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gives reality to them. For it is in virtue of Faith that things hoped for are now, so that Faith is their essence in regard to the actual experience of the believer.

Thus the general scope of the statement is to shew that the future and the unseen can be made real for men by Faith.

Things which in the succession of time are still ‘hoped for’ as future have a true existence in the eternal order; and this existence Faith brings home to the believer as a real fact. So also things unseen are not mere arbitrary fancies: Faith tries them, tests them, brings conviction as to their being.

For uJpovstasi" compare Heb. 1:3 note; 3:14 note (2 Cor. 9:4; 11:17); and Philo de migr. Abr. § 9 (1.442 M.); and for ta; ejlpizovmena compare 1 Pet. 1:13; 1 Cor. 15:19; Rom. 8:24 f.; 1 Tim. 4:10.

The word e[legco" is found here only in N. T. (in 2 Tim. 3:16 l. ejlegmovn ). The verb ejlevgcein is not unfrequent (Heb. 12:5). Compare especially John 16:8 note.

The sense of ‘proof’ is found in classical writers from Euripides downwards. In the LXX. e[legco" is frequent in the sense of ‘reproof.’ (Job 23:4, 7 do not seem to form exceptions.)

For pragmavtwn compare Heb. 6:18 note; 10:1; and for ouj blepomevnwn Rom. 8:24.

Primasius gives a good illustration of the thought: Quae apparent jam fidem non habent...sed agnitionem. Dum ergo vidit Thomas dum palpavit, cur ei dicitur Quia vidisti me credidisti?—Sed aliud vidit, aliud credidit. A mortali enim homine divinitas videri non potest. Videndo ergo credidit, qui considerando hominem verum Deum, quem videre non poterat, exclamavit.

Heb. 11:2. ejn tauvth/ gavr ...] for herein , as living and acting in this atmosphere of Faith, of Faith by which the future is realised and the unseen apprehended, the elders had witness borne to them. The religious history of man is taken as the proof of the power which Faith possesses to test and realise the unseen.

With ejn tauvth/ ejmart. compare 11:4 dij h|" ejmart. , 39 marturhqevnte" dia; th'" p. ; and for the thought Ign. ad Philad. 11; ad Ephes. 12; Just. M. Dial. 29 s. f. oiJ tosou'toi divkaioi ... memartuvrhntai uJpo; tou' qeou' aujtou' . Marturei'sqai is used absolutely in the passages of Ignatius just quoted and in Clem. 1 ad Cor. 17, 18 f. & c.

Faith is indeed the characteristic of all the Jewish heroes, though Faith, as such, is very little noticed in the O. T. The witness is borne to the life which was inspired by Faith.
oiJ presbuvteroi ] Comp. Heb. 1:1 oiJ patevre" .
(2) Heb. 11:3-7. Faith as seen in the prophetic records of the old world. The first view of Faith is taken from the brief records of the old world given in Gen. 1-9. It is first laid down that our fundamental view of the origin (and so of the course) of the world rests on Faith (Heb. 11:3); and then in Abel, Enoch, Noah, the writer considers three types of Faith under different circumstances, as answering to man's constitution, to the development of life, to special revelation. Abel recognised the natural obligations of man to God generally, and fulfilled them unto death, through which he still lives (11:4). Enoch realised fellowship with God in action till it was crowned in an eternal fellowship (11:5 f.). Noah obeyed a specific direction of God and was saved


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