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80). His experience was reflected in the experience of Israel ( Beresh. R. § 40, on Gen. 12:16). Israel also fulfilled a work for the nations.

On the trials of Abraham see Dr Taylor on Aboth , v. 4. In this place the Faith of Abraham is not connected directly with personal righteousness, as in St Paul's Epistles, but is presented as the power through which the patriarch was enabled to work towards the fulfilment of God's counsel for the nations by his trust in the unseen.

8 By faith Abraham, when called, obeyed, to go forth into a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went forth, while he knew not whither he was coming ( going ).

9 By faith he entered as a sojourner into the land of promise, as into a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he looked for the city that hath the foundations, whose designer and maker is God.

11 By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive seed, and that when she was past age, since she counted Him faithful who had promised. 12 Wherefore also children were born from one, and him as good as dead, as many as the stars in heaven for multitude, and as the sand that is by the seashore that cannot be counted.

Heb. 11:8. (i) The Faith of self-surrender. The beginning of the Messianic nation was a call, a separation. The founder had a promise of an inheritance. This promise he could trust though he knew not how it would be fulfilled.
pivstei kalouvm. ... klhronomivan ] By faith Abraham when called obeyed,
to go forth into a place which he was to receive as an inheritance.
Vulg. Fide qui vocatur Abraham ( oJ kal. jAbr. ) obedivit exire in locum ...

The present participle ( kalouvmeno" not klhqeiv" ) serves to emphasise the immediate act of obedience ( uJphvkousen ). He obeyed the call while (so to say) it was still sounding in his ears.

If the reading oJ kalouvmeno" is adopted the sense will be: ‘he that in a unique sense received the new name Abraham’: to; oJ kalouvmeno" jAbraa;m dia; th;n tou' ojnovmato" ejnallagh;n ei[rhken (Theod.). Fide qui vocatur nunc Abraham tunc vocabatur Abram (Primas.).
ejxelqei'n ] The point in this ‘going forth’ was that Abraham gave up all in faith upon the invisible God (Gen. 12:1; Acts 7:3: comp. Heb. 13:13); and in doing this he knew not what he was to receive. The future was safe in God's counsel. In this supreme act, by which he became ‘the father of the faithful,’ Abraham had no example to follow. Tivna ga;r ei\den i{na zhlwvsh/ ; oJ path;r aujtw'/ eijdwlolavtrh" h\n, profhtw'n oujk h[kousen : w{ste pivstew" h\n to; uJpakou'sai wJ" ajlhqeuvonti tw'/ qew'/ peri; w|n uJpiscnei'to kai; ajfei'nai ta; ejn cersivn (Theophlct. after Chrys.). He went forth to ‘a place’ (not ‘the place’) of which all that he knew was that in the end it should be his.
kai; ejxh'lqen ... e[rcetai ] and he went forth while he knew not whither he was coming ( going ). It was not revealed to Abraham till he had left Haran what was to be his abode: Gen. 12:7; comp. Acts 7:2 f. Hence Philo says truly: to;n mevllonta th'/ uJposcevsei crovnon prodiwvristai, eijpw;n oujc h}n deivknumi ajllj h{n soi deivxw, eij" marturivan pivstew" h}n ejpivsteusen hJ yuch; qew'/ ( de migr. Abr. § 9; 1.442 M.).

The use of e[rcetai presents the patriarch as already on his journey;


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