After explaining the mystery of Christ's priesthood and his once and for all sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins (4:14-10:18), the author exhorts his listeners to holy living, as they keep in mind the sacrifice of Christ, approaching God as they hold onto the fulness of faith (10:22) and unwaveringly hope in what they confess (10:23) knowing that they are not among those who shrink back and die but among those who have faith and are meant to be saved (10:39). With this mention of "faith" and "hope", the author begins the his recitation of examples from salvation history with a definition of faith (Heb. 11:1).
A Description of the Unit
The section is structured by the word for faith (pistiV) in the ablative case , a phrase that refers to the testimony received by the ancients (2.39) and the names of the "ancients" (presbuteroi) and the faith-events of canonical history. In between the retelling of the stories of the ancients, the author breaks off with two side comments where he explains the necessity of faith for pleasing God (6) and the ancients' hope for their real homeland where God has prepared a city (13-16)
Outline of Hebrews 11:1-40
An outline of the section can be presented thus:
- What faith is (1)
- The ancients received approval because of their faith (2)
- Creation and the word of God (3)
- Abel's sacrifice (4)
- Enoch and his transference (5)
- [Commentary 1, 6]
- Noah and his building an ark (7)
- Abram's obedience (8)
- Abram's sojourn (9-10)
- Abram and Sara's acceptance of the promise to have a son (11-12)
- [Commentary 2, 13-16]
- Abram's sacrifice of Isaac (17)
- Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau (20)
- Jacob blessed Joseph's sons (21)
- Joseph and the Exodus (22)
- Moses hidden by his parents (23)
- Moses' solidarity with Israel (24-26)
- Moses' leaving Egypt (27)
- Moses and the Passover (28)
- Moses and the Red Sea (29)
- Fall of Jericho (30)
- Rahab (31)
- Others (32-38)
- Conclusion (39-40)
Faith, Definition of
Commentators explain the list of names and events following verse 2 as an illustration of the definition of faith given in verse 1. The definition, has been rendered differently in different versions. Here are a few samples:
est autem fides sperandorum substantia rerum argumentum non parentum (Vulgate)
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the euidence of things not seen. (KJV, 1611)
Es ist aber der Glaube eine gewisse Zuversicht des, das man hoffet, und nicht zweifeln an dem, das man nicht siehet. (Luther, 1545)
Or la foi est la garantie des biens que l'on espère, la preuve des réalités qu'on ne voit pas. (JB)
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (NIV)
Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen (NAB)
The different renderings are due to the way the Greek words hypostasis (upostasiV) and elegcoV elenchos is to be interpreted. The renditions for the former swing between a hope that is based objectively (substance, assurance, garantie) or subjectively (eine gewisse Zuversicht, realization, being sure). In the encyclical "Spe salvi", Benedict XVI explains the difficulty and explains why the objective sense of the word should be taken: because the subjective sense introduced by Luther is not native to "hypostasis", a word latinized into "substantia" and has the native and objective meaning of "reality". It is the way the word is translated in Hebrews 3:14:
We have become partners of Christ
if only we hold the beginning of the reality (thV upostasewV) firm
until the end.
Given the objective sense of "hypostasis", the definition means that "the things hoped for" are already in a way objectively present in the very act of faith. Or in other words, what one hopes for is already being made real in the very act of faith.
Word of God
If in the act of faith, there is already the realization of the things one hopes for, what is it that faith believes in? The answer that is given by the author is the "word of God" through which "things visible come into being through invisible things" (v. 3). The reference to creation at the beginning of the list of the ancients and the faith-events of salvation history actually sets up the series of faith-responses elicited by the heroes of old in Hebrews 11. They are responses to the word of God. Thus, Abel's sacrifice, Enoch's pleasing God, Noah's building the Ark, Abram's obedience and trust, and so on, were all responses to the God who engages men with His word. It is the same Word that judges men (Heb. 4:12), which believers have tasted and found to be good (Heb. 6:5) and which motivates the author to encourage his listeners to "demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfillment of your hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises" (Heb. 6:11-12).
Trust in God
The word to which the ancients responded is "of God." In the first side-comment of the author (v.6) the author calls attention to the necessity of faith in pleasing God as Abel and Enoch did. By faith, one "trusts" God, and "seeks" Him. These two verbs are attested in other scriptural passages as characterizations of faith and apply not only to Abel and Enoch, but also to Abram, Sara, and to the rest of the ancients. The verb ekzetew ("to seek") is Greek for the Hebrew biqqesh, which having God as object means -- in the language of the prophets -- the search for God's will. "Trust" is the English synonym for "believing" and is another way of rendering the verb pisteuw (pisteuo, "I believe, I have faith in") Thus, Abram obeys, trusting God, leaving the security of home and taking up the life of a nomad (vv. 8-9). In the same way, too, that he and Sara trusted the promise of a child even though the latter was barren (vv. 11-12). Finally, it was this trust in God's word (v. 18) that made Abram sacrifice Isaac (vv. 17-19).
City of God
The second side-comment of the author calls attention to the "true, heavenly homeland" and "the city" which the ancients saw and welcomed "from afar". The comment is occassioned by Abram's sojourn in foreign lands (vv. 9-10) and the words by which he and Jacob after him acknowledged their status as sojourners (see Gen. 23:4, Gen. 47:9). Thus he writes:
For those who speak in such a way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
In fact, if they had been thinking of the land that they had left,
they would have had opportunity to return.
But as it is, they aspire to a better land,
that is, a heavenly one.
Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God,
for he has prepared a city for them. (Heb. 11:14-16)
In other words, the ancients called no place on earth their home and were not bothered by this because of a better homeland that they welcomed at a distance, where there was a city founded and built by God (v. 10).
A similar argument is found in Heb. 10:32-34 where the author reminds his hearers of the patience with which they endured being dispossessed of goods because they knew of a "more and lasting possession". In both these passages, what is hoped for (the true homeland, the city of God, the more and lasting possession) guarantees the ancients' trust in God's word and in a way is made a reality in the very act of faith.
(Verse 40) The Conclusion
At the end of the author's recitation about the faith of the ancients, the "cloud of witnesses" (Heb. 12:1), he tells his hearers that though approved they did not receive what was promised in their time, but that they should do so, "with us". The Christians have a better reason to remain in the faith and continue in it with unwavering hope because they have seen God's promises being fulfilled in Christ. The ancients on the other hand obtained the promises only after the saving work of Christ had been accomplished and so already enjoy what Christians already have partially but are still struggling to obtain fully
