The Hall of Faith

Fear of the king is set aside twice in these verses. Moses' parents "were unafraid of the king's edict" (Hebrews 11:23), and Moses "left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw Him who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27). The Passover of Hebrews 11:28 is the night of Exodus 12, when the blood on the doorframes kept the destroyer away from Israel's firstborn.

James 2:25 also names Rahab, and it asks whether she was justified by her actions.

Gideon routed Midian with torches and horns (Judges 7:20 to 21), and Barak went down from Mount Tabor at Deborah's word (Judges 4:14). Samson prayed for strength once more (Judges 16:28), and Jephthah advanced against the Ammonites (Judges 11:29). The lions and the fire of Hebrews 11:33 to 34 recall Daniel in the lions' den (Daniel 6:22) and the three men in the furnace (Daniel 3:27).

John Calvin wrote on these names in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. He judged that "in all the saints, something reprehensible is ever to be found; yet faith, though halting and imperfect, is still approved by God".

The verb made perfect is teleioo. Hebrews also uses it of the author of salvation made perfect through suffering (Hebrews 2:10) and of those whom a single offering has made perfect for all time (Hebrews 10:14).

John Chrysostom, in his twenty-first homily on Hebrews, writes that "since the objects of hope seem to be unsubstantial, Faith gives them substantiality, or rather, does not give it, but is itself their substance". John Owen's note on Calvin traces the English word: "The word 'substance' is derived from the Vulgate".

The support for this reading is Hebrews 1:3, where the same word names God's nature, of which the Son is the exact representation.

The objection: in Hebrews 3:14 the same word is an assurance that believers must hold firmly to the end, so the writer uses it of a human firmness that can be lost.

John Calvin writes, "Faith, he says, is the hypostasis, the prop, or the foundation on which we plant our foot". Joseph Henry Thayer's lexicon gives the sense "confidence, firm trust, assurance" and places under it 2 Corinthians 9:4, 2 Corinthians 11:17, Hebrews 3:14 and Hebrews 11:1.

The objection: Chrysostom answers that the verse calls faith the hypostasis of the things hoped for, which ties the word to what faith grasps more than to the believer's own confidence.

Moulton and Milligan found the word in the papyri of Egypt. There it "was used to denote the collection of papers bearing upon the possession of a piece of property, or as we would now say, the title-deeds". They write that this sense "imparts a new certainty to the familiar definition" of Hebrews 11:1.

The objection: the papyri use the word of property documents, while the letter's own uses, God's nature in Hebrews 1:3 and a believer's firm confidence in Hebrews 3:14, give the legal sense no second witness.

Chrysostom, in his twenty-eighth homily on Hebrews, writes that "He appointed one time of crowning for all; and he that gained the victory so many years before, receives his crown with you". John Wesley reads the verse to mean "that we might all be perfected together in heaven".

The objection: Hebrews 12:23 already speaks of "the spirits of the righteous made perfect", so the saints of old are described as perfected before the end.

Calvin names Chrysostom's reading and sets it aside. He reads the verse of "the difference in the grace which God bestowed on the faithful under the Law, and that which he bestows on us now". In his reading God "distributed a small portion of grace to them, that he might defer its full perfection to our time, even to the coming of Christ". Adam Clarke holds that "the Church cannot be considered as complete till the believers under all dispensations are gathered together".

The objection: the chapter ties the promise to a better resurrection (Hebrews 11:35) and to a city God has prepared (Hebrews 11:16), which the first coming of Christ did not complete.