Hebrews 11

Heb 11:1-40.

DEFINITION OF THE

FAITH

JUST

SPOKEN OF

(Heb 10:39):

EXAMPLES FROM THE

OLD

COVENANT FOR

OUR

PERSEVERANCE IN

FAITH.

1. 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.

substance, &c.--It substantiates promises of God which we hope

for, as future in fulfilment, making them present realities to us.

However, the Greek is translated in

Heb 3:14,

"confidence"; and it also here may mean "sure confidence." So

ALFORD translates. THOMAS

MAGISTER supports English Version, "The

whole thing that follows is virtually contained in the first principle;

now the first commencement of the things hoped for is in us

through the assent of faith, which virtually contains all the things

hoped for." Compare Note, see on

Heb 6:5,

"tasted . . . powers of the world to come." Through faith,

the future object of Christian hope, in its beginning, is

already present. True faith infers the reality of the objects believed

in and honed for

(Heb 11:6).

HUGO DE ST.

VICTOR distinguished faith from

hope. By faith alone we are sure of eternal things that

they ARE: but by hope we are confident that

WE SHALL HAVE them. All hope presupposes faith

(Ro 8:25).

evidence--"demonstration": convincing proof to the believer: the

soul thereby seeing what the eye cannot see.

things not seen--the whole invisible and spiritual world: not

things future and things pleasant, as the "things hoped for," but also

the past and present, and those the reverse of pleasant. "Eternal life

is promised to us, but it is when we are dead: we are told of a blessed

resurrection, but meanwhile we moulder in the dust; we are declared to

be justified, and sin dwells in us; we hear that we are blessed,

meantime we are overwhelmed in endless miseries: we are promised

abundance of all goods, but we still endure hunger and thirst; God

declares He will immediately come to our help, but He seems deaf to our

cries. What should we do if we had not faith and hope to lean on, and

if our mind did not emerge amidst the darkness above the world by the

shining of the Word and Spirit of God?" [CALVIN].

Faith is an assent unto truths credible upon the testimony of God (not

on the reasonableness of the thing revealed, though by this we

may judge as to whether it be what it professes, a genuine revelation),

delivered unto us in the writings of the apostles and prophets. Thus

Christ's ascension is the cause, and His absence the crown, of our

faith: because He ascended, we the more believe, and because we believe

in Him who hath ascended, our faith is the more accepted [BISHOP PEARSON]. Faith believes what

it sees not; for if thou seest there is no faith; the Lord has gone

away so as not to be seen: He is hidden that He may be believed; the

yearning desire by faith after Him who is unseen is the preparation of

a heavenly mansion for us; when He shall be seen it shall be given to

us as the reward of faith [AUGUSTINE]. As

Revelation deals with spiritual and invisible things exclusively, faith

is the faculty needed by us, since it is the evidence of things not

seen. By faith we venture our eternal interests on the bare word of

God, and this is altogether reasonable.

2. For--So high a description of faith is not undeserved; for

. . . [ALFORD].

the matter of," it, "or, as Greek more emphatically, "this."

the elders--as though still living and giving their powerful

testimony to the reasonableness and excellence of faith

(Heb 12:1).

Not merely the ancients, as though they were people solely of

the past; nay, they belong to the one and the same blessed family as

ourselves

(Heb 11:39, 40).

"The elders," whom we all revere so highly. "Paul shows how we

ought to seek in all its fulness, under the veil of history, the

essential substance of the doctrine sometimes briefly indicated"

[BENGEL]. "The elders," as "the fathers," is a

title of honor given on the ground of their bright faith and practice.

obtained a good report--Greek, "were testified of,"

namely, favorably (compare

Heb 7:8).

It is a phrase of Luke, Paul's companion. Not only men, but God, gave

testimony to their faith

(Heb 11:4, 5, 39).

Thus they being testified of themselves have become "witnesses" to all

others

(Heb 12:1).

The earlier elders had their patience exercised for a long period of

life: those later, in sharper afflictions. Many things which they hoped

for and did not see, subsequently came to pass and were conspicuously

seen, the event confirming faith [BENGEL].

3. we understand--We perceive with our spiritual intelligence

the fact of the world's creation by God, though we see neither Him nor

the act of creation as described in

Ge 1:1-31.

The natural world could not, without revelation, teach us this truth,

though it confirms the truth when apprehended by faith

(Ro 1:20).

Adam is passed over in silence here as to his faith, perhaps as being

the first who fell and brought sin on us all; though it does not follow

that he did not repent and believe the promise.

worlds--literally, "ages"; all that exists in time and space,

visible and invisible, present and eternal.

framed--"fitly formed and consolidated"; including the creation

of the single parts and the harmonious organization of the whole, and

the continual providence which maintains the whole throughout all ages.

As creation is the foundation and a specimen of the whole divine

economy, so faith in creation is the foundation and a specimen of all

faith [BENGEL].

(Greek, "logos,"

Joh 1:1)

but the spoken word (Greek, "rhema"); though by

the instrumentality of the personal word

(Heb 1:2).

not made, &c.--Translate as Greek, "so that not out of

things which appear hath that which is seen been made"; not as in the

case of all things which we see reproduced from previously existing and

visible materials, as, for instance, the plant from the seed, the

animal from the parent, &c., has the visible world sprung into being

from apparent materials. So also it is implied in the first clause of

the verse that the invisible spiritual worlds were framed not from

previously existing materials. BENGEL explains it

at creation), from that which is seen as already in existence,

not merely beginning to be seen; so that the things seen were

not made of the things which appear," that is, which begin to be

seen by us in the act of creation. We were not spectators of

creation; it is by faith we perceive it.

4. more excellent sacrifice--because offered in faith.

Now faith must have some revelation of God on which it

fastens. The revelation in this case was doubtless God's command to

sacrifice animals ("the firstlings of the flock") in token of

the forfeiture of men's life by sin, and as a type of the promised

bruiser of the serpent's head

(Ge 3:15),

the one coming sacrifice: this command is implied in God's having made

coats of skin for Adam and Eve

(Ge 3:21):

for these skins must have been taken from animals slain in

sacrifice: inasmuch as it was not for food they were slain,

animal food not being permitted till after the flood; nor for mere

clothing, as, were it so, clothes might have been made of the

fleeces without the needless cruelty of killing the animal; but a coat

of skin put on Adam from a sacrificed animal typified the covering or

atonement (the Hebrew for atone means to cover)

resulting from Christ's sacrifice. The Greek is more literally

rendered [KENNICOTT] by WYCLIFFE, "a much more sacrifice"; and by Queen

Elizabeth's version "a greater sacrifice." A fuller, more ample

sacrifice, that which partook more largely and essentially of the true

nature and virtue of sacrifice [ARCHBISHOP MAGEE]. It was not any intrinsic merit in "the firstling

of the flock" above "the fruit of the ground." It was God's appointment

that gave it all its excellency as a sacrifice; if it had not been so,

it would have been a presumptuous act of will-worship

(Col 2:23),

and taking of a life which man had no right over before the flood

(Ge 9:1-6).

The sacrifice seems to have been a holocaust, and the sign of the

divine acceptance of it was probably the consumption of it by fire from

heaven

(Ge 15:17).

Hence, "to accept" a burnt sacrifice is in Hebrew "to turn it to

ashes"

(Ps 20:3,

Margin). A flame seems to have issued from the Shekinah, or

flaming cherubim, east of Eden ("the presence of the Lord,"

Ge 4:16),

where the first sacrifices were offered. Cain, in unbelieving

self-righteousness, presented merely a thank offering, not like

Abel feeling his need of the propitiatory sacrifice appointed on

account of sin. God "had respect (first) unto Abel, and (then) to his

offering"

(Ge 4:4).

Faith causes the believer's person to be accepted, and then his

offering. Even an animal sacrifice, though of God's appointment, would

not have been accepted, had it not been offered in faith.

he obtained witness--God by fire attesting His acceptance

of him as "righteous by faith."

his gifts--the common term for sacrifices, implying that

they must be freely given.

dead, yet speaketh--His blood crying front the ground to

God, shows how precious, because of his "faith," he was still in

God's sight, even when dead. So he becomes a witness to us of the

blessed effects of faith.

5. Faith was the ground of his pleasing God; and

his pleasing God was the ground of his translation.

translated--

(Ge 5:22, 24).

Implying a sudden removal

(the same Greek as in

Ga 1:6)

from mortality without death to immortality: such a

CHANGE as shall pass over the living at Christ's

coming

(1Co 15:51, 52).

had this testimony--namely of Scripture; the Greek

perfect implies that this testimony continues still: "he has

been testified of."

pleased God--The Scripture testimony virtually expresses that he

pleased God, namely, "Enoch walked with God." The

Septuagint translates the Hebrew for "walked with God,"

Ge 6:9,

pleased God.

6. without--Greek, "apart from faith": if one be

destitute of faith (compare

Ro 14:23).

to please--Translate, as ALFORD does, the

Greek aorist, "It is impossible to please God at all"

(Ro 8:8).

Natural amiabilities and "works done before the grace of Christ are not

pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ;

yea, rather, for that they are not done as God hath willed them to be

done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin" [Article XIII,

Book of Common Prayer]. Works not rooted in God are splendid

sins [AUGUSTINE].

he that cometh to God--as a worshipper

(Heb 7:19).

must believe--once for all: Greek aorist tense.

that God is--is the true self-existing Jehovah (as contrasted

with all so-called gods, not gods,

Ga 4:8),

the source of all being, though he sees Him not

(Heb 11:1)

as being "invisible"

(Heb 11:27).

So Enoch; this passage implies that he had not been favored with

visible appearances of God, yet he believed in God's

being, and in God's moral government, as the Rewarder of

His diligent worshippers, in opposition to antediluvian skepticism.

Also Moses was not so favored before he left Egypt the first time

(Heb 11:27);

still he believed.

and . . . is--a different Greek verb from the

former "is." Translate, "is eventually"; proves to be;

literally, "becomes."

rewarder--renderer of reward [ALFORD]. So

God proved to be to Enoch. The reward is God Himself diligently

"sought" and "walked with" in partial communion here, and to be fully

enjoyed hereafter. Compare

Ge 15:1,

"I am thy exceeding great reward."

of them--and them only.

diligently seek--Greek, "seek out" God. Compare "seek

early,"

Pr 8:17.

Not only "ask" and "seek," but "knock,"

Mt 7:7;

compare

Heb 11:12;

Lu 13:24,

"Strive" as in an agony of contest.

7. warned of God--The same Greek,

Heb 8:5,

"admonished of God."

moved with fear--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).

condemned the world--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.

righteousness which is by faith--Greek, "according to

faith." A Pauline thought. Noah is first called "righteous" in

Ge 6:9.

Christ calls Abel so,

Mt 23:35.

Compare as to Noah's righteousness,

Eze 14:14, 20;

2Pe 2:5,

"a preacher of righteousness." Paul here makes faith the

principle and ground of his righteousness.

heir--the consequence of sonship which flows from faith.

8. From the antediluvian saints he passes to the patriarchs of

Israel, to whom "the promises" belonged.

called--by God

(Ge 12:1).

The oldest manuscripts and Vulgate read, "He that was called

Abraham," his name being changed from Abram to Abraham, on the occasion

of God's making with him and his seed a covenant sealed by

circumcision, many years after his call out of Ur. "By faith, he who

was (afterwards) called Abraham (father of nations,

Ge 17:5,

in order to become which was the design of God's bringing him out of

Ur) obeyed (the command of God: to be understood in this reading),

so as to go out," &c.

which he should after receive--He had not fully received even

this promise when he went out, for it was not explicitly given

him till he had reached Canaan

(Ge 12:1, 6, 7).

When the promise of the land was given him the Canaanite was still in

the land, and himself a stranger; it is in the new heaven and new earth

that he shall receive his personal inheritance promised him; so

believers sojourn on earth as strangers, while the ungodly and Satan

lord it over the earth; but at Christ's coming that same earth which

was the scene of the believer's conflict shall be the inheritance of

Christ and His saints.

9. sojourned--as a "stranger and pilgrim."

in--Greek, "into," that is, he went into it and

sojourned there.

as in a strange country--a country not belonging to him,

but to others (so the Greek),

Ac 7:5, 6.

dwelling in tabernacles--tents: as strangers and

sojourners do: moving from place to place, as having no fixed

possession of their own. In contrast to the abiding "city"

(Heb 11:10).

with--Their kind of dwelling being the same is a proof that

their faith was the same. They all alike were content to wait for their

good things hereafter

(Lu 16:25).

Jacob was fifteen years old at the death of Abraham.

heirs with him of the same promise--Isaac did not inherit it

from Abraham, nor Jacob from Isaac, but they all inherited it from God

directly as "fellow heirs." In

Heb 6:12, 15, 17,

"the promise" means the thing promised as a thing in part

already attained; but in this chapter "the promise" is of

something still future. However, see on

Heb 6:12.

10. looked for--Greek, "he was expecting"; waiting for

with eager expectation

(Ro 8:19).

a city--Greek, "the city," already alluded to.

Worldly Enoch, son of the murderer Cain, was the first to build his

city here: the godly patriarchs waited for their city hereafter

(Heb 11:16; 12:22; 13:14).

foundations--Greek, "the foundations" which the

tents had not, nor even men's present cities have.

whose builder and maker--Greek, "designer

[Eph 1:4, 11]

and master-builder," or executor of the design. The city is

worthy of its Framer and Builder (compare

Heb 11:16;

Heb 8:2).

Compare Note, see on

Heb 9:12,

on "found."

11. also Sara herself--though being the weaker vessel, and

though at first she doubted.

was delivered of a child--omitted in the oldest manuscripts:

then translate, "and that when she was past age"

(Ro 4:19).

she judged him faithful who had promised--after she had ceased

to doubt, being instructed by the angel that it was no jest, but a

matter in serious earnest.

12. as good as dead--literally, "deadened"; no longer having, as

in youth, energetic vital powers.

stars . . . sand--

(Ge 22:17).

13-16. Summary of the characteristic excellencies of the

patriarchs' faith

died in faith--died as believers, waiting for, not

actually seeing as yet their good things promised to them. They

were true to this principle of faith even unto, and especially

in, their dying hour (compare

Heb 11:20).

These all--beginning with "Abraham"

(Heb 11:8),

to whom the promises were made

(Ga 3:16),

and who is alluded to in the end of

Heb 11:13

and in

Heb 11:15

[BENGEL and ALFORD]. But the

"ALL" can hardly but include Abel, Enoch, and

Noah. Now as these did not receive the promise of entering literal

Canaan, some other promise made in the first ages, and often

repeated, must be that meant, namely, the promise of a coming Redeemer

made to Adam, namely, "the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's

head." Thus the promises cannot have been merely temporal, for Abel and

Enoch mentioned here received no temporal promise [ARCHBISHOP MAGEE]. This promise of

eternal redemption is the inner essence of the promises made to Abraham

(Ga 3:16).

not having received--It was this that constituted their "faith."

If they had "received" THE THING PROMISED (so "the

promises" here mean: the plural is used because of the frequent

renewal of the promise to the patriarchs:

Heb 11:17

says he did receive the promises, but not the thing

promised), it would have been sight, not faith.

seen them afar off--

(Joh 8:56).

Christ, as the Word, was preached to the Old Testament believers, and

so became the seed of life to their souls, as He is to ours.

and were persuaded of them--The oldest manuscripts omit this

clause.

embraced them--as though they were not "afar off," but within

reach, so as to draw them to themselves and clasp them in their

embrace. TRENCH denies that the Old Testament

believers embraced them, for they only saw them afar off:

he translates, "saluted them," as the homeward-bound mariner,

recognizing from afar the well-known promontories of his native land.

ALFORD translates, "greeted them." Jacob's

exclamation, "I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord"

(Ge 49:18)

is such a greeting of salvation from afar

[DELITZSCH].

confessed . . . were strangers--so Abraham to the

children of Heth

(Ge 23:4);

and Jacob to Pharaoh

(Ge 47:9;

Ps 119:19).

Worldly men hold fast the world; believers sit loose to it.

Citizens of the world do not confess themselves "strangers on

the earth."

pilgrims--Greek, "temporary (literally, 'by the way')

sojourners."

on the earth--contrasted with "an heavenly"

(Heb 11:16):

"our citizenship is in heaven" (Greek:

Heb 10:34;

Ps 119:54;

Php 3:20).

"Whosoever professes that he has a Father in heaven, confesses himself

a stranger on earth; hence there is in the heart an ardent longing,

like that of a child living among strangers, in want and grief, far

from his fatherland" [LUTHER]. "Like ships in seas

while in, above the world."

14. For--proof that "faith"

(Heb 11:13)

was their actuating principle.

declare plainly--make it plainly evident.

seek--Greek, "seek after"; implying the direction

towards which their desires ever tend.

a country--rather as Greek, "a fatherland." In confessing

themselves strangers here, they evidently imply that they regard

not this as their home or fatherland, but seek after another and a

better.

15. As Abraham, had he desired to leave his pilgrim life in

Canaan, and resume his former fixed habitation in Ur, among the carnal

and worldly, had in his long life ample opportunities to have done so;

and so spiritually, as to all believers who came out from the world to

become God's people, they might, if they had been so minded, have

easily gone back.

16. Proving the truth that the old fathers did not, as some

assert, "look only for transitory promises" [Article VII, Book of

Common Prayer].

now--as the case is.

is not ashamed--Greek, "Is not ashamed of them." Not

merely once did God call himself their God, but He is

NOW not ashamed to have Himself called so, they

being alive and abiding with Him where He is. For, by the law,

God cannot come into contact with anything dead. None remained dead in

Christ's presence

(Lu 20:37, 38).

He who is Lord and Maker of heaven and earth, and all things therein,

when asked, What is Thy name? said, omitting all His other titles, "I

am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob"

[THEODORET]. Not only is He not ashamed,

but glories in the name and relation to His people. The "wherefore"

does not mean that God's good pleasure is the meritorious, but

the gracious, consequence of their obedience (that obedience

being the result of His Spirit's work in them in the first instance).

He first so "called" Himself, then they so called Him.

for--proof of His being "their God," namely, "He hath

prepared (in His eternal counsels,

Mt 20:23; 25:34,

and by the progressive acts of redemption,

Joh 14:2)

for them a city," the city in which He Himself reigns, so that their

yearning desires shall not be disappointed

(Heb 11:14, 16).

a city--on its garniture by God (compare

Re 21:10-27).

17. offered up--literally, "hath offered up," as if the work and

its praise were yet enduring [ALFORD]. As far as

His intention was concerned, he did sacrifice Isaac; and in actual fact

"he offered him," as far as the presentation of him on the altar as an

offering to God is concerned.

tried--Greek, "tempted," as in

Ge 22:1.

Put to the proof of his faith. Not that God "tempts" to

sin, but God "tempts" in the sense of proving or

trying

(Jas 1:13-15).

and--and so.

he that had received--rather as Greek, "accepted," that

is, welcomed and embraced by faith, not merely "had the

promises," as in

Heb 7:6.

This added to the difficulty in the way of his faith, that it was in

Isaac's posterity the promises were to be fulfilled; how then could

they be fulfilled if Isaac were sacrificed?

offered up--rather as Greek, "was offering up"; he was in

the act of offering.

his only-begotten son--Compare

Ge 22:2,

"Take now thy son, thine only son." EUSEBIUS

[The Preparation of the Gospel, 1.10, and 4.16], has preserved a

fragment of a Greek translation of Sanchoniatho, which mentions

a mystical sacrifice of the Phœnicians, wherein a prince in royal

robes was the offerer, and his only son was to be the victim: this

evidently was a tradition derived from Abraham's offering, and handed

down through Esau or Edom, Isaac's son. Isaac was Abraham's

"only-begotten son" in respect of Sarah and the promises: he sent away

his other sons, by other wives

(Ge 25:6).

Abraham is a type of the Father not sparing His only-begotten Son to

fulfil the divine purpose of love. God nowhere in the Mosaic law

allowed human sacrifices, though He claimed the first-born of Israel as

His.

18. Of whom--rather as Greek "He (Abraham, not

Isaac) TO whom it was said" [ALFORD]. BENGEL supports English Version. So

Heb 1:7

uses the same Greek preposition, "unto," for "in respect to," or

"of." This verse gives a definition of the "only-begotten Son"

(Heb 11:17).

in Isaac shall thy seed be called--

(Ge 21:12).

The posterity of Isaac alone shall be accounted as the seed of Abraham,

which is the heir of the promises

(Ro 9:7).

19. Faith answered the objections which reason brought against

God's command to Abraham to offer Isaac, by suggesting that what God

had promised He both could and would perform, however impossible the

performance might seem

(Ro 4:20, 21).

able to raise him--rather, in general, "able to raise

from the dead." Compare

Ro 4:17,

"God who quickeneth the dead." The quickening of Sarah's dead womb

suggested the thought of God's power to raise even the dead, though no

instance of it had as yet occurred.

he received him--"received him back"

[ALFORD].

in a figure--Greek, "in a parable." ALFORD explains, "Received him back, risen from that

death which he had undergone in, under, the figure of the ram."

I prefer with BISHOP PEARSON,

ESTIUS, and GREGORY OF NYSSA, understanding the figure to be the

representation which the whole scene gave to Abraham of Christ in His

death (typified by Isaac's offering in intention, and the ram's actual

substitution answering to Christ's vicarious death), and in His

resurrection (typified by Abraham's receiving him back alive from the

jaws of death, compare

2Co 1:9, 10);

just as on the day of atonement the slain goat and the scapegoat

together formed one joint rite representing Christ's death and

resurrection. It was then that Abraham saw Christ's day

(Joh 8:56):

accounting God was able to raise even from the dead: from which state

of the dead he received him back as a type of the resurrection in

Christ.

20. Jacob is put before Esau, as heir of the chief, namely, the

spiritual blessing.

concerning things to come--Greek, "even concerning

things to come": not only concerning things present. Isaac, by

faith, assigned to his sons things future, as if they were

present.

21. both the sons--Greek, "each of the sons"

(Ge 47:29; 48:8-20).

He knew not Joseph's sons, and could not distinguish them by sight, yet

he did distinguish them by faith, transposing his hands

intentionally, so as to lay his right hand on the younger, Ephraim,

whose posterity was to be greater than that of Manasseh: he also

adopted these grandchildren as his own sons, after having transferred

the right of primogeniture to Joseph

(Ge 48:22).

and worshipped--This did not take place in immediate connection

with the foregoing, but before it, when Jacob made Joseph swear that he

would bury him with his fathers in Canaan, not in Egypt. The assurance

that Joseph would do so filled him with pious gratitude to God, which

he expressed by raising himself on his bed to an attitude of

worship. His faith, as Joseph's

(Heb 11:22),

consisted in his so confidentially anticipating the fulfilment of God's

promise of Canaan to his descendants, as to desire to be buried there

as his proper possession.

leaning upon the top of his staff--

Ge 47:31,

Hebrew and English Version, "upon the bed's head." The

Septuagint translates as Paul here. JEROME

justly reprobates the notion of modern Rome, that Jacob worshipped

the top of Joseph's staff, having on it an image of Joseph's power,

to which Jacob bowed in recognition of the future sovereignty of his

son's tribe, the father bowing to the son! The Hebrew, as

translated in English Version, sets it aside: the bed is

alluded to afterwards

(Ge 48:2; 49:33),

and it is likely that Jacob turned himself in his bed so as to

have his face toward the pillow,

Isa 38:2

(there were no bedsteads in the East). Paul by adopting the

Septuagint version, brings out, under the Spirit, an

additional fact, namely, that the aged patriarch used his

own (not Joseph's) staff to lean on in worshipping on his

bed. The staff, too, was the emblem of his pilgrim state

here on his way to his heavenly city

(Heb 11:13, 14),

wherein God had so wonderfully supported him.

Ge 32:10,

"With my staff I passed over Jordan, and now I am become," &c.

(compare

Ex 12:11;

Mr 6:8).

In

1Ki 1:47,

the same thing is said of David's "bowing on his bed," an act of

adoring thanksgiving to God for God's favor to his son before death. He

omits the more leading blessing of the twelve sons of Jacob; because

"he plucks only the flowers which stand by his way, and leaves the

whole meadow full to his readers" [DELITZSCH in

ALFORD].

22. when he died--"when dying."

the departing--"the exodus"

(Ge 50:24, 25).

Joseph's eminent position in Egypt did not make him regard it as his

home: in faith he looked to God's promise of Canaan being fulfilled and

desired that his bones should rest there: testifying thus: (1) that he

had no doubt of his posterity obtaining the promised land: and (2) that

he believed in the resurrection of the body, and the enjoyment in it of

the heavenly Canaan. His wish was fulfilled

(Jos 24:32;

Ac 4:16).

23. parents--So the Septuagint has the plural, namely,

Amram and Jochebed

(Nu 26:59);

but in

Ex 2:2,

the mother alone is mentioned; but doubtless Amram sanctioned all she

did, and secrecy. being their object, he did not appear prominent in

what was done.

a proper child--Greek, "a comely child."

Ac 7:20,

"exceeding fair," Greek, "fair to God." The "faith" of his

parents in saving the child must have had some divine revelation to

rest on (probably at the time of his birth), which marked their

"exceeding fair" babe as one whom God designed to do a great work by.

His beauty was probably "the sign" appointed by God to assure

their faith.

the king's commandment--to slay all the males

(Ex 1:22).

24. So far from faith being opposed to Moses, he

was an eminent example of it [BENGEL].

refused--in believing self-denial, when he might possibly have

succeeded at last to the throne of Egypt. Thermutis, Pharaoh's

daughter, according to the tradition which Paul under the Spirit

sanctions, adopted him, as JOSEPHUS says, with the

consent of the king. JOSEPHUS states that when a

child, he threw on the ground the diadem put on him in jest, a presage

of his subsequent formal rejection of Thermutis' adoption of him. Faith

made him to prefer the adoption of the King of kings, unseen, and so to

choose

(Heb 11:25, 26)

things, the very last which flesh and blood relish.

25. He balanced the best of the world with the worst of

religion, and decidedly chose the latter. "Choosing" implies a

deliberate resolution, not a hasty impulse. He was forty years old, a

time when the judgment is matured.

for a season--If the world has "pleasure" (Greek,

"enjoyment") to offer, it is but "for a season." If religion bring with

it "affliction," it too is but for a season; whereas its "pleasures are

for evermore."

26. Esteeming--Inasmuch as he esteemed.

the reproach of Christ--that is, the reproach which falls on the

Church, and which Christ regards as His own reproach, He being the

Head, and the Church (both of the Old and New Testament) His body.

Israel typified Christ; Israel's sufferings were Christ's sufferings

(compare

2Co 1:5;

Col 1:24).

As uncircumcision was Egypt's reproach, so circumcision was the

badge of Israel's expectation of Christ, which Moses especially

cherished, and which the Gentiles reproached Israel on account of.

Christ's people's reproach will ere long be their great glory.

had respect unto, &c.--Greek, "turning his eyes away

from other considerations, he fixed them on the (eternal)

recompense"

(Heb 11:39, 40).

27. not fearing the wrath of the king--But in

Ex 2:14

it is said, "Moses feared, and fled from the face of Pharaoh." He was

afraid, and fled from the danger where no duty called him to

stay (to have stayed without call of duty would have been to tempt

Providence, and to sacrifice his hope of being Israel's future

deliverer according to the divine intimations; his great aim,

see on

Heb 11:23).

He did not fear the king so as to neglect his duty and not

return when God called him. It was in spite of the king's

prohibition he left Egypt, not fearing the consequences which were

likely to overtake him if he should be caught, after having, in

defiance of the king, left Egypt. If he had stayed and resumed his

position as adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, his slaughter of the

Egyptian would doubtless have been connived at; but his resolution to

take his portion with oppressed Israel, which he could not have done

had he stayed, was the motive of his flight, and constituted the

"faith" of this act, according to the express statement here. The

exodus of Moses with Israel cannot be meant here, for it was made, not

in defiance, but by the desire, of the king. Besides, the chronological

order would be broken thus, the next particular specified here, namely,

the institution of the Passover, having taken place before

the exodus. Besides, it is Moses' personal history and faith

which are here described. The faith of the people ("THEY passed") is not introduced till

Heb 11:29.

endured--steadfast in faith amidst trials. He had fled,

not so much from fear of Pharaoh, as from a revulsion of

feeling in finding God's people insensible to their high destiny, and

from disappointment at not having been able to inspire them with those

hopes for which he had sacrificed all his earthly prospects. This

accounts for his strange reluctance and despondency when commissioned

(Ex 3:15; 4:1, 10-12).

seeing him . . . invisible--as though he had not to do

with men, but only with God, ever before his eyes by faith, though

invisible to the bodily eye

(Ro 1:20;

1Ti 1:17; 6:16).

Hence he feared not the wrath of visible man; the characteristic

of faith

(Heb 11:1;

Lu 12:4, 5).

28. kept--Greek, "hath kept," the Passover being,

in Paul's day, still observed. His faith here was his belief in

the invisible God's promise that the destroying angel should pass

over, and not touch the inmates of the blood-sprinkled

houses

(Ex 12:23).

"He acquiesced in the bare word of God where the thing itself was not

apparent" [CALVIN].

the first-born--Greek neuter; both of man and

beast.

29. they--Moses and Israel.

Red Sea--called so from its red seaweed, or rather from Edom

(meaning "red"), whose country adjoined it.

which . . . assaying to do--Greek, "of which

(Red Sea) the Egyptians having made experiment." Rashness and

presumption mistaken by many for faith; with similar rash

presumption many rush into eternity. The same thing when done by the

believer, and when done by the unbeliever, is not the same thing

[BENGEL]. What was faith in Israel, was

presumption in the Egyptians.

were drowned--Greek, "were swallowed up," or "engulfed."

They sank in the sands as much as in the waves of the Red Sea. Compare

Ex 15:12,

"the earth swallowed them."

30. The soundings of trumpets, though one were to sound for ten

thousand years, cannot throw down walls, but faith can do all

things [CHRYSOSTOM].

seven days--whereas sieges often lasted for years.

31. Rahab showed her "faith" in her confession,

Jos 2:9, 11,

"I know that Jehovah hath given you the land; Jehovah your God, is God

in heaven above, and in earth beneath."

the harlot--Her former life adds to the marvel of her

repentance, faith, and preservation

(Mt 21:31, 32).

believed not--Greek, "were disobedient," namely, to the

will of God manifested by the miracles wrought in behalf of Israel

(Jos 2:8-11).

received--in her house

(Jos 2:1, 4, 6).

with peace--peaceably; so that they had nothing to fear in her

house. Thus Paul, quoting the same examples

(Heb 11:17, 31)

for the power of faith, as James

(Jas 2:21, 25;

see on

Jas 2:21;

Jas 2:25)

does for justification by works evidentially, shows that in

maintaining justification by faith alone, he means not a dead faith,

but "faith which worketh by love"

(Ga 5:6).

32. the time--suitable for the length of an Epistle. He

accumulates collectively some out of many examples of faith.

Gideon--put before Barak, not chronologically, but as being more

celebrated. Just as Samson for the same reason is put before

Jephthæ. The mention of Jephthæ as an example of "faith,"

makes it unlikely he sacrificed the life of his daughter for a

rash vow. David, the warrior king and prophet, forms the transition

from warrior chiefs to the "prophets," of whom "Samuel" is mentioned as

the first.

33. subdued kingdoms--as David did

(2Sa 8:1,

&c.); so also Gideon subdued Midian

(Jud 7:1-25).

wrought righteousness--as Samuel did

(1Sa 8:9; 12:3-23; 15:33);

and David

(2Sa 8:15).

obtained promises--as "the prophets"

(Heb 11:32)

did; for through them the promises were given (compare

Da 9:21)

[BENGEL]. Rather, "obtained the fulfilment

of promises," which had been previously the object of their

faith

(Jos 21:45;

1Ki 8:56).

Indeed, Gideon, Barak, &c., also obtained the things which God

promised. Not "the promises," which are still future

(Heb 11:13, 39).

stopped the mouths of lions--Note the words, "because he

believed in his God." Also Samson

(Jud 14:6),

David

(1Sa 17:34-37),

Benaiah

(2Sa 23:20).

34. Quenched the violence of fire--

(Da 3:27).

Not merely "quenched the fire," but "quenched the power (so the

Greek) of the fire."

Da 3:19-30

and 6:12-23

record the last miracles of the Old Testament. So the martyrs of the

Reformation, though not escaping the fire, were delivered from

its having power really or lastingly to hurt them.

escaped . . . sword--So Jephthah

(Jud 12:3);

and so David escaped Saul's sword

(1Sa 18:11; 19:10, 12);

Elijah

(1Ki 19:1,

&c.; 2Ki 6:14).

out of weakness . . . made strong--Samson

(Jud 16:28; 15:19).

Hezekiah

(Isa 37:1-38:22).

MILTON says of the martyrs, "They shook the powers

of darkness with the irresistible power of weakness."

valiant in fight--Barak

(Jud 4:14, 15).

And the Maccabees, the sons of Matthias, Judas, Jonathan, and Simon,

who delivered the Jews from their cruel oppressor, Antiochus of Syria.

armies--literally, "camps" referring to

Jud 7:21.

But the reference may be to the Maccabees having put to flight the

Syrians and other foes.

35. Women received their dead raised--as the widow of Zarephath

(1Ki 17:17-24).

The Shunammite

(2Ki 4:17-35).

The two oldest manuscripts read. "They received women of aliens by

raising their dead."

1Ki 17:24

shows that the raising of the widow's son by Elijah led her to the

faith, so that he thus took her into fellowship, an alien

though she was. Christ, in

Lu 4:26,

makes especial mention of the fact that Elijah was sent to an alien

from Israel, a woman of Sarepta. Thus Paul may quote this as an

instance of Elijah's faith, that at God's command he went to a Gentile

city of Sidonia (contrary to Jewish prejudices), and there, as the

fruit of faith, not only raised her dead son, but received her

as a convert into the family of God, as Vulgate reads. Still,

English Version may be the right reading.

and--Greek, "but"; in contrast to those raised again to

life.

tortured--"broken on the wheel." Eleazar

(2 Maccabees 6:18, end;

2 Maccabees 19:20,30).

The sufferer was stretched on an instrument like a drumhead and

scourged to death.

not accepting deliverance--when offered to them. So the seven

brothers,

2 Maccabees 7:9, 11, 14, 29, 36;

and Eleazar,

2 Maccabees 6:21, 28, 30,

"Though I might have been delivered from death, I endure these severe

pains, being beaten."

a better resurrection--than that of the women's children "raised

to life again"; or, than the resurrection which their foes could give

them by delivering them from death

(Da 12:2;

Lu 20:35;

Php 3:11).

The fourth of the brethren (referring to

Da 12:2)

said to King Antiochus, "To be put to death by men, is to be chosen to

look onward for the hopes which are of God, to be raised up again by

Him; but for thee there is no resurrection to life." The writer of

Second Maccabees expressly disclaims inspiration, which prevents

our mistaking Paul's allusion here to it as if it sanctioned the

Apocrypha as inspired. In quoting Daniel, he quotes a book claiming

inspiration, and so tacitly sanctions that claim.

36. others--of a different class of confessors for the

truth (the Greek is different from that for "others,"

Heb 11:35,

alloi, heteroi).

trial--testing their faith.

imprisonment--as Hanani

(2Ch 16:10),

imprisoned by Asa. Micaiah, the son of Imlah, by Ahab

(1Ki 22:26, 27).

37. stoned--as Zechariah, son of Jehoiada

(2Ch 24:20-22;

Mt 23:35).

sawn asunder--as Isaiah was said to have been by Manasseh; but

see my

Introduction

to Isaiah.

tempted--by their foes, in the midst of their tortures,

to renounce their faith; the most bitter aggravation of them. Or else,

[ESTIUS]; or by the fiery darts of Satan, as Jesus

was in His last trials [GLASSIUS]. Probably it

included all three; they were tempted in every possible way, by

friends and foes, by human and satanic agents, by caresses and

afflictions, by words and deeds, to forsake God, but in vain, through

the power of faith.

sword--literally, "they died in the murder of the sword." In

Heb 11:34

the contrary is given as an effect of faith, "they escaped the

edge of the sword." Both alike are marvellous effects of faith. In both

accomplishes great things and suffers great things, without counting it

suffering [CHRYSOSTOM]. Urijah was so slain by

Jehoiakim

(Jer 26:23);

and the prophets in Israel

(1Ki 19:10).

in sheepskins--as Elijah

(1Ki 19:13,

Septuagint). They were white; as the "goat-skins" were

black (compare

Zec 13:4).

tormented--Greek, "in evil state."

38. Of whom the world was not worthy--So far from their being

unworthy of living in the world, as their exile in deserts, &c., might

seem to imply, "the world was not worthy of them." The world, in

shutting them out, shut out from itself a source of blessing; such as

Joseph proved to Potiphar

(Ge 39:5),

and Jacob to Laban

(Ge 30:27).

In condemning them, the world condemned itself.

caves--literally, "chinks." Palestine, from its hilly character,

abounds in fissures and caves, affording shelter to the

persecuted, as the fifty hid by Obadiah

(1Ki 18:4, 13)

and Elijah

(1Ki 19:8, 13);

and Mattathias and his sons

(1 Maccabees 2:28, 29);

and Judas Maccabeus

(2 Maccabees 5:27).

39. having obtained a good report--Greek, "being borne

witness of." Though they were so, yet "they received not the

promise," that is, the final completion of "salvation"

promised at Christ's coming again

(Heb 9:28);

"the eternal inheritance"

(Heb 9:15).

Abraham did obtain the very thing promised

(Heb 6:15)

in part, namely, blessedness in soul after death, by

virtue of faith in Christ about to come. The full blessedness of

body and soul shall not be till the full number of the elect shall be

accomplished, and all together, no one preceding the other, shall enter

on the full glory and bliss. Moreover, in another point of view, "It is

probable that some accumulation of blessedness was added to holy souls,

when Christ came and fulfilled all things even as at His burial many

rose from the dead, who doubtless ascended to heaven with Him"

[FLACIUS in BENGEL]. (Compare

Note, see on

Eph 4:8).

The perfecting of believers in title, and in respect to

conscience, took place once for all, at the death of Christ, by virtue

of His being made by death perfect as Saviour. Their

perfecting in soul at, and ever after Christ's death, took

place, and takes place at their death. But the universal and final

perfecting will not take place till Christ's coming.

40. provided--with divine forethought from eternity (compare

Ge 22:8, 14).

some better thing for us--

(Heb 7:19);

than they had here. They had not in this world, "apart from us" (so the

Greek is for "without us," that is, they had to wait for us

for), the clear revelation of the promised salvation actually

accomplished, as we now have it in Christ; in their state, beyond the

grave their souls also seem to have attained an increase of

heavenly bliss on the death and ascension of Christ; and they

shall not attain the full and final glory in body and soul (the

regeneration of the creature), until the full number of the elect

(including us with them) is completed. The Fathers, CHRYSOSTOM, &c., restricted the meaning of

Heb 11:39, 40

to this last truth, and I incline to this view. "The connection is,

You, Hebrews, may far more easily exercise patience than Old Testament

believers; for they had much longer to wait, and are still waiting

until the elect are all gathered in; you, on the contrary, have not to

wait for them" [ESTIUS]. I think his object in

these verses

(Heb 11:39, 40)

is to warn Hebrew Christians against their tendency to relapse into

Judaism. "Though the Old Testament worthies attained such

eminence by faith, they are not above us in privileges, but the

reverse." It is not we who are perfected with them, but

rather they with us. They waited for His coming; we enjoy

Him as having come

(Heb 1:1; 2:3).

Christ's death, the means of perfecting what the Jewish law

could not perfect, was reserved for our time. Compare

Heb 12:2,

"perfecter (Greek) of our faith." Now that Christ is

come, they in soul share our blessedness, being "the spirits of the

just made perfect"

(Heb 12:23);

so ALFORD; however, see on

Heb 12:23.

Heb 9:12

shows that the blood of Christ, brought into the heavenly holy place by

Him, first opened an entrance into heaven (compare

Joh 3:13).

Still, the fathers were in blessedness by faith in the Saviour to come,

at death

(Heb 6:15;

Lu 16:22).