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Logically, the eleventh chapter of Hebrews could have been skipped. It adds no critical piece of evidence, no proof without which the argument would be rendered invalid. The main line of the argument for why they should remain faithful could very well proceed from 10:39 straight into 12:1 without skipping a beat. The lines of the argument are already drawn. But this chapter isn't about the lines, it's about the color. Hebrews 11 adds a great deal of color to the picture that the author wishes to communicate to us.
There are several ways to approach this chapter from a teaching perspective. This week I'll offer some interpretive points, then some areas for potential discussion.
InterpretiveIf you're inclined to spend the bulk of your time on the interpretive side of things, then this chapter offers a greater wealth of meat than might be thought, given it's narrative nature and its nearly poetic prose.
Here are some places I might stop to dig in a little:
11:1 begins with the connection between hope and faith. Faith is related to the unseen and denotes a certain relationship to the unseen; a willingness to accept the unseen as real and valid. There are some notoriously difficult translation issues at play here. What we can translate confidently reads, “And faith is the _________ of what is hoped, the ____________ of things not seen.” Filling in the blanks with certainty is a dicey proposition. The first blank is the greek hypostasis, which shows up in two other places in the book 1:3 and 3:14. In 1:3 it is almost always translated with the sense of “substance/exact representation”. In 3:14 by contrast, it is most commonly translated with the sense of “conviction/assurance”. In 11:1, it is translated by both senses in different translations, and there's a good case for each option. The second blank is elegchos, and this is the only time it shows up in scripture. It can mean “evidence/proof”, or can also mean “confidence/assurance”. In my own judgment (Hovater) the context persuades me that the sense of “confidence” is preferable for both words, so that the reading should be something like “Faith is the confidence in what is hoped, the conviction of things not seen.” This is more like a 65/35 conviction than an absolute judgment, though, and I certainly wouldn't brand anyone a heretic for taking the other readings! Furthermore, it may be that what we can say for certain, that faith is connected with hope and the unseen, are worth emphasizing and shouldn't get lost in the other ambiguities.
11:3 is one of the clearest affirmations of creatio ex nihilo in scripture. It clearly states that God's creative activity is a process by which God creates the world out of nothing. By contrast, the Genesis accounts, when read by themselves, seem to suggest that God creates the world out of some sort of matter which exists in chaos. The genesis account begins with the earth tohu wawohu, formless and empty. I would characterize these accounts not as contradictory, but say that the Hebrew account is providing additional, clarifying information to the Genesis account.
11:4-8 It is interesting that the author uses faith to characterize these stories, since Abel, Enoch, and Noah are more noted in Genesis for their righteousness than their faith. Does that imply the close connection between faith and righteousness? What is the relationship between trust/faith and obedience/righteousness? This could support a hearty discussion.
11:9-19 Fittingly, Abraham gets a lot of ink in this chapter, with the phrase “by faith” being applied to him in three different ways.
11:11 It is interesting that Sarah is said to have been enabled to have Isaac “by faith” even though the Genesis account tells of how she laughed at the prospect. It seems like she was a doubter! Barak's mention in 11:32 seems dubious as well.
11:19 Provides an interesting additional motivation for Abraham's actions.
11:26 is another clear example of Hebrews interpreting the Old Testament Christologically.
11:40 Very interestingly, the reward here isn't the Sabbath rest or a promised land, but being made perfect.
Overall, the text gives heightened attention to Moses and Abraham, and besides that skips along just noting the highlights of each person. The motif of faith becomes more and more prominent as the chapter moves along, until the closing in 11:39 forms a nice bookend of the section with 11:2 These bookends tell us what is important for each of these stories: they remain faithful, and are thus commended. This points us back towards the rhetorical purpose of the chapter, to fill in the color for the argument. The letter overall says, “be a person of faith.” This chapter says, “this is what it looks like to be a person of faith.”
Discussion AreasThe first two of these areas seem like fertile ground for extensive discussions.
- This text demonstrates well how knowledge of the biblical narratives can be useful to our spiritual lives. The author wants to inspire his readers, so what does he turn to? The biblical stories they already know. He is only able to do that because they have already learned the stories, and so they are fertile ground for inspiration in concrete day to day life. It is worth reflecting on how our lives are influenced by the word. What stories/passages have we found inspirational. If we were going to write to some of our friends and encourage them based on the word, what would we call to memory?
- We might reconstruct the text a second way, calling to mind the people in our lives who have offered inspirational examples of faith. Who is it that has demonstrated faith to us, so that we could see it and desire to follow the example? Note: Most folks can think of a name or two here, but if we press on to make the lists longer, they get much more interesting and specific. I think the best discussion here presses the list four or five deep. That way we get into people who have done specific things, undergone specific tests of faith. Also, if we formulate the answers like the Hebrews 11 text, they get more specific by forcing us to account for actions. “by faith...”
- This text as a whole has a lot to say about what Faith is useful for. Most of the examples in the chapter are about perseverance, and pressing for the unseen over what is seen. Do we have the type of faith that moves us past what is seen?
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