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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Hebrews 11:13 - 11:13
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
In faith (κατὰ πίστιν)
See on Heb 11:7.
Not having received (μὴ κομισάμενοι)
See on Heb 10:36. They died according to faith, inasmuch as they did not receive. They died under the regimen of faith, and not of sight. For the phrase κομίζειν τὰς ἐπαγγελίας to receive the promises, comp. Heb 10:36; Heb 11:39.
Having seen them afar off (πόρρωθεν αύτὰς ἰδόντες)
By faith; from afar.
Were persuaded of them and embraced them (ἀσπασάμενοι)
The A.V. completely destroys the beauty of this verse. It reads were persuaded, following T.R. πεισθέντες, and translates ἀσπασάμενοι embraced, which is a sort of inferential rendering of the original sense to salute or greet. Rend. “having seen them from afar and greeted them”: as seamen wave their greeting to a country seen far off on the horizon, on which they cannot land. Lünemann appropriately quotes Virgil, Aen. iii. 522:
“Cum proculi obscuros collis humilemque videmus
Italiam. Italiam primus conclamat Achates,
Italiam laeto socii clamore salutant.”
Confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims (ὁμολογήσαντες ὅτι ξένοι καὶ παρεπίδημοι)
They admitted and accepted the fact with the resignation of faith, and with the assurance of future rest. Comp. Gen 23:4; Gen 24:37; Gen 28:4; Gen 47:9; Psa 39:12; Psa 119:19, Psa 119:54. For παρεπίδημοι sojourners, see on 1Pe 1:1. In the anonymous Epistle to Diognetus, an apologetic letter, probably of the second century, and one of the gems of early Christian literature, occur the following words concerning Christians: “They inhabit their own country, but as sojourners: they take part in all things as citizens, and endure all things as aliens: every foreign country is theirs, and every country is foreign.”