer greatly. But they refused to be set free. They did this so that after death they would be raised to an even better life. 36Some were made fun of and even whipped. Some were held by chains. Some were put in prison. 37Some were killed with stones. Some were sawed in two. Some were killed by swords. They went around wearing the skins of sheep and goats. They were poor. They were attacked. They were treated badly. 38The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains. They lived in caves. They lived in holes in the ground.
39All these people were praised because they had faith. But none of them received what God had promised. 40That’s because God had planned something better for us. So they would only be made perfect together with us.
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Hebrews 11
11
Faith of the Ancients. 1Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence#Faith is the realization…evidence: the author is not attempting a precise definition. There is dispute about the meaning of the Greek words hypostasis and elenchos, here translated realization and evidence, respectively. Hypostasis usually means “substance,” “being” (as translated in Heb 1:3), or “reality” (as translated in Heb 3:14); here it connotes something more subjective, and so realization has been chosen rather than “assurance” (RSV). Elenchos, usually “proof,” is used here in an objective sense and so translated evidence rather than the transferred sense of “(inner) conviction” (RSV). of things not seen.#1:3; 3:14; Rom 8:24; 2 Cor 4:18. 2Because of it the ancients were well attested. 3#Gn 1:3; Ps 33:6; Wis 9:1; Jn 1:3. By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God,#By faith…God: this verse does not speak of the faith of the Old Testament men and women but is in the first person plural. Hence it seems out of place in the sequence of thought. so that what is visible came into being through the invisible. 4#The “Praise of the Ancestors” in Sir 44:1–50:21 gives a similar list of heroes. The Cain and Abel narrative in Gn 4:1–16 does not mention Abel’s faith. It says, however, that God “looked with favor on Abel and his offering” (Gn 4:4); in view of Heb 11:6 the author probably understood God’s favor to have been activated by Abel’s faith. Though dead, he still speaks: possibly because his blood “cries out to me from the soil” (Gn 4:10), but more probably a way of saying that the repeated story of Abel provides ongoing witness to faith. By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice greater than Cain’s. Through this he was attested to be righteous, God bearing witness to his gifts, and through this, though dead, he still speaks.#12:24; Gn 4:4, 10. 5By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and “he was found no more because God had taken him.” Before he was taken up, he was attested to have pleased God.#Gn 5:24; Sir 44:16. 6#One must believe not only that God exists but that he is concerned about human conduct; the Old Testament defines folly as the denial of this truth; cf. Ps 52:2. But without faith it is impossible to please him,#Wis 4:10. for anyone who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 7By faith Noah, warned about what was not yet seen, with reverence built an ark for the salvation of his household. Through this he condemned the world and inherited the righteousness that comes through faith.#Gn 6:8–22; Sir 44:17–18; Mt 24:37–39; Lk 17:26–27; 1 Pt 3:20; 2 Pt 2:5.
8By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go.#Gn 12:1–4; 15:7–21; Sir 44:19–22; Acts 7:2–8; Rom 4:16–22. 9By faith he sojourned in the promised land as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise;#Gn 12:8; 13:12; 23:4; 26:3; 35:27. 10for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and maker is God.#12:22; 13:14; Rev 21:10–22. 11By faith he received power to generate, even though he was past the normal age—and Sarah herself was sterile—for he thought that the one who had made the promise was trustworthy.#Gn 17:19; 21:2; Rom 4:19–21 / 1 Cor 10:13. 12So it was that there came forth from one man, himself as good as dead, descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sands on the seashore.#Gn 15:5; 22:17; 32:13; Ex 32:13; Dt 10:22; Dn 3:36 LXX.
13All these died in faith. They did not receive what had been promised but saw it and greeted it from afar and acknowledged themselves to be strangers and aliens on earth,#Gn 23:4; Ps 39:13. 14for those who speak thus show that they are seeking a homeland. 15If they had been thinking of the land from which they had come, they would have had opportunity to return. 16But now they desire a better homeland, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.#13:14; Ex 3:6.
17By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer his only son,#Gn 22:1–10; Sir 44:20; 1 Mc 2:52; Jas 2:21. 18of whom it was said, “Through Isaac descendants shall bear your name.”#Gn 21:12 LXX; Rom 9:7. 19#As a symbol: Isaac’s “return from death” is seen as a symbol of Christ’s resurrection. Others understand the words en parabolē to mean “in figure,” i.e., the word dead is used figuratively of Isaac, since he did not really die. But in the one other place that parabolē occurs in Hebrews, it means symbol (Heb 9:9). He reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead,#Rom 4:16–22. and he received Isaac back as a symbol. 20By faith regarding things still to come Isaac#Each of these three patriarchs, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, had faith in the future fulfillment of God’s promise and renewed this faith when near death. blessed Jacob and Esau.#Gn 27:27–40. 21By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and “bowed in worship, leaning on the top of his staff.”#Gn 27:38–40; 47:31 LXX; 48:15–16. 22By faith Joseph, near the end of his life, spoke of the Exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions about his bones.#Gn 50:24–25.
23#Ex 2:2; Acts 7:20. By faith Moses was hidden by his parents for three months after his birth, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. 24#The reason given for Moses’ departure from Egypt differs from the account in Ex 2:11–15. The author also gives a christological interpretation of his decision to share the trials of his people. By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;#Ex 2:10–15; Acts 7:23–29. 25he chose to be ill-treated along with the people of God rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasure of sin. 26He considered the reproach of the Anointed greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the recompense. 27By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s fury, for he persevered as if seeing the one who is invisible.#Ex 2:15; Acts 7:29. 28By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.#Ex 12:21–23; Wis 18:25; 1 Cor 10:10. 29By faith they crossed the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted it they were drowned.#Ex 14:22–28. 30By faith the walls of Jericho fell after being encircled for seven days.#Jos 6:12–21. 31By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish with the disobedient, for she had received the spies in peace.#Jos 2:1–21; 6:22–25; Jas 2:25.
32What more shall I say? I have not time to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets,#Jgs 4:6–22; 6:11–8:32; 11:1–12:7. 33who by faith conquered kingdoms, did what was righteous, obtained the promises; they closed the mouths of lions,#Dn 6:23. 34put out raging fires, escaped the devouring sword; out of weakness they were made powerful, became strong in battle, and turned back foreign invaders.#Dn 3:22–25, 49–50. 35Women received back their dead through resurrection. Some were tortured and would not accept deliverance, in order to obtain a better resurrection.#1 Kgs 17:17–24; 2 Kgs 4:18–37; 2 Mc 6:18–7:42. 36Others endured mockery, scourging, even chains and imprisonment.#2 Chr 36:16; Jer 20:2; 37:15. 37They were stoned, sawed in two, put to death at sword’s point; they went about in skins of sheep or goats, needy, afflicted, tormented.#2 Chr 24:21. 38The world was not worthy of them. They wandered about in deserts and on mountains, in caves and in crevices in the earth.#1 Mc 2:28–30.
39Yet all these, though approved because of their faith, did not receive what had been promised. 40God had foreseen something better for us, so that without us they should not be made perfect.#So that without us they should not be made perfect: the heroes of the Old Testament obtained their recompense only after the saving work of Christ had been accomplished. Thus they already enjoy what Christians who are still struggling do not yet possess in its fullness.
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