ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH AS A PRACTICAL POWER IN LIFE _CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES_ THIS chapter contains a series of illustrations, taken from the heroic ages of Hebrew history, of the nature and influence of faith in God. The writer desires to show that faith makes a motive and inspiration for d... [ Continue Reading ]
_CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES_ Hebrews 11:4. MORE EXCELLENT.—Because Abel made it the offering of _himself_. It is the offering of the man himself, through his sacrifice, that God accepts. DEAD YET SPEAKETH.—Philo says, “Abel—which is most strange—has both been slain and lives.” Hebrews 11:6. BEL... [ Continue Reading ]
_CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES_ Hebrews 11:7. RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS BY FAITH.—Which is according to faith. “Faith in this writer never becomes the same as mystic oneness with Christ, but means general belief in the unseen. And ‘righteousness’ is not ‘justification,’ but faith manifested by obedien... [ Continue Reading ]
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Hebrews 11:13_ Living and Dying in Faith.—This rhetorical chapter, reviewing rapidly the stories of the other saints, could not fail to interest the Jewish Christian readers to whom the epistle was addressed. It illustrates the fact, that the great secret of the m... [ Continue Reading ]
_CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES_ Hebrews 11:19. RECEIVED HIM IN A FIGURE.—Lit. “in a parable.” _Stuart_ thinks the reference is to Abraham’s having originally received Isaac as one born of parents who were virtually dead. But the reference is clearly to the scene on Mount Moriah; and it must mean th... [ Continue Reading ]
_CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES_ Hebrews 11:21. LEANING UPON THE TOP OF HIS STAFF.—Probably meaning “upon the head of the bed”; only this assumes more of a bedstead than was usual among tribal Eastern people. The LXX. rendered _mitteh_, staff, instead of _mittah_, bed. The idea is that aged Jacob, r... [ Continue Reading ]
_CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES_ Hebrews 11:23. PROPER CHILD.—Goodly child; unusual for beauty and signs of intelligence; ἀστεῖον, goodly, fair, beautiful (Acts 7:20, “fair to God”). Hebrews 11:24. REFUSED TO BE CALLED.—This is based wholly on Jewish legends. _MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— He... [ Continue Reading ]
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Hebrews 11:30_ Faith seen in the Jericho Associations.—“The sacred writer has lingered over the life and deeds of the greatest of the patriarchs, and of Moses the legislator of the nation: two examples only—differing in kind from those which have preceded, and pec... [ Continue Reading ]
_CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES_ Hebrews 11:37. SAWN ASUNDER.—The traditional mode of Isaiah’s death. TEMPTED.—_I.e._ severely tested. A conjecture has been made that the word should be ἐπρήσθησαν, they were burned, instead of ἐπειράσθησαν. But it may mean that every effort was made to induce them t... [ Continue Reading ]