Hebrews 11:1-40 - Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary (2024)

FAQs

What is the main idea of Hebrews 11:1-40? ›

In such cases of apostasy, one will fail to obtain the promises of God. This warning is contrasted in Hebrews 11:1–40 where faith is described as a persevering hope in the promises of God. By way of demonstration, the author offers a sweeping look at the actions of God's people through redemptive history.

“Hebrews 11 tells us what it means to have faith and obtain life. Those with true faith accept God's word, focusing on assurance about what we do not see, looking beyond the situation as it can be perceived by natural vision. By exercising this kind of faith the ancients gained the warm commendation of God.

Here is the ESV comment on Hebrews 11:40: The perfection of believers is the goal, accomplished through the work of the perfect Son of God. The Old Testament saints, along with those of this era, will partake together of the same end-times perfection – sinless selves in deathless, resurrection bodies.

What does Hebrews 11:1 mean? Faith is having absolute confidence ("assurance") that things in the future and unseen ("hoped for") will happen just as God has said they will. So, things not seen, are still real.

11 Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were too old to have children. But Abraham believed God's promise that they would have children. He trusted God to do what he had promised. As a result of his faith , God made it possible for him and Sarah to have a baby.

Context Summary

In this passage, the writer demonstrates that godly faith is really ''trust. '' What we have seen of God's nature and character should lead us to trust Him, and trust naturally leads to obedience.

God's Promises Might Not Come in Our Time

Hebrews 11 provides other examples of people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Sarah in the Bible who lived by faith, but the chapter reminds us of an important lesson: God's promises might not be delivered on our timeline.

The premise of Hebrews 11 is that we are called to be like those who came before us. Not only in the way that they lived, but also in the way that they died. And Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Jacob all died in faith, believing God, even though they never received fully what was promised to them.

The book of Hebrews has two primary purposes: to encourage Christians to endure, and to warn them not to abandon their faith in Christ. These warning passages appear throughout the book (2:1–4; 3:7–4:13; 5:11–6:12; 10:19–39; 12:1–29). The author encourages faithfulness, love, and sound doctrine.

God will bless all who trust Him with eternal rewards (He 11:39, 40). “All these” refers to both groups. They all gained approval (or “a testimony”) through their faith, yet none received “the promise” (literal translation). Abraham received the promise of Isaac (He 11:17-note).

What does Hebrews chapter 11 verse three mean? ›

GOD'S WORD Translation (GW) 3 Faith convinces us that God created the world through his word. This means what can be seen was made by something that could not be seen.

The author is anonymous, although the internal reference to "our brother Timothy" (Hebrews 13:23) 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.

Simply put, chapter 11, called the “Hall of faith” or “Faith Hall of fame,” is a list of men and women who were determined to follow God. Though they lived in different times and faced different circ*mstances, each of them chose to show loyalty to the Lord.

On these grounds, faith is the result of current belief systems as shaped by experience, whereas hope is the product of desiring a future state of affairs. And while the two are intimately connected, (2) is the best expression of the relationship between faith and hope.

Epistle: Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16.

This passage is an attempt to define faith. For children, faith is trust. Abraham and Sarah trusted God when they were called to move to an unknown land, and also when God promised them a son, though they knew they were too old to have children.

He is also a positive example… how to repent and turn back to the Lord after we have sinned. He is an example in that he points us to God. If God is willing to show mercy toward David at the lowest point in his life, there is hope for us. If David found God's grace in the aftermath of his sin, we can too.

The meaning of Hebrews 11:1 is about having confidence and hope in the promised word of God as revealed to you. It is taking God at His words knowing that He is too faithful to fail, and will never go back on His promises because He is not a man that He should lie.

Throughout the book of Hebrews, the audience is challenged to remain faithful to Jesus, who is greater than the heroes of the faith. We should look to the giants of the faith found in the Hebrew Bible as examples for how to live despite hardships and persecution.

The message of Hebrews for the global church is that Jesus is better than every other thing believers are tempted to fall back into, such as their formers ways of sin, culturally comfortable patterns of thinking or living, or non-Christian ethical codes.