abrupt clause which presents the highest conquest of faith, women received from resurrection their dead. In this case faith appears under a twofold aspect. There is a silent, waiting, passive faith of love, which works with the active faith. Women, in whom the instinct of natural affection is strongest, cooperated with the prophets through whom the restoration was effected. They received their dead. The word labei'n occurs in the narrative of the Shunamite: 2 Kings 4:36.
It cannot be without significance that the recorded raisings from the dead are predominantly for women: 1 Kings 17:17 ff.; 2 Kings 4:17 ff.; Luke 7:11 ff.; John 11; Acts 9:36 ff.
In the phrase ejx ajnastavsew" the Resurrection, which is the transition from death to life, is that out of which the departed were received.
( b ) The victorious sufferings of Faith: the great things which it has borne (Heb. 11:35 b-38).
The record of the open triumphs of Faith is followed by the record of its inward victories in unconquered and outwardly unrewarded endurance. Theophylact remarks on the contrast: o{ra pw'" oiJ me;n ajpo; pivstew" stovmata macaivra" e[fugon oiJ de; ejn fovnw/ macaivra" ajpevqanon : toiou'ton ga;r hJ pivsti" kai; ajnuvei megavla kai; pavscei megavla kai; oujde;n oi[etai pavscein .
And others were tortured to death, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection; 36 and others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37 they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword: they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, evil- entreated ,
38 men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and the holes of the earth.
The order of arrangement is not obvious. The enumeration appears to consist of two great groups (11:35 b, 36, and 37, 38) each consisting of two members, the first of suffering to death, the second of sufferings short of death. It is difficult to define the relation in which the two main groups stand to each other.
Perhaps the first group describes constancy in the face of release offered in the moment of trial, on the supposition that ouj prosdexavmenoi th;n ajpol. extends in idea to e{teroi , while the second group gives generally forms of suffering.
11:35 b. a[lloi dev ...] But others in a new class triumphed in that they seemed to fail. The restoration from death, the highest victory of active faith, is surpassed by a nobler triumph, the victory over death. ejtumpanivsqhsan ] Vulg. distenti sunt. The reference is to the martyrdom of the seven brethren related in 2 Macc. 6:18 ff.; vii.
The word tumpanivzein is used very vaguely of the infliction of heavy blows; and the Greek commentators were at a loss as to its exact meaning. Chrysostom says: ajpotumpanismo;" levgetai oJ ajpokefalismov" , referring to John the Baptist and St James. So also Theophylact: toutevstin ajpetmhvqhsan ... tine;" de; to; tumpanisqh'nai rJopavloi" tufqh'nai ei\pon . OEcumenius adds: a[lloi de; to; tumpanivzesqai to; ejkdevresqai fasivn . Hesychius gives ejtump. ejsfairivsqhsan , i.e. beaten with leaded scourges. It appears to describe a punishment like breaking on the wheel. The extremities of the sufferer were fastened to a frame, and his limbs then broken by heavy