Zetemata

Hebrews 11

The chapter in full, then what it says, what the Greek or Hebrew decides, and where readers have disagreed.

Hebrews 11 WEB
  1. 1 Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.
  2. 2 For by this, the elders obtained approval.
  3. 3 By faith we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible.
  4. 4 By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had testimony given to him that he was righteous, God testifying with respect to his gifts; and through it he, being dead, still speaks.
  5. 5 By faith Enoch was taken away, so that he wouldn't see death, and he was not found, because God translated him. For he has had testimony given to him that before his translation he had been well pleasing to God.
  6. 6 Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.
  7. 7 By faith Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
  8. 8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went.
  9. 9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
  10. 10 For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
  11. 11 By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised.
  12. 12 Therefore as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as innumerable as the sand which is by the sea shore, were fathered by one man, and him as good as dead.
  13. 13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
  14. 14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.
  15. 15 If indeed they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had enough time to return.
  16. 16 But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
  17. 17 By faith, Abraham, being tested, offered up Isaac. Yes, he who had gladly received the promises was offering up his only born son,
  18. 18 to whom it was said, "Your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac,"
  19. 19 concluding that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Figuratively speaking, he also did receive him back from the dead.
  20. 20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even concerning things to come.
  21. 21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.
  22. 22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones.
  23. 23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment.
  24. 24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
  25. 25 choosing rather to share ill treatment with God's people than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a time,
  26. 26 considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked to the reward.
  27. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
  28. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, that the destroyer of the firstborn should not touch them.
  29. 29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as on dry land. When the Egyptians tried to do so, they were swallowed up.
  30. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.
  31. 31 By faith Rahab the prostitute didn't perish with those who were disobedient, having received the spies in peace.
  32. 32 What more shall I say? For the time would fail me if I told of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets—
  33. 33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
  34. 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, grew mighty in war, and caused foreign armies to flee.
  35. 35 Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
  36. 36 Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment.
  37. 37 They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated—
  38. 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth.
  39. 39 These all, having been commended for their faith, didn't receive the promise,
  40. 40 God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Hebrews 11

What is happening

Hebrews is a sermon-length argument addressed to a Christian community — probably Jewish believers in Jesus — under pressure to give up and drift back to the familiar. The writer has spent ten chapters arguing that Jesus is a better high priest offering a better sacrifice under a better covenant than anything the old order provided. Chapter 10 ends with a call to "hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering" (implied by the letter's argument) and a warning against shrinking back. Chapter 11 is the writer's answer to the obvious question: how does anyone hold on to something not yet delivered? The answer is a long roll call of Israel's ancestors, each introduced by the same formula — "by faith" (Πίστει) — who lived and died on the strength of promises they never saw fulfilled in their own lifetimes.

The passage, walked through

The chapter opens with a definition, not a devotional slogan: "faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen" (11:1). The Greek words matter. Hypostasis (ὑπόστασις), rendered "assurance," is a solid word — it can mean a title deed, a foundation, the substance underlying something. Elenchos (ἔλεγχος), "proof," is a legal and logical term — evidence that settles a case. Faith here is not a feeling of optimism; it is being convinced of a reality on grounds other than direct sight. Verse 3 applies this immediately to creation itself: "the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible" — a claim about origins that no one present at creation could verify by observation, and which the writer says is received by faith, not derived from appearances.

From verse 4 the roll call begins, each figure judged not by success but by trust exercised before the outcome arrived. Abel offers "a more excellent sacrifice" and, "being dead, still speaks" — his testimony outlives him (11:4). Enoch is taken so that he does not see death, commended as one who "had been well pleasing to God" (11:5), which the writer generalizes in 11:6 into a flat statement: "without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him," because approaching God requires believing "that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him." This is the chapter's methodological key — faith is defined here as trust that God is both real and responsive, prior to any proof beyond his word.

Noah builds an ark for a flood he has not seen (11:7). Abraham leaves home "not knowing where he went" (11:8) and lives as a resident alien in the land he was promised, "looking for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (11:9–10) — the writer's first hint that the true object of this faith is not Canaan but something beyond it. Sarah conceives "past age" because she "counted him faithful who had promised" (11:11). The section on the patriarchs closes with a summary in 11:13–16 that reframes everything said so far: these people "died in faith, not having received the promises," having only "seen them and embraced them from afar." They confessed themselves "strangers and pilgrims on the earth," and therefore were "seeking a country of their own" — not the old country they had left (they could have gone back, 11:15) but "a better country, that is, a heavenly one" (11:16). Faith, in other words, is not merely believing God will deliver a specific earthly outcome; it survives the outcome's absence because its horizon is bigger than the outcome.

Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac follows (11:17–19), with the writer noting Abraham "concluding that God is able to raise up even from the dead" — reading Genesis 22 through the logic of resurrection before resurrection is otherwise explicit in Scripture. The list moves quickly through Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph blessing sons and giving instructions about their own bones — faith exercised at the point of death, about a future they would not see (11:20–22). Moses gets extended treatment: hidden as an infant, refusing Pharaoh's court, choosing "to share ill treatment with God's people," counting "the reproach of Christ" — a striking anachronism, reading Moses' suffering as somehow already patterned on Christ's — "greater riches than the treasures of Egypt" (11:24–26), enduring "as seeing him who is invisible" (11:27). The Exodus events — Passover, the Red Sea, Jericho, Rahab — follow in rapid summary (11:28–31), and then the writer simply gives up trying to be exhaustive: "the time would fail me if I told of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets" (11:32).

Verses 33–38 pivot from triumph to atrocity without a seam. The same faith that "stopped the mouths of lions" and saw "women receive their dead by resurrection" also produced others who "were tortured, not accepting their deliverance," who were "stoned," "sawn apart," who "wandered in deserts, mountains, caves" — people "of whom the world was not worthy" (11:35–38). The chapter refuses to sort faith's outcomes into winners and losers; deliverance and martyrdom sit in the same list under the same word, Pistei.

The chapter's closing turn is easy to miss and is its real argument: "these all, having been commended for their faith, didn't receive the promise" (11:39). Not one of them, across the whole list — not Abraham, not Moses, not the martyrs — got what was promised in their own lifetime. The reason given is startling: "God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect" (11:40). Their faith reaches forward past their own deaths toward a fulfillment that the letter's readers — and by extension anyone reading this after Christ — are now living inside.

Where readers have disagreed

The chief dispute concerns 11:1 itself: is this a formal definition of faith, or a description of what faith does? The Reformation tradition, reading it alongside passages on justification, has tended to hear it as definitional — faith as the substance of confident trust in God's word against appearances. Others read it more loosely as descriptive of the effect faith has, not an attempt at philosophical precision, noting that the chapter that follows is not a treatise but a narrative gallery. Martin Luther's own gloss elsewhere captures the confident reading: "Faith is a living, unshakeable confidence in God's grace; it is so certain, that someone would die a thousand times for it" (Preface to the Epistle to the Romans) — which is not a comment on Hebrews 11 specifically, but shows how the tradition has heard "assurance" and "proof" as strong, not tentative, words.

A second point of debate: does 11:6 ("without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him") apply narrowly to the patriarchs' situation before Christ, or state a universal principle about approaching God at any point in history? The chapter's own logic — that Abel, before the Law, before Israel, before any covenant sign, is commended for the same faith as Abraham — argues for the universal reading; the writer treats faith as one continuous reality across radically different eras and covenants, not a mechanism unique to any one dispensation.

What it asks of a reader

The chapter does not offer faith as a technique for getting what one wants from God. Every figure in the list either dies before the promise arrives or receives it in a form no one could have anticipated. What the chapter presses is that faith's proper object is not the specific outcome but the character of the one who promised — that he "exists" and is "a rewarder of those who seek him" (11:6) — and that this trust holds whether the visible result is a walled city falling down or a body broken on a rack. The reader is being asked to locate themselves inside an unfinished list: the promise these ancestors died without receiving is one the letter claims has now, in Christ, been given — and to recognize that the same faith that sustained Abel and Moses and the nameless tortured is the faith now asked of anyone reading this text after them. Augustine's formulation names exactly where that leaves a reader: "Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe" (Sermon 43).

The verses this turns on

Hebrews 11:1 WEB
Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.
discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904

Ἔστιν δὲ πίστις ἐλπιζομένων ὑπόστασις, πραγμάτων ἔλεγχος οὐ βλεπομένων.

  • Ἔστιν εἰμί verb · present active indicative, 3rd person singular G1510
  • δὲ δέ conjunction G1161
  • πίστις πίστις noun · nominative singular feminine G4102
  • ἐλπιζομένων ἐλπίζω verb · present middle or passive participle, genitive plural neuter G1679
  • ὑπόστασις, ὑπόστασις noun · nominative singular feminine G5287
  • πραγμάτων πρᾶγμα noun · genitive plural neuter G4229
  • ἔλεγχος ἔλεγχος noun · nominative singular masculine G1650
  • οὐ οὐ particle · nominative G3756
  • βλεπομένων. βλέπω verb · present middle or passive participle, genitive plural neuter G991

Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.

See also 5
  1. 2 Corinthians 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
  2. 2 Corinthians 4:18 while we don't look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
  3. Romans 8:24 For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees?
  4. Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
  5. Hebrews 10:22 let's draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and having our body washed with pure water,
Hebrews 11:4 WEB
By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had testimony given to him that he was righteous, God testifying with respect to his gifts; and through it he, being dead, still speaks.
discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904

Πίστει πλείονα θυσίαν Ἄβελ παρὰ Κάϊν προσήνεγκεν τῷ Θεῷ, δι’ ἧς ἐμαρτυρήθη εἶναι δίκαιος, μαρτυροῦντος ἐπὶ τοῖς δώροις αὐτοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ δι’ αὐτῆς ἀποθανὼν ἔτι λαλεῖ.

  • Πίστει πίστις noun · dative singular feminine G4102
  • πλείονα πολύς adjective · accusative singular feminine G4183
  • θυσίαν θυσία noun · accusative singular feminine G2378
  • Ἄβελ Ἅβελ proper noun (indeclinable) G6
  • παρὰ παρά preposition G3844
  • Κάϊν Κάϊν proper noun (indeclinable) G2535
  • προσήνεγκεν προσφέρω verb · aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular G4374
  • τῷ ὁ article · dative singular masculine G3588
  • Θεῷ, θεός noun · dative singular masculine G2316
  • δι’ διά preposition G1223
  • ἧς ὅς relative pronoun · genitive singular feminine G3739
  • ἐμαρτυρήθη μαρτυρέω verb · aorist passive indicative, 3rd person singular G3140

Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.

See also 5
  1. Genesis 4:3 As time passed, Cain brought an offering to Yahweh from the fruit of the ground.
  2. Hebrews 12:24 to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.
  3. 1 John 3:11 For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another—
  4. Matthew 23:35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.
  5. Genesis 4:10 Yahweh said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground.
Hebrews 11:5 WEB
By faith Enoch was taken away, so that he wouldn't see death, and he was not found, because God translated him. For he has had testimony given to him that before his translation he had been well pleasing to God.
discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904

Πίστει Ἐνὼχ μετετέθη τοῦ μὴ ἰδεῖν θάνατον, καὶ οὐχ ηὑρίσκετο διότι μετέθηκεν αὐτὸν ὁ Θεός. πρὸ γὰρ τῆς μεταθέσεως μεμαρτύρηται εὐαρεστηκέναι τῷ Θεῷ·

  • Πίστει πίστις noun · dative singular feminine G4102
  • Ἐνὼχ Ἑνώχ proper noun (indeclinable) G1802
  • μετετέθη μετατίθημι verb · aorist passive indicative, 3rd person singular G3346
  • τοῦ ὁ article · genitive singular neuter G3588
  • μὴ μή particle · nominative G3361
  • ἰδεῖν ὁράω verb · aorist active infinitive G3708
  • θάνατον, θάνατος noun · accusative singular masculine G2288
  • καὶ καί conjunction G2532
  • οὐχ οὐ particle · nominative G3756
  • ηὑρίσκετο εὑρίσκω verb · imperfect middle or passive indicative, 3rd person singular G2147
  • διότι διότι conjunction G1360
  • μετέθηκεν μετατίθημι verb · aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular G3346

Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.

See also 5
  1. Genesis 5:21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, then became the father of Methuselah.
  2. Jude 1:14 About these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones,
  3. Hebrews 11:6 Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.
  4. 2 Kings 2:11 As they continued on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
  5. Revelation 11:9 From among the peoples, tribes, languages, and nations, people will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not allow their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.
Hebrews 11:6 WEB
Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.
discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904

χωρὶς δὲ πίστεως ἀδύνατον εὐαρεστῆσαι· πιστεῦσαι γὰρ δεῖ τὸν προσερχόμενον τῷ Θεῷ, ὅτι ἔστιν καὶ τοῖς ἐκζητοῦσιν αὐτὸν μισθαποδότης γίνεται.

  • χωρὶς χωρίς adverb G5565
  • δὲ δέ conjunction G1161
  • πίστεως πίστις noun · genitive singular feminine G4102
  • ἀδύνατον ἀδύνατος adjective · nominative singular neuter G102
  • εὐαρεστῆσαι· εὐαρεστέω verb · aorist active infinitive G2100
  • πιστεῦσαι πιστεύω verb · aorist active infinitive G4100
  • γὰρ γάρ conjunction G1063
  • δεῖ δεῖ verb · present active indicative, 3rd person singular G1163
  • τὸν ὁ article · accusative singular masculine G3588
  • προσερχόμενον προσέρχομαι verb · present middle or passive deponent participle, accusative singular masculine G4334
  • τῷ ὁ article · dative singular masculine G3588
  • Θεῷ, θεός noun · dative singular masculine G2316

Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.

See also 5
  1. Proverbs 8:17 I love those who love me. Those who seek me diligently will find me.
  2. Jeremiah 29:13 You shall seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.
  3. Matthew 6:33 But seek first God's Kingdom and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.
  4. 1 Chronicles 28:9 You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.
  5. Psalm 105:3 Glory in his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek Yahweh rejoice.
Hebrews 11:7 WEB
By faith Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904

Πίστει χρηματισθεὶς Νῶε περὶ τῶν μηδέπω βλεπομένων, εὐλαβηθεὶς κατεσκεύασεν κιβωτὸν εἰς σωτηρίαν τοῦ οἴκου αὐτοῦ, δι’ ἧς κατέκρινεν τὸν κόσμον, καὶ τῆς κατὰ πίστιν δικαιοσύνης ἐγένετο κληρονόμος.

  • Πίστει πίστις noun · dative singular feminine G4102
  • χρηματισθεὶς χρηματίζω verb · aorist passive participle, nominative singular masculine G5537
  • Νῶε Νῶε proper noun (indeclinable) G3575
  • περὶ περί preposition G4012
  • τῶν ὁ article · genitive plural neuter G3588
  • μηδέπω μηδέπω adverb · nominative G3369
  • βλεπομένων, βλέπω verb · present middle or passive participle, genitive plural neuter G991
  • εὐλαβηθεὶς εὐλαβέομαι verb · aorist passive deponent participle, nominative singular masculine G2125
  • κατεσκεύασεν κατασκευάζω verb · aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular G2680
  • κιβωτὸν κιβωτός noun · accusative singular feminine G2787
  • εἰς εἰς preposition G1519
  • σωτηρίαν σωτηρία noun · accusative singular feminine G4991

Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.

See also 5
  1. Genesis 6:13 God said to Noah, "I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth.
  2. 1 Peter 3:20 who before were disobedient when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ship was being built. In it, few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
  3. Ezekiel 14:14 though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only their own souls by their righteousness," says the Lord Yahweh.
  4. Luke 17:26 As it was in the days of Noah, even so it will also be in the days of the Son of Man.
  5. Romans 4:13 For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he would be heir of the world wasn't through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
Hebrews 11:8 WEB
By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went.
discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904

Πίστει καλούμενος Ἀβραὰμ ὑπήκουσεν ἐξελθεῖν εἰς τόπον ὃν ἤμελλεν λαμβάνειν εἰς κληρονομίαν, καὶ ἐξῆλθεν μὴ ἐπιστάμενος ποῦ ἔρχεται.

  • Πίστει πίστις noun · dative singular feminine G4102
  • καλούμενος καλέω verb · present middle or passive participle, nominative singular masculine G2564
  • Ἀβραὰμ Ἀβραάμ proper noun (indeclinable) G11
  • ὑπήκουσεν ὑπακούω verb · aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular G5219
  • ἐξελθεῖν ἐξέρχομαι verb · aorist active infinitive G1831
  • εἰς εἰς preposition G1519
  • τόπον τόπος noun · accusative singular masculine G5117
  • ὃν ὅς relative pronoun · accusative singular masculine G3739
  • ἤμελλεν μέλλω verb · imperfect active indicative, 3rd person singular G3195
  • λαμβάνειν λαμβάνω verb · present active infinitive G2983
  • εἰς εἰς preposition G1519
  • κληρονομίαν, κληρονομία noun · accusative singular feminine G2817

Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.

See also 5
  1. Acts 7:2 He said, "Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,
  2. Genesis 12:1 Now Yahweh said to Abram, "Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father's house, and go to the land that I will show you.
  3. Matthew 7:24 "Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
  4. Genesis 15:7 He said to Abram, "I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it."
  5. Genesis 22:18 All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, because you have obeyed my voice.'"
Hebrews 11:9 WEB
By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904

Πίστει παρῴκησεν εἰς γῆν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας ὡς ἀλλοτρίαν, ἐν σκηναῖς κατοικήσας, μετὰ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ Ἰακὼβ τῶν συνκληρονόμων τῆς ἐπαγγελίας τῆς αὐτῆς·

  • Πίστει πίστις noun · dative singular feminine G4102
  • παρῴκησεν παροικέω verb · aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular G3939
  • εἰς εἰς preposition G1519
  • γῆν γῆ noun · accusative singular feminine G1093
  • τῆς ὁ article · genitive singular feminine G3588
  • ἐπαγγελίας ἐπαγγελία noun · genitive singular feminine G1860
  • ὡς ὡς adverb G5613
  • ἀλλοτρίαν, ἀλλότριος adjective · accusative singular feminine G245
  • ἐν ἐν preposition G1722
  • σκηναῖς σκηνή noun · dative plural feminine G4633
  • κατοικήσας, κατοικέω verb · aorist active participle, nominative singular masculine G2730
  • μετὰ μετά preposition G3326

Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.

See also 5
  1. Genesis 12:8 He left from there to go to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to Yahweh and called on Yahweh's name.
  2. Genesis 13:18 Abram moved his tent, and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to Yahweh.
  3. Genesis 13:3 He went on his journeys from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,
  4. Acts 7:5 He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his offspring after him, when he still had no child.
  5. Hebrews 6:17 In this way God, being determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath,
Hebrews 11:11 WEB
By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised.
discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904

Πίστει καὶ αὐτῇ Σάρρᾳ δύναμιν εἰς καταβολὴν σπέρματος ἔλαβεν καὶ παρὰ καιρὸν ἡλικίας, ἐπεὶ πιστὸν ἡγήσατο τὸν ἐπαγγειλάμενον.

  • Πίστει πίστις noun · dative singular feminine G4102
  • καὶ καί conjunction G2532
  • αὐτῇ αὐτός personal pronoun · dative singular feminine G846
  • Σάρρᾳ Σάρρα noun · dative singular feminine G4564
  • δύναμιν δύναμις noun · accusative singular feminine G1411
  • εἰς εἰς preposition G1519
  • καταβολὴν καταβολή noun · accusative singular feminine G2602
  • σπέρματος σπέρμα noun · genitive singular neuter G4690
  • ἔλαβεν λαμβάνω verb · aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular G2983
  • καὶ καί conjunction G2532
  • παρὰ παρά preposition G3844
  • καιρὸν καιρός noun · accusative singular masculine G2540

Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.

See also 5
  1. Romans 4:20 Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn't waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God,
  2. Hebrews 10:23 let's hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful.
  3. Genesis 18:11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.
  4. Genesis 21:1 Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did to Sarah as he had spoken.
  5. Luke 1:36 Behold, Elizabeth your relative also has conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.

From the interpretive tradition

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
Augustine Sermon 43 father · patristic public domain
Faith is a living, unshakeable confidence in God's grace; it is so certain, that someone would die a thousand times for it.
Martin Luther Preface to the Epistle to the Romans theologian · lutheran public domain

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