For
tou;" aijw'na"
see Heb. 1:2 note; 9:26; 1 Cor. 2:7; 1 Tim. 1:17; Eph. 3:21. This conception of creation as unfolded in time, the many ages going to form one world, is taken up into Christian literature. Thus Clem. R. i. c. 35 (
oJ dhmiourgo;" kai; path;r tw'n aij.
); 55 (
qeo;" tw'n aij.
); 61 (
basileu;" tw'n aij.
).
pivstei
]
By
the direct exercise of
faith
, by an act of faith.... The
(instrumental) dative is used by St Paul: 2 Cor. 1:24; Rom. 11:20 (
th'/ p. eJsthkevnai
); 3:28 (
dikaiou'sqai pivstei
); [4:20]; Col. 1:23; [Tit. 2:2]. The simple dative is used throughout the chapter, except Heb. 11:33
dia; pivstew"
(comp. 6:12) and v. 13
kata; pivstin
(
dia; th'" pivstew"
v. 39 is different). With
pivstei
contrast
th'/ pivstei
Heb. 4:2.
rJhvmati qeou'
] Comp. Gen. 1; Ps. 33:6, 9 (LXX.
tw'/ lovgw/
). Philo
de sacrif. Abel.
§ 18 (1.175 M.):
oJ ga;r qeo;" levgwn a{ma ejpoivei
. The term
rJh'ma
retains its full meaning: a single expression of the divine will. Comp. Heb. 6:5. For creation see 1:2 note.
The world was conceived to exist archetypally in the mind of God before it was brought under the limitations of time and space. Invisibiliter mundus antequam formaretur in dei sapientia erat, qui tamen per expletionem operis factus est visibilis...(Primas.). Comp. Apoc. 4:11 (
h\san, ejktivsqhsan
); John 1:3 f. note.
eij" to; mh;
...
to; blep. gegonevnai
]
to the end that that which is seen
be known to
have arisen not from things which appear.
Vulg.
ut ex invisibilibus visibilia fierent.
The purpose and end of the knowledge gained by faith as to the creation of the world is the conviction that the visible order as we observe it, as a whole (
to; blep.
), has not come into being by simple material causation. We learn to recognise that there is a divine power behind. Such a conclusion is the fundamental triumph of Faith. Creation can best be conceived of by us as the limitation of that which is, and not as the addition of anything to the sum of being.
The phrase eij" tov ... can, according to usage, have no other sense than that of expressing the end. Comp. Heb. 10:7 note. It occurs eight times in the Epistle, and uniformly in this meaning.
By a not unnatural brevity of expression the becoming of the world is used for our conception of the becoming of the world.
The negative in the phrase mh; ejk fain. was transposed in interpretation (as if it were ejk mh; fainomevnwn ) from early times ( from things which do not appear ). Thus Chrysostom, having quoted the Greek as it stands in the text, goes on at once to say: dh'lon, fhsivn, ejsti;n o{ti ejx oujk o[ntwn ta; o[nta ejpoivhsen oJ qeov", ejk tw'n mh; fainomevnwn ta; fainovmena, ejk tw'n oujc uJfestwvtwn ta; uJfestw'ta . So Theodoret: ejx o[ntwn dhmiourgou'sin oiJ a[nqrwpoi : oJ de; tw'n o{lwn qeo;" ejk mh; o[ntwn ta; o[nta parhvgage .
Such a transposition is wholly unsupported. The passage quoted from Arist. de Phys. ausc. 5.1 has, in the true text hJ ga;r oujk ejx uJpokeimevnou .
On the dogma of creation ejx oujk o[ntwn see Herm. Vis. 1.1. 6 and Harnack's note; Hatch, Hibbert Lectures p. 197 note. The apostolic phrase expresses whatever truth is conveyed by it. No purely physical explanation of the origin of the world is possible. Things that appear cannot give an explanation of the origin of the universe which we see. So Philo speaks of oJ ajswvmato" kai; nohto;" ... kovsmo", to; tou' fainomevnou tou'de ajrcevtupon, ijdevai" ajoravtoi" sustaqei;" w{sper ou|to" swvmasin oJratoi'" ( De conf. ling. § 34; 1.431