Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Hebrews 11

Faith is a present and continuing reality, not simply a virtue sometimes practiced in antiquity. It is a living thing, a way of life the writer wishes to see continued in the practice of his readers. Faith, he tells us, is a “being sure” (GK 5712) of things hoped for. The word used here sometimes has a subjective meaning, as NIV translates it (cf. also “confidence” in 3:14). But it may also be used more objectively (“substance”), though this does not seem to be what the writer is saying. There are realities for which we have no material evidence, though they are not the less real for that. Faith enables us to know that they exist and, while we have no certainty apart from faith, faith does give us genuine certainty. Faith is the basis, the substructure of all that the Christian life means, all that the Christian hopes for.

There is a further ambiguity about the word translated “certain” (GK 1793), which usually signifies a “proof” or “test.” Some take it here as “test” and some see its legal use, while many prefer to understand it in much the same sense as the preceding expression (e.g., NIV). If we were to adopt the meaning “test,” then the author is saying that faith, in addition to being the basis of all that we hope for, is that by which we test things unseen. We have no material way of assessing the significance of the immaterial. But Christians are not helpless. We have faith and by this we test all things. “What we do not see” excludes the entire range of visible phenomena which here stand for all things earthly. Faith extends beyond what we learn from our senses. Its tests are not those of the senses, which yield uncertainty.

“The ancients” (lit., “the elders”; GK 4565), a term that may be used of age or dignity, refers to the religious leaders of past days and means much the same as “the forefathers” in 1:1. These men had witness borne to them on account of their faith. As this chapter unfolds, the writer will go on to bring out some of that testimony and link the heroes of old specifically with faith. This chapter in Hebrews is distinguished from all others by its consistent and single-minded emphasis on faith.

“By faith” runs through the chapter with compelling emphasis. For the most part it is attached to the deeds of the great ones of previous generations. Here, however, the writer and his readers are involved in the “we.” Faith is a present reality, not exclusively the property of past heroes. Faith gives us convictions about creation. Belief in the existence of the world is not faith, nor is it faith when people hold that the world was made out of some preexisting “stuff.” But when we understand that it was the Word of God that produced all things, that is faith. The emphasis on God’s word agrees with Ge 1, with its repeated “And God said.” The point is emphasized with the explicit statement that the visible did not originate from the visible. For the author the visible universe is not sufficient to account for itself. But it is faith, not something material, that assures him that it originated with God. This world is God’s world, and faith assures him that God originated it.

The first example of faith is Abel, who brought God a more acceptable sacrifice than did his brother Cain (Genesis 4:3–7). Scripture never says there was anything inherently superior in Abel’s offering. Some passages refer to Abel as being a righteous man (Matthew 23:35), while the author of Hebrews insists on the importance of Abel’s faith. Abel was right with God, and his offering was a demonstration of his faith.

The passive voice in “was commended” (lit., “it was testified”; GK 3455) implies that God is the subject; he bore witness to Abel’s offerings. This indicates the importance that the author attached to Abel’s sacrifice offered in faith, for rarely is God said to have borne witness. The meaning may be either that on the basis of Abel’s sacrifice God testified to his servant or that God bore witness about the gifts Abel offered. The author then stresses that Abel is not to be thought of as one long-since dead and of no present account. He is dead, but his faith is a living voice.

The NT refers to Enoch only in Lk 3:37,Jude 14, and here. The Hebrew OT says nothing of the manner of his departure from this life, only that God “took” him (Genesis 5:24). But our author follows LXX in speaking of him as “transferred,” which indicates that he did not die, a truth made explicit in the words “he did not experience death.” God “had taken him away” (GK 3572). On “was commended,” see comment on previous verse. Testimony was borne to him, the content of the testimony being that he was “one who pleased God” (cf. Genesis 5:22, 24).