Hebrews 11


Hebrews 11 is the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The author is anonymous, although the internal reference to "our brother Timothy" causes a traditional attribution to Paul, but this attribution has been disputed since the second century and there is no decisive evidence for the authorship. This chapter contains the exposition about the examples of faith's effective expression.

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 40 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
  • Papyrus 46
  • Papyrus 13
  • Codex Vaticanus
  • Codex Sinaiticus
  • Codex Alexandrinus
  • Codex Freerianus
  • Codex Claromontanus.

    Old Testament references

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    New Testament references

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    Introductory remarks on faith (verses 1–3)

The chapter opens with three allusive verses to describe the complexity of faith.

Verse 1

Formal definition of faith is in the style of Plato's definition of medicine or Plutarch's definition of curiosity.

Verse 2

The accounts of exemplary people were often used to motivate people, either to imitate noble attitudes or to avoid the pattern of ignoble behaviors, such as Ben Sira uses a long hymn to praise notable Jewish ancestors, or the author of 4 Macabee in 4 Macabee 16:16-23, and Seneca with similar list as in Hebrews 11.

Verse 3

The list of examples starts appropriately with the creation, indicating that "faith" produces "understanding". The first manifestation of "trust" is connected to how a person of "faith" understands the visible creation as 'strictly secondary' to "things unseen".

The primordial heroes (verses 4–7)

The first character, Abel, performed an 'acceptable sacrifice', and died as a martyr. Abel's choice of superior quality of offering compared to Cain's second rate one is related to the presence of "faith", which attests Abel to be "righteous" or "just". Enoch 'pleased God' and was 'translated to heaven' according to Jewish tradition, indicating that having faith in God leads to the transcendence of death. Noah believed in the 'unseen' event of divine judgment, and 'condemned' the world that didn't believe his preaching of repentance. The LXX version of introduces Noah both as "righteous" and "pleasing to God", and thus connects naturally with "righteous" Abel and Enoch, who "pleased God".

Verse 6

This is one of the four things to be 'impossible' according to this epistle.
  • "Must believe that He is": The Arabic version renders "He is" as "He exists".

    Verse 7

Alexander Maclaren recalls that Noah was granted notice of the "coming catastrophe, with its certainties of destruction and of deliverance". He adds

The faith of the patriarchs (verses 8–22)

is a foremost example of faith in Jewish and early Christian literature. Sarah's faith is related to the conception and birth of Isaac, Isaac's to the blessings on Jacob and Esau, Jacob's to the blessings on Ephraim and Manasseh, and Joseph's to the prophecy concerning the transfer of his bones to hint a hope for the future of the family.

The faith of Moses (verses 23–28)

is known as a faithful servant of God in both Jewish and Christian writings.

The faith of prophets and martyrs (verses 29–40)

A group of biblical characters is listed with shorter recounts.

Verse [|35]

There is hope of eternal life after torture in this world.