Hebrews 11:1

Ἔστιν δὲ πίστις ἐλπιζομένων ὑπόστασις … “Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof [manifestation] of things not seen”. When ἔστι stands first in a sentence it sometimes means “there exists,” as in John 5:2; 1 Corinthians 15:44. But it has not necessarily and always this significance, cf. 1 Timothy 6:6; Luke 8:11; Wis 7:1. There is therefore no need to place a comma after πίστις as some have done. The words describe what faith is, although not a strict definition. “Longe falluntur, qui justam fidei definitionem hic poni existimant: neque enim hic de tota fidei natura disserit Apostolus, sed partem elegit suo instituto congruentem, nempe quod cum patientia semper conjuncta sit” (Calvin). ὑπόστασις, literally foundation, that which stands under; hence, the ground on which one builds a hope, naturally gliding into the meaning “assurance,” “confidence,” as in Hebrews 3:14; 2 Corinthians 9:4; 2 Corinthians 11:17; Ruth 1:12; Psalms 39:7, ἡ ὑπόστασίς μου παρὰ σοί ἐστιν. Ἔλεγχος regularly means “proof”. See Demosthenes, passim; especially Agt. Androtion, p. 600, ἔλεγχος, ὦν ἂν εἴπῃ τις καὶ τἀληθὲς ὁμοῦ δείξῃ. It seems never to be used in a subjective sense for “conviction,” “persuasion”; although here this meaning would suit the context and has been adopted by many. To say with Weiss that the subjective meaning must be given to the word that it may correspond with ὑπόστασις is to write the Epistle, not to interpret it. Theophylact renders the clause φανέρωσις ἀδήλων πραγμάτων. Faith is that which enables us to treat as real the things that are unseen. Hatch gives a different meaning to both clauses: “Faith is the ground of things hoped for, i.e., trust in God, or the conviction that God is good and that He will perform His promises, is the ground for confident hope that the things hoped for will come to pass.… So trust in God furnishes to the mind which has it a clear proof that things to which God has testified exist, though they are not visible to the senses.” The words thus become a definition of what faith does, not of what it is. Substantially the words mean that faith gives to things future, which as yet are only hoped for, all the reality of actual present existence; and irresistibly convinces us of the reality of things unseen and brings us into their presence. Things future and things unseen must become certainties to the mind if a balanced life is to be lived. Faith mediating between man and the supersensible is the essential link between himself and God, “for in it lay the commendation of the men of old,” ἐν ταύτῃ γὰρ ἐμαρτυρήθησαν οἱ πρεσβύτεροι. That is, it was on the ground of their possessing faith that the distinguished men of the O.T. received the commendation of God, being immortalised in Scripture. It might almost be rendered “by faith of this kind,” answering to this description. ἐν ταύτῃ has an exact parallel in 1 Timothy 5:10, the widow who is to be placed on the Church register must be ἐν ἔργοις καλοῖς μαρτυρουμένη, well-reported of on the score of good works. οἱ πρεσβύτεροι, those of past generations, men of the O.T. times; as Papias [Euseb., H.E., iii. 39] uses the term to denote the “Fathers of the Church” belonging to the generation preceding his own. The idea that faith is that which God finds pleasure in (Hebrews 10:38) and is that which truly unites to God under the old dispensations as well as under the new is a Pauline thought, Galatians 3:6. This general statement of Hebrews 11:2 is exhibited in detail in the remainder of the chapter; but first the writer shows the excellence of faith in this, that it is by it that we recognise that there is an unseen world and that out of things unseen this visible world has taken rise. This idea is suggested to him because his eye is on Genesis from which he culls the succeeding examples and it is natural that he should begin at the beginning. “Before exhibiting how faith is the principle that rules the life of men in relation to God, down through all history, as it is transacted on the stage of the world, the author shows how this stage itself is brought into connection with God by an act of faith” (Davidson). By faith we perceive, with the mental eye νοοῦμεν, cf. Romans 1:20, that the worlds (αἰῶνας, cf. Hebrews 1:2; the visible world existing in time, the temporary manifestation of the unseen is meant, see Hebrews 1:10-11) have been framed (κατηρτίσθαι, as in Hebrews 10:5, σῶμα δὲ κατηρτίσω μοι. In Hebrews 13:21 καταρτίσαι ὑμᾶς, “perfect you” as in Luke 6:40; 2 Corinthians 13:11; 1 Thessalonians 3:10. The word is perhaps used in the present connection to suggest not a bare calling into existence, but a wise adaptation of part to part and of the whole to its purpose) by God's word, ῥήματι θεοῦ. This is the perception of faith. The word of God is an invisible force which cannot be perceived by sense. The great power which lies at the source of all that is does not itself come into observation; we perceive it only by faith which is (Hebrews 11:1) “the evidence of things not seen”. The result of this creation by an unseen force, the word of God, is that “what is seen has not come into being out of things which appear”. εἰς τὸ … γεγονέναι. εἰς τὸ with infinitive, commonly used to express purpose, is sometimes as here used to express result, and we may legitimately translate “so that what is seen, etc.” Cf. Luke 5:17; Romans 12:3; 2 Corinthians 8:6; Galatians 3:17; 1 Thessalonians 2:16. Cf. Burton, M. and T., 411. μὴ ἐκ φαινομένων, the Vulgate renders “ex invisibilibus,” and the Old Latin “ex non apparentibus” having apparently read ἐκ μὴ φαιν. τὸ βλεπόμενον the singular in place of the plural of T.R. and Vulgate, presents all things visible as unity. Had the visible world been formed out of materials which were subject to human observation, there would have been no room for faith. Science could have traced it to its origin. Evolution only pushes the statement a stage back. There is still an unseen force that does not submit itself to experimental science, and that is the object of faith. To find in this verse an allusion to the noumenal and phenomenal worlds would be fanciful.