Lange Commentary - Hebrews 11:1

Lange Commentary - Hebrews 11:1 - 11:7

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Lange Commentary - Hebrews 11:1 - 11:7

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THIRD SECTION

INSPIRITING RETROSPECT OF THE HISTORY OF THE BELIEVING ANCESTORS

I

Edifying examples of faith down to the time of Abraham

Heb_11:1-7

¹ Now [But] faith is the substance of [confidence in] things hoped for, the evidence ²[conviction] of things not seen. For by [in] it the elders obtained a good report. ³Through faith we understand [apprehend intellectually, íïïῦìåí ] that the worlds were [have been] framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear [that not from the things which appear may have sprung that which is seen]. ⁴By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of [over] his gifts; and by it he being dead yet [after dying still] speaketh. ⁵By faith Enoch was translated that he should [in order that he might] not see death; and was not found, because God had [om. had] translated him; for before his [the] translation he had [hath had] this testimony, that he [has] pleased God. ⁶But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is [becometh] a rewarder of [to] them that diligently seek him. ⁷By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear [pious forethought], prepared an ark to [for] the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

[Heb_11:1.— ἔóôéí äÝ ,— ἔóôéí not, as many, “there is faith,” but: “but faith is,” etc.; ἔóôéí a copula, but, as very often in the classics, emphatically placed first,— ὑðüóôáóéò , as occasionally in later Greek, confidence, as Heb_3:14. Not a rhetorical description, but a simple statement of the nature of faith.

Heb_11:2.— ἐìáñôõñÞèçóáí , were attested, received attestation.

Heb_11:3.— íïïῦìåí we perceive with the íïῦò , mind, reason, thus intellectually and rationally (Rom_1:20)— êáôçñôßóèáé , have been (and so stand now) framed. Ôïὺò áἰῶíáò , the ages, hence the worlds, regarded as existing in time.— ῥÞìáôé èåïῦ , by an uttered word, mandate of God (Heb_1:3).— åἰò ôὸ ìÝ , in order that not, the logical purpose of this intellectual perception: ìÝ belongs to the whole clause, but grammatically to ãåãïíÝíáé — ἐê öáéíïìÝíùí , emphatically placed in the clause, thus: in order that not out of things that appear— ìὴ ἐê öáéíïìÝíùí cannot stand for ἐê ìὴ öáéíïì .— ìÞ — ãåãïíÝíáé , not—should have sprung, as it would have done, unless discerned to have been framed by the word of God.

Heb_11:4.— Ìáñôõñïῦíôïò ἐðὶ ôïῖò äῶñïéò , testifying over, on condition of, his gifts: not ðåñὶ ôῶí äþñùí ,— ἀðïèáíὼí ἔôé , after dying, still, ἔôé , logical, under this state of things, viz., even after he was dead (see Gen_4:10).

Heb_11:5.— ôïῦ ìὴ ἰäåῖí , in order that he might not see=experience death: the purpose of the translation, including perhaps also (Alf.) “the purport.”— ðñὸ ôῆò ìåôáèÝóåùò previously to the translation—to the record of it, or to its occurrence as recorded.— ìåìáñôýñçôáé , he hath received testimony, he stands attested to in the record.— åὐáñåóôçêÝíáé , to have pleased.

Heb_11:7.— åὐëáâçèåßò , moved with pious fear or foresight; Alf., taking forethought (see åὐëáâåßáò , Heb_5:7); åἰò óùôçñßáí ,for the saving.—K.].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Heb_11:1.—But faith is confidence in things, etc.—The position of ἔóôé at the beginning of the clause by no means obliges us to the view last defended by Böhme, which was indicated by the Lect. Rec. up to the time of Griesb. by a comma after ðßóôéò . According to this the following words would be in apposition with ðßóôéò , while the real existence ( ἔóôé =there is, there exists) of faith would be asserted with emphasis, for which, however, there is no shadow of an occasion. Rather, the copula is made to precede (and hence as the subst. verb to be accented) in order to call attention to the predicates which characterize the subject (so also Win. since Ed. 5). We are thus to look for a definition of faith, but a definition corresponding to the connection and object of the section: a definition therefore which does not restrict itself to mere Christian and Gospel faith, but presents religious faith in its broadest and most general aspects. The object of this faith is, therefore, in a manner entirely general, but still appropriately and exhaustively, designated as ôὰ ἐëðéæüìåíá and as ðñÜãìáôá ïὐ âëåðüìåíá , designations which do not mutually cover each other, but are concentric, and express the essential relation of the objects of faith to the need and condition of the believing subjects, under both their practical and theoretical aspects. Ὑðüóôáóéò and ἔëåã÷ïò express that which, in this relation, faith is as an affection or act of the mind. The former denotes (com. Heb_3:14) steadfast confidence (Luth., Grot., and most recent intppr); the latter, conviction, (particularly in the conscience) assurance, (August., Calv., Beng., etc.). The refutation of the rendering of ὑðüóôáóéò as substance (Heb_1:3) as in Vulg., Ambros., August., Chrysos., Thorn. Aqu., Schlicht., Beng., Bisp., etc., or as foundation, as with Erasm., Calv., Stein, V. Gerl., etc., or as representation, as with Castal., Paul., Menk.; and of ἔëåã÷ïò , as proof with Vulg., or as inward persuasion with Bl., De W., Lün., Menk., will be found well worth reading in Thol. and Del. In proof of the correctness of his definition the author adduces the fact that ἐí ôáýôῃ , i.e., in point, or in respect of, a faith of such a nature, the ancient fathers have a good report. This meaning of ìáñôõñåῖóèáé is frequent in Acts, and occurs, 3Jn_1:12; 1Ti_5:10. In this latter passage, as here, it is constructed with ἐí , which is neither to be regarded as equivalent to äéÜ in Heb_11:4; Heb_11:39 (Luth., Calv., Grot., Beng., and others); nor need be separated from the verb=in possession of such a faith (Win., Bl., Lün.,), [Moll’s construction is, I think, unobjectionable; there is no difficulty in making ἐí ôáýôῃ directly limit the verb. They gained their attestation in this=in this point, in such a faith they gained a good report.—K.].

Heb_11:3. By faith we understand.— íïïῦìåí . We apprehend with the íïῦò , mind, intelligence. This verse would seem, according to Lün., to be out of place, and in relation to Heb_11:4, to introduce an inharmonious element into the discussion. This unfavorable judgment springs from the erroneous supposition that Heb_11:3 shows merely “the necessity of faith, on our part, in relation to a fact belonging to the past, and recorded in Scripture.” To such a necessity the language has no reference; the passage treats merely of the fact that faith, as an assured conviction of things which are not seen, also evinces itself within us in our rational and spiritual perception of that relation of the creation to the Creator which forms the condition of all history, and all Revelation, while its more full unfolding belongs to the Scripture that commemorates the faith of the fathers.

This faith, resting upon and guided by the Holy Scripture, is the organ within us of that perception of the invisible in and above the visible, and of their reciprocal relation, to which neither the perceptions of sense, nor the deductions of reason of necessity lead. The most natural inference for men would rather be this, that ôὸ âëåðüìåíïí , that which falls under the eye, that which meets our senses, has sprung ἐê öáéíïìÝíùí viz., out of that which belongs to the world of phenomena. This idea of the causal relation of the phenomena to the ôὸ âëåðüìåíïí must be set aside, as shown by the ìὴ ãåíïíÝíáé , which declares that the seen has not sprung from the apparent. The ìÞ belongs (with all the best interpreters since Beza) to ãåãïíÝíáé , and not to ἐê öáéíïìÝíùí With this latter, however, (= ἐê ìὴ öáéí .) it was constructed, after the Peshito, Vulg., Chrys., Theod., by the ancients generally, and recently by Stengel and Ebrard, and taken entirely arbitrarily as=nothing, things nonexistent, while Schlicht., Este, and others, adopting the same construction, conjecture that the author, with his mind on Gen_1:2, ἡ äὲ ãῆ ἦí ἀüñáôïò êáὶ ἀêáôáóêåýáóôïò of the Sept., refers to the visible issuing forth of the organized world from formless and blind chaos. With equal erroneousness most interpreters take the clause åἰò ôὸ ìÞ as denoting result. It, in fact, implies purpose (Hofm., Lün., Del., Riehm). It makes a recognition of the design of God in that framing and arrangement of the world ( êáôçñôßóèáé ) which has been just before described. God, by the Word ( ῥÞìáôé ), which gives authoritative expression to His will, has formed the áἰῶíáò . These Æons ( áἰῶíåò ) are (Heb_1:2) the invisible, spiritual, and permanent potencies of the phenomenal world, of which, at the opening of the epistle, the author has expressly said that they owe their origin to the Son of God, and of which he here says that they were formed, arranged, or put in order by the creative mandate of God. They form the antithesis required by Del., to the ἐê öáéíïìÝíùí , which antithesis he, supposing it not to be expressed, needlessly and erroneously supplies by ἐê ôῶí íïçôῶí , as the intelligible and divine ideas, out of which the world has sprung. The entire confusion which has attended the explanation of this verse, has sprung from erroneously taking áἰῶíáò , ôὰ öáéíüìåíá and ôü âëåðüìåíïí as equivalent designations of the world. Calvin unites the two words, writing ἐêöáéíïìÝíùí as a single word, and takes ôὰ âëåðüìåíá as= êÜôïðôñá , thus rendering “that they might become mirrors of invisible things.” But the construction is harsh and unnatural. [I know no good authority, and no sufficient reason for Moll’s singular explanation of áἰῶíåò . The rendering worlds, either as material worlds (Del.), or as the aggregate of all things existing in time and space, seems far more natural, and meets all the necessary conditions of the passage. The antithesis to the ôὰ öáéíüìåíá ,—as that out of which the ôὸ âëåðüìåíïí has really sprung,—is not the áἰῶíåò as a set of spiritual and invisible potencies (as Moll), nor the ôὰ íïçôÜ , as, with fully equal improbability, supposed by Delitzsch, but simply the ῥῆìá èåïῦ , the sovereign mandate of God. Our sensible perceptions, is the author’s idea, would lead us to regard all that we see as having no deeper origin than the things which are palpable to sense, material and sensuous springing out of material; but faith enables us to trace all to the unseen but omnipotent agency of God.—K.].

Heb_11:4. And by it he, being dead, yet speaketh.—Many, following Chrys., take this language as declaring that the history of Abel contains still a sermon challenging our imitation of him, and that though dead, he still speaks in the testimony of Scripture. Philo finds in it a proof of the immortality of the righteous, and also Del. concludes from the cry of the blood of the righteous entering into the ear of God, that after his death he was still an object of divine care, and is thus an unforgotten, undestroyed, living personage. More correctly remarks Calv. with relation to Psa_116:15 : inde patet reputari inter Dei sanctos, quorum mors illi pretiosa est. For the passage Heb_12:24 shows that the author had in mind Gen_4:10, to wit: the crying of the blood of Abel to God for vengeance. God espoused the cause of Abel on account of his faith, and avenged his murder upon Cain (Riehm). The ëáëåῖ is a historical present, and ἔôé stands not as temporal, but serves to bring out the contrast to ἀðïèáíþí : with this latter word Œc. and Beng. erroneously connect äé ’ áὐôῆò which the former refers to èõóßá as the occasion of his death, while the other supplies ðßóôåùò , taking äéÜ as= ἐí or êáôÜ .

Heb_11:6. For he who cometh to God.—The rendering of Luth., Calov, Ramb., Wittich, Schultz, Ebr., “whoever would (or is to) come to God, as Enoch did,” distorts the words of the text, ὁ ðñïóåñ÷üìåíïò ôῷ èåῷ , which refer to drawing near to God in religious worship, Heb_7:25; Heb_10:1. So also äåῖ denotes here not so much moral obligation, as intrinsic necessity. It completes the proof that Enoch’s translation was a consequence and reward of his faith.

Heb_11:7. Moved with pious foresight.—If åὐëáâçèåßò meant “in the fear of God” Luth., a Lap., etc.), ôὸí èåüí could scarcely have been omitted. Nor is the meaning of “pious trembling before the divine utterance” (Carpz., Böhme, De W., Hofm.), so appropriate as the reference to the foresight with which Noah, in faith in the received ÷ñçìáôéóìὸò ðåñὶ ôῶí ìçäÝðù âëåðïìÝíùí , proceeded to his preparations. To refer the words äé ’ ἠò óùôçñßáí (Bald., etc.) is entirely inadmissible: we may refer them to êéâùôüí (Chrys., Calv., Bez., Grot., Bisp., etc.), while yet to refer them to the main subject of the discourse, ðßóôåé (Primas., Thom. Aquin., Luth., Beng., etc.), is more in harmony with the connection. Noah is the first person in the Old Testament who received the epithet “righteous,” Gen_7:9. It is further repeatedly applied to him, Eze_14:14; Eze_14:20; Sir_44:17; Wis_10:4; Wis_10:6; also 2Pe_2:5 he is called a “preacher of righteousness.”

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

Faith, by virtue of its nature as faith, excludes uncertainty and doubt, Mat_14:31; Mat_21:21; Rom_14:23; Jam_1:6. On the contrary, it involves in principle the confidence of conviction, and the firmness of assurance. It is, however, for this reason also, an assurance of itself, Eph_3:12; not, indeed, as a formal strictly self-conscious, certainty, and reliableness of conviction, but as a conviction of the reality, truth, and saving power of its object. Such a conviction is, in its very nature, not an immediate perception, that excludes all formal argument, nor again a logical assumption, resting on satisfactory grounds of reason. It is a union of the soul with the object of faith, generated by moral and religious influences; and this object again is not, of course, something simply regarded as true, but it brings in the act of faith itself, the proof of its reality, and becomes a part of the living contents of the soul; while the soul is thus, in an undoubting and unwavering certainty, assured of the hoped for blessings, and has an inward conviction of the invisible.

2. It is this characteristic of faith which appears from the beginning as the invariable, indispensable, and unreplaceable condition for the attainment and maintenance of the right relation of men with God, and as such can be established by a series of examples from the Old Testament, which, on the one hand, furnish the proof of the assertion, and on the other, can, and should, serve as comforting and stimulating examples (Sir_44:21).

3. That in and above the visible, invisible powers and agencies, work and hover, can be ascertained, even outside of the historical sphere of revelation. Nature and reason are so constituted, that the former exhibits herself as an aggregation of phenomena, and the latter is qualified to perceive the noumena, which reveal themselves in the phenomena, and can, hence, attain to the recognition of the existence of God, and to the beholding of his invisible attributes (Rom_1:19-20). But that the world is not a manifestation of the divine essence, not a shooting and breaking forth of divine thoughts, not the mere materializing of a divine ideal world, but that in its origin and arrangements, as well of that which is invisible, as of that which is visible, in and upon it, it must be regarded as a work of the will of God, who dwells in eternal self-consciousness, this can be known only on the ground of a positive historical revelation. The perception of this relation of the world to God, demands a faith analogous to faith in its other exhibitions.

4. Faith, however, has not to do merely with the, Scripturally announced fact of the creation and appropriate arrangement of the world by the creating word; we also gain by faith the understanding of this fact, and especially that God’s purpose in this fact is, to make God known as the creator of all things.

5. Those offerings which are expressions of faith, made not merely to fulfil an obligation, but as a result of profound internal conviction, best please God, and receive the testimony of their accordance with the divine will. But faith, as displayed in offerings, has special reference to the divine compassion, whether rendering thanks for benefits received, or yearning after more grace and fresh attestations of favor, or expressing the need of a restoring of that fellowship with God which sin has destroyed, and of representing the fellowship which grace has reëstablished.

6. God remembers the pious not merely after their death, so as to vindicate them and their cause: He has also power to keep them before death, and to prove Himself not merely the avenger, but the deliverer of the believers. The deliverance is complete, when it effects their removal from earth to heaven.

7. Where there is religious approach to God, there at least exists faith in the existence of the invisible God, and faith in the benefits of a diligent seeking of God. This latter can plead great promises of God (Amo_5:4; Psa_69:33), and by them faith, the condition of all divine approval, is strengthened and quickened.

8. Faith not only discerns clearly, by means of divine revelation, still future things, and is certain in respect to their coming, but also in virtue of its nature, involves obedience to the received word, and a full yielding to the arrangements which God has made, and the ordinances which He has enjoined. It is as far removed from an idle waiting for coming events, as from carnal security; and, therefore, while relying most implicitly upon the help of the Lord, fails in no degree in thoughtful foresight and appropriate activity.

9. Faith does not merely, by its confession, utter the judgment of the wicked world; but faith itself constitutes the actual condemnation of the world, which is hindered from using the existing means of deliverance only by its unbelief; while the believer, as a child of God, not only enters into the inheritance secured to him by pious ancestors, but into the inheritance of the righteousness which God imparts, and which, in all respects, corresponds to faith.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Nature and history serve the believer for advancement in faith and for the confirmation of faith.—The faith of man determines not merely the heart of man, but also his condition and his destiny.—Faith in its nature and its effects.—The examples of faith: 1. what they teach us; 2. to what they incite us; 3. with what they comfort us.—God looks not merely at what we do, but also upon what we intend.—God not merely knows His own; He is also mindful of them, and enables them to recognize His approval of them.—God does not merely give Himself to be known; He would also be sought after, and enables every earnest seeker to find Him.—God renders help in time for eternity, yet only to those who make use of the appointed means of aid.—Faith has its labor, its offering, and its burdens; but it has also the approval of God, and the inheritance of righteousness.—Drawing near to God; 1. in its blessing; 2. in its successive stages; 3. in its means.

Starke:—Away with the old and cold proverb; what our eyes see, that we believe (seeing is believing). Faith is trust and not sight.—Believers, as yet, possess not all; the most and the best they must still hope for.—Faith since it has in itself a Divine, persuasive, and convincing power, is as widely distinguished from credulity and illusive fancy as the day from the night, as a living hand from a painted one.—There is but one way to salvation, in the Old Testament as well as in the New, although this way in the New is much easier than in the Old.—Although faith is a spiritual gift of God, which has its seat in the heart, and is invisible, it still remains not unrecognizable; but along with its confession, reveals itself in works as its essential and inseparable fruits.—If a person pleases God by his faith, he pleases Him also by his works; but if, on account of unbelief, the person does not please Him, his works also fail to please Him, however holy they appear in the sight of men.—The remembrance of the righteous remains in blessing (Pro_10:7; Mat_23:35).—Faith brings man into fellowship with God.—They who hasten after another, and seek not God, have from Him no reward of grace to comfort them.—The godly have, even in this life, material aid from their piety.

Hahn:—In every time faith has its proper exercises and objects.—Believers enjoy the happiness of the Divine testimony alike in their own conscience and in their relation to others.—Faith looks into the whole plan of creation alike in respect to the invisible and the visible.

Heubner:—An age without faith is despicable, valueless.—Just as much as man has of faith, so much is there in him of goodness.—All service of God is sanctified only by faith.—Faith in a God who is asleep, and concerns Himself not about the world, is no religion, and brings no happiness.

Rieger:—The eyes of God look after faith, and, without faith, find nothing well pleasing in man.—The lack of sight must hinder none from steadfast adherence to God.

Footnotes:

Heb_11:3.—The reading ìὴ ἐê öáéíïìÝíùí is now established, and the sing, ôὸ âëåçüìåíïí deserves the preference before the plur. of the Rec. after Sin. A. D*. E*. 17.

Heb_11:3.—The reading ôῷ èåῷ in A. D*. 17 received by Lachm. is evidently an error of the copyist. It is corrected in Sin.

Heb_11:4.—Instead of ëáëåῖôáé read ëáëåῖ after Sin. A. 17, 23, 31, 39.

Heb_11:5.— Áὐôïῦ of the Rec. after ìåôáèÝóåùò is, according to A. D*. 17, 67**, 80, to be expunged. In the Sin. it is added by a second hand.

Heb_11:5.—We are to write after Sin. A. K. L., 46, 71, 73, åὐáñåóôçêÝíáé : on the other hand, after Sin. A. D. E., 109 çὑñßóêåôï .

[I of course do not mean to deny the abstract possibility of this, nor to affirm that there are not Greek constructions very nearly or possibly quite analogous to it. I simply mean to say that there is here no such necessity as would alone justify our resorting to it; while again also most of the cases cited in proof of the usage are hardly satisfactory. Thus, in the passage of Thuc. i. 5, ἡãïõìÝíùí ἀíäñῶí ïὐ ôῶí ἀäõíáôùôÜôùí , there is not the slightest necessity for assuming a transposition of the ïὐ . “Men not the most powerless leading” is identical in meaning and equally natural with “men, to wit, those not most powerless.”—K.]

Heb_11:8.—Before êáëïýìåíïò , Lachm., after A. D. (E.?), puts the def. article, but omits it before ôüðïí , after A. D*., and writes with Tisch. after A. D*. K. ἔìåëëåí , instead of ἤìåëëå , as read, however, by Sin., which omits the art. before both êáë . and ôüð .