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povrrwqen auj. ijdovnte" ... ajspasavmenoi ... oJmologhvsante" ...] The three thoughts rise in a natural succession. They saw the promises in their actual fulfilment: they welcomed the vision with joy though it was far off: they confessed what must be the true end of God's counsel. For ijdovnte" compare John 8:56. Povrrwqen occurs again in N. T. Luke 17:12.

On ajspasavmenoi Chrysostom says well: ajpo; metafora'" ei\pe tw'n pleovntwn kai; povrrwqen oJrwvntwn ta;" povlei" ta;" poqoumevna", a}" pri;n h] eijselqei'n eij" aujta;" th'/ prosrhvsei labovnte" aujta;" oijkeiou'ntai . Compare AEn. 3.522.

Italiam primus conclamat Achates, Italiam laeto socii clamore salutant. kai; oJmologhvsante" ] The language of Abraham (Gen. 23:4 LXX. comp. Gen. 47:9; 24:37; 28:4) is used as expressing the view which the patriarchs took of their life. Compare Ps. 39:12 (38:12); 119:19, 54 (118:19, 54).

Philo places a similar interpretation on the ‘sojourning’ of the fathers: de conf. ling. § 17, i. p. 416 M. Not only was the ‘land’ of Palestine ‘strange’ to them (Heb. 11:9), but the ‘earth’ itself.
xevnoi kai; parepivdhmoi ] Vulg. peregrini et hospites. Things seen were not their true home, and they remained among them only for a short space. For xevnoi compare Eph. 2:12, 19; and for parepivdhmoi , 1 Pet. 1:1; 2:11 (Gen. 23:4); Ps. 39:12 (38:12) (LXX.); Lev. 25:23. Comp. Addit. Note on Heb. 11:10.

For the thought compare a striking passage of the Letter to Diognetus,
c. 5.

Heb. 11:14-16. These verses develop the last clause of 11:13, and define the grounds of the statement which has been made that the patriarchs ‘died in Faith.’ Their language shewed that they continued to the last to look for that which they had not attained. As ‘strangers’ they acknowledged that they were in a foreign land: as ‘sojourners’ that they had no permanent possession, no rights of citizenship. At the same time they kept their trust in God. Their natural fatherland had lost its hold upon them. They waited for a ‘city’ of God's preparing.

11:14. oiJ ga;r toiau'ta ...] The language of the patriarchs makes clear that they sought for a country, which should be naturally and essentially their own, not simply the fruit of gift or conquest, but a true ‘fatherland.’ They had no fatherland on earth. The word patriv" , which is rare in the LXX. (Jer. 46:16

td<l,/m 6r<a, ), is found here only in the Epistles (John 4:41 and parallels).

For ejmfanivzousin (Vulg. significant ) comp. Heb. 9:24 note; and for ejpizhtou'sin , Heb. 13:14. Compare Is. 62:12 su; (Zion) klhqhvsh/ ejpizhtoumevnh povli" .

Heb. 11:15. kai; eij mevn ...] They spoke of a home not yet reached; and in so speaking they could not have referred to that home which they had left in Mesopotamia, the seat of primitive civilisation; for return thither was easy. Nor again could Palestine, even when occupied at last, have satisfied their hopes; this remained the Lord's land: Lev. 25:23.
ejmnhmovneuon ] Vulg. meminissent. The verb mnhmoneuvw has commonly in the N. T., as in this Epistle Heb. 13:7, the sense of ‘remember’; but in v. 22, and perhaps in 1 Thess. 1:3, it has the second sense of ‘make mention.’ It seems on the whole more natural to take that sense here and to suppose that the reference is to the language just quoted rather than to a general feeling:


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