11 

11:1 The definition of faith given in this verse, and exemplified in the various instances following, undoubtedly includes justifying faith, but not directly as justifying. For faith justifies only as it refers to, and depends on, Christ. But here is no mention of him as the object of faith; and in several of the instances that follow, no notice is taken of him or his salvation, but only of temporal blessings obtained by faith. And yet they may all be considered as evidences of the power of justifying faith in Christ, and of its extensive exercise in a course of steady obedience amidst difficulties and dangers of every kind. Now faith is the subsistence of things hoped for, the evidence or conviction of things not seen - Things hoped for are not so extensive as things not seen.The former are only things future and joyful to us ; the latter are either future, past, or present, and those either good or evil, whether to us or others. The subsistence of things hoped for - Giving a kind of present subsistence to the good things which God has promised: the divine supernatural evidence exhibited to, the conviction hereby produced in, a believer of things not seen, whether past, future, or spiritual; particularly of God and the things of God.

11:2 By it the elders - Our forefathers. This chapter is a kind of summary of the Old Testament, in which the apostle comprises the designs, labours, sojournings, expectations, temptations, martyrdoms of the ancients. The former of them had a long exercise of their patience; the latter suffered shorter but sharper trials. Obtained a good testimony - A most comprehensive word. God gave a testimony, not only of them but to them: and they received his testimony as if it had been the things themselves of which he testified, Heb 11:4-5, Heb 11:39. Hence they also gave testimony to others, and others testified of them.

11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds - Heaven and earth and all things in them, visible and invisible.Where made - Formed, fashioned, and finished. By the word - The sole command of God, without any instrument or preceding matter. And as creation is the foundation and specimen of the whole divine economy, so faith in the creation is the foundation and specimen of all faith. So that things which are seen - As the sun, earth, stars.Were made of things which do not appear - Out of the dark, unapparent chaos, Gen 1:2. And this very chaos was created by the divine power; for before it was thus created it had no existence in nature.

11:4 By faith - In the future Redeemer. Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice - The firstlings of his flock, implying both a confession of what his own sins deserved, and a desire of sharing in the great atonement. Than Cain - Whose offering testified no such faith, but a bareacknowledgment of God the Creator. By which faith he obtained both righteousness and a testimony of it: God testifying - Visibly that his gifts were accepted; probably by sending fire from heaven to consume his sacrifice, a token that justice seized on the sacrifice instead of the sinner who offered it. And by it - By this faith. Being dead, he yet speaketh - That a sinner is accepted only through faith in the great sacrifice.

11:5 Enoch was not any longer found among men, though perhaps they sought for him as they did for Elijah, Ki2 2:17.He had this testimony - From God in his own conscience.

11:6 But without faith - Even some divine faith in God, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God - in prayer, or another act of worship, must believe that he is.

11:7 Noah being warned of things not seen as yet - Of the future deluge. Moved with fear, prepared anark, by which open testimony he condemned the world - Who neither believed nor feared.

9 

9:2 By themselves - That is, separate from the multitude: Apart - From the other apostles: and was transfigured - The Greek wordseems to refer to the form of God, and the form of a servant, {mentioned by St. Paul, Php 2:6-7} and may intimate, that theDivine rays, which the indwelling God let out on this occasion, made the glorious change from one of these forms into the other. Mat 17:1; Luk 9:28.

9:3 White as snow, such as no fuller can whiten - Such as could not be equalled either by nature or art.

9:4 Elijah - Whom they expected: Moses, whom they did not.

9:7 There came a (bright, luminous) cloud, overshadowing them - This seems to have been such a cloud of glory as accompaniedIsrael in the wilderness, which, as the Jewish writers observe, departed at the death of Moses. But it now appeared again, in honour of our Lord, as the great Prophet of the Church, who was prefigured by Moses. Hear ye him - Even preferably to Moses and Elijah.

9:12 Elijah verily coming first restoreth all things: and how it is written - That is, And he told them how it is written - As if he had said, Elijah's coming is not inconsistent with my suffering.He is come: yet I shall suffer. The first part of the verse answers their question concerning Elijah; the second refutes their error concerning the Messiah's continuing for ever.