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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hebrews 11:35

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Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

35. Women received their dead ] The woman of Sarepta (1Ki 17:22), the Shunamite (2Ki 4:32-36).

raised to life again ] Lit., “by resurrection.”

were tortured ] The word means, technically, “were broken on the wheel,” and the special reference may be to 2Ma 6:18-30 ; 2Ma 6:7 . (the tortures of Eleazer the Scribe, and of the Seven Brothers).

deliverance ] “ The deliverance offered them” ( 2Ma 6:20-21 ; 2Ma 7:24 ).

a better resurrection ] Not a mere resurrection to earthly life, like the children of the women just mentioned, but “an everlasting reawakening of life” ( 2Ma 7:9 and passim).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Women received their dead raised to life again – As in the case of the woman of Zarephath, whose child was restored to life by Elijah, 1Ki 17:19-24; and of the son of the Shunamite woman whose child was restored to life by Elisha; 2 Kings 4:18-37.

And others were tortured – The word which is used here – tumpanizo – to tympanize, refers to a form of severe torture which was sometimes practiced. It is derived from tumpanon – tympanum – a drum, tabret, timbrel; and the instrument was probably so called from resembling the drum or the timbrel. This instrument consisted in the East of a thin wooden rim covered over with skin, as a tambourine is with us; see it described in the notes on Isa 5:12. The engine of torture here referred to, probably resembled the drum in form, on which the body of a criminal was bent so as to give greater severity to the wounds which were inflicted by scourging. The lash would cut deeper when the body was so extended, and the open gashes exposed to the air would increase the torture; see 2 Macc. 6:19-29. The punishment here referred to seems to have consisted of two things – the stretching upon the instrument, and the scourging; see Robinsons Lexicon and Stuart in loc. Bloomfield, however, supposes that the mode of the torture can be best learned from the original meaning of the word tumpanon – tympanum – as meaning:

(1)A beatingstick, and,

(2)A beating-post which was in the form of a T, thus suggesting the posture of the sufferer. This beating, says he, was sometimes administered with sticks or rods; and sometimes with leather thongs inclosing pieces of lead. The former account, however, better agrees with the usual meaning of the word.

Not accepting deliverance – When it was offered them; that is, on condition that they would renounce their opinions, or do what was required of them. This is the very nature of the spirit of martyrdom.

That they might obtain a better resurrection – That is, when they were subjected to this kind of torture they were looked upon as certainly dead. To have accepted deliverance then, would have been a kind of restoration to life, or a species of resurrection. But they refused this, and looked forward to a more honorable and glorious restoration to life; a resurrection, therefore, which would be better than this. It would be in itself more noble and honorable, and would be permanent, and therefore better. No particular instance of this kind is mentioned in the Old Testament; but amidst the multitude of cases of persecution to which good men were subjected, there is no improbability in supposing that this may have occurred. The case of Eleazer, recorded in 2 Macc. 6, so strongly resembles what the apostle says here, that it is very possible he may have had it in his eye. The passage before us proves that the doctrine of the resurrection was understood and believed before the coming of the Saviour, and that it was one of the doctrines which sustained and animated those who were called to suffer on account of their religion. In the prospect of death under the infliction of torture on account of religion, or under the pain produced by disease, nothing will better enable us to bear up under the suffering than the expectation that the body will be restored to immortal vigour, and raised to a mode of life where it will be no longer susceptible of pain. To be raised up to that life is a better resurrection than to be saved from death when persecuted, or to be raised up from a bed of pain.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Heb 11:35-36

Women received their dead

Women and others

Here we find an appreciative and sympathetic reference to the unknown heroes of faith.

The apostle recognises the fact that all that is great in history cannot be catalogued under great names.

God does not care to label all His wonders. The great men and women who are brought into prominence are only specimens of what may be found in lowlier spheres of life, just as the rocky strata hurled up through the earths surface do but reveal the kind of deposit which is to be found everywhere down deep in the earths bosom. Yet men, as a rule, have ignored that wealth of resource which does not project itself in huge protrusions before their sight. It is comparatively recently that even historians have learnt that human history does not consist exclusively of the record, however faithfully given, of the lives of kings, great warriors, powerful ecclesiastics, and other recognised rulers of men. This glorious Book has been the one grand exception. It has ever taught men that there is a mightier power than that of monarchs, which determines the destinies of nations, and works for righteousness, and which often works more powerfully out of sight than on the surface. Here, after the names of patriarchs, kings, noted women, and the great judges of Israel, come the prophets, but only as a whole and unnamed; and then the nameless women and others–not a jot inferior to those who have passed before them, and whose names have been echoed throughout the ages. The transition from the prophets to women is sudden, but not incongruous. The list of the faithful is not complete without women, those in whom faith triumphed in true womanly fashion–in the power of patient endurance. Theirs was a faith mightier than the wrench of death. They were great in what is pre-eminently the grace of sanctified womanhood–the passive virtues. What a world of suffering and of heroic endurance is epitomised here! The writer has no time to tell more: the theme grows in its vastness; hence, under the pressure of a sublime necessity, he throws what has been left untold upon the shoulders of a few sentences until they stagger and are well-nigh crushed under their burden. Here the grandest summary of all types of patient endurance, which we can find within the covers of this book, is associated with the lives of obscure men and women. Heroism is shown to be no monopoly of position or of sex, of age or of nation. The favourite type of womanly devotion is presented not only in the words received their dead to life again, but also in those which apply to the more general epithet and others–namely, were tortured, not accepting deliverance. How often is this illustrated in other days than those of persecution by the devotedness of consecrated womanhood to husband, child, sufferer, and outcast, in toil, feebleness, suffering, and shame! How often have labours and hardships been gratefully accepted, and the suggestion of deliverance or exemption from such emphatically ignored! It is the summary of this indignant repudiation of deliverance from suffering, and even death, when they have stood in the path of duty, that occupies one of the finest chapters in the illustrious history of faith. Edwin Long gives a striking illustration of this type of heroism in one of his paintings, where he depicts a Christian maid who will not burn a single grain of incense upon Caesars altar to save her life, and that notwithstanding the eloquent appeal in the beseeching look of her lover, that for his sake she would do it. What significance there is in the words and others! They represent the forces which have not been tabulated in the ordinary records of triumphs, and yet they are the greatest of all. God in His record supplements every great name with and others. Elijah in the hour of despondency thought himself alone as the centre and circumference of the true devotion of his age–I, even I only, am left. God reminded him of the and others, when He replied, Yet I have left Me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him (1Ki 19:18). Who won the battle of Waterloo? Wellington. Yes, and others. Who have wrought Christian reformations of the past three centuries? Luther, Wycliffe, Knox, Wesley. Yes, and others in every instance. Now, it is of these women and others anonymously mentioned here that the writer adds, Of whom the world was not worthy. Observe that this is not said of any of the great names mentioned previously. That went without the saying. But there was need of emphasising this regarding the unknown heroes of God. The world which extended such poor hospitality to its King has, throughout the ages, made no room for the royal, although unknown, men and women whom the King has sent. One of the hopeful signs of to-day is that the world gives room to the good and the faithful as it never did before. We, too, can belong, if we will, to the and others. Our names will not be added to those of the worlds great ones, nor yet to those of the more prominent heroes of faith, but we can belong to the nameless ones who yet have a glorious record to give. Are we unknown? So were these; yet the story of the triumphs of faith cannot be told without admitting their achievements into the record. So shall it be with us if only we are found faithful. They without us cannot be made perfect. This is Gods reason for providing some better thing for us than was ever granted them. No age of faith is final or self-inclusive. The one becomes the counterpart of the other. Every generation of faithful heroes shall strike its own note, until all ages shall unitedly perfect the grand chord of music that shall ascend to the ear of God, and thrill heaven with its full and rich harmony. (D. Davies.)

Not accepting deliverance

Faith refusing deliverance:

We have here an exhibition of faith in one of its noblest forms. It is much for faith to commit itself to suffering, without casting about for a means of deliverance. But faith wins a victory that is greater still, at such times as release is actually presented, and it waives the temptation away. For the deliverance that is spoken of here is a thing that lies shaped and ready; it is held ever before them as a near and inviting opportunity. And the struggle in such cases is not merely to refrain from attempting an escape, but to reject the outlets that are already open, there to tempt and importune by ones very side, with the short road they offer back into life and liberty.

I. Let us take the truth before us AS A CHARACTERISTIC OF THE SAVIOURS CONSECRATION. AS His peoples Surety and His peoples Example, at once the Foundation and the Pattern of all their obedience, it holds true in regard to Christ that He accepted not deliverance. Is it not true that in our views of Christ and His Surety-work we are apt to limit ourselves to the initial condescension, and forget the life-long struggle? We are apt to fix our attention on the first grand compliance, when the covenant agreement was embraced. Then and thenceforward we regard His obedience as a matter of course–a matter, indeed, involving both continued surrender and continued suffering, but a matter whose cost He had counted, to whose endurance He was shut up, and from whose bitter experiences there was no opportunity of release. And most true it is that the endurance of a Saviour was a matter of course with Him, if what we mean is this, that all the faithfulness of all His mediatorial nature was pledged, and all the energies of His Divine will were directed to the prosecution and the final fulfilment of His task. But if we mean that He was committed to His work so securely as that there was no room for the temptation to recoil from it on His human side, and no battle with self in suppressing that temptation, then we are wrong. For the life-long temptation of Christ lay just here. Over and over again deliverance presented itself; its possibility was suggested by a power from without, its offer was responded to by the weak flesh within. And the victory was of faith–faith like our own–when the Saviour repelled it, and, having escape set before Him, accepted it not. He accepted not deliverance, that He might obtain the resurrection, and the resurrection was better than any deliverance. He laid down His life that He might take it again, and the life re-taken was more powerful and glorious–oh, how far!–than the life He originally laid down.

II. WHAT WAS TRUE IN THE HISTORY OF THE MASTER IS TRUE IN THE HISTORY OF THE DISCIPLE; FAITH, ON OCCASION, MUST BE STRONG TO REFUSE, ACCEPTING NOT DELIVERANCE. Doubtless the task given Christ to accomplish was different in many respects from the tasks given to us; and as His task was, so was His temptation to recoil from it–different in intensity, perhaps different, too, in kind. But, after all, the refusals have this great point in common, that in each ease there is the rejection of relief, because relief is to be purchased at the expense of duty. Making all due allowance for distinctions, in the saints case, as in Christs, there is abundant opportunity for the exercise of faith in the aspect we speak of, its manifestation and triumph in declinature. And perhaps never is faith so signal as when it reveals itself just in this way; never is its nature so pure and exalted as when it toils and endures, not accepting deliverance. For it is not merely that you make a grace of necessity, and settle yourself down in submission to suffer, because you recognise the suffering you endure to be inevitable; that is something, nay, it is much by itself, for there are various ways of enduring the inevitable, and there are many who meet and experience it amiss. But the victory of faith that we speak of lies here, that when the cup of relief is actually brought near, and the relief that it offers is urged by the tempter, commended by the world, and pled for by all the self-indulgence that lies deep in the human heart–I say the victory of faith lies here, that you bid the proposal away from you, rejecting the outlet for conscience sake and for Christs. Such is the principle; and on its special applications our daily experience sheds light. Perhaps the burden appointed you is the care of others. Interests may happen to be linked with your conduct, lives may happen to be left in your keeping, whose needs you are obliged to consult for, whose sufferings you are called to alleviate, whose very sins and infirmities you are bound to restrain. There by their side is your post, the opportunity which Providence has given you to use, the task which Providence has assigned you to pursue; and there are times when the work seems thankless, the success doubtful, and the the depressing and irksome. Are there not those whose life, in the appointment of God, seems largely a sacrifice to such claims; and when the temptation comes to absolve themselves, as come it may, through the sense of a seeming failure, the attractions of a pleasanter lot, or the possibility of shifting the responsibility on others, are not theirs the triumph and reward brought before us in the text, as they cleave to the post of self-denial allotted them, not accepting deliverance? Or perhaps the burden is more personal, and connects itself with circumstances in your own lot. Embarrassment in worldly affairs,–who knows not what possibilities of temptation lie here, in the retrieving of credit at the expense of truthfulness, and the purchase of relief by the sacrifice of honesty. Is not faith triumphant in declinature when it leads the sufferer at such seasons to resolve, Let perplexities thicken, and circumstances hem, and disasters threaten as they may, I will abide by whatsoever things are pure, and refuse extrication till extrication is possible with honour, in the way which God discloses, on the terms of which conscience approves; thus refusing deliverence? But why go farther? The instances are as various as the paths of obedience and suffering, which God in His providence appoints, and the victories possible are as manifold as the temptations to evade or deflect from them. (W. A. Gray.)

Anne Askews martyrdom

Rich and another of the council came to her (Anne Askew) in the Tower, where she was then confined, and demanded that she should make the disclosures which they required concerning her party and her friends. She told them nothing. Then they did put me on the rack, she relates, because I confessed no ladies or gentlemen to be of my opinion; and thereupon they kept me a long time; and because I lay still and did not cry, my Lord Chancellor and Mr. Rich took pains to rack me with their own hands till I was nigh dead. Provoked by her saint-like endurance, these two ordered the lieutenant of the Tower to rack her again. He (Sir Anthony Knevett), tendering the weakness of the woman, positively refused to do so. Then Wriothesly and Rich threw off their gowns, and threatening the lieutenant that they would complain of his disobedience to the king, they worked the rack themselves, till her bones and joints were almost pinched asunder. When the lieutenant caused her to be loosed down from the rack, she immediately swooned. Then, she writes, they recovered me again. After that, I sate two long hours reasoning with my Lord Chancellor on the bare floor, where he, with many flattering words, would have persuaded me to leave my opinion; but my Lord God (I thank His everlasting goodness) gave me grace to persevere, and I will do, I hope, to the very end. Unable to walk or stand from the tortures she had suffered, poor Anne Askew was carried in a chair to Smithfield, and when brought to the stake, was fastened to it by a chain which held up her body; and one who beheld her there describes her as having an angels countenance and a smiling face. The three Throckmortons, the near kinsmen of the queen, and members of her household, had drawn near to comfort Anne Askew and her three companions; but they were warned that they were marked men, and entreated to withdraw. At the vary last, a written pardon from the king was offered to Anne Askew, upon condition that she would recant. The fearless lady turned away her eyes, and would not look upon it. She told them that she came not thither to deny her Lord and Master. The fire was ordered to be put under her, and thus the good Anne Askew, with these blessed martyrs, having passed through so many torments, having now ended the long course of her agonies, being compassed in with flames of fire as a blessed sacrifice unto God, she slept in the Lord, A.D. 1546, leaving behind her a singular example of Christian constancy for all men to follow. Her crime was the denial of the mass. So this, she wrote, is the heresy that I hold, and for it must suffer death. She kept the faith to her God; she kept the faith to her friends, for she betrayed no one, enduring shame and agony with meek, unshaken constancy. (H. Clissold, M. A.)

The martyrs:

As willing were many of the martyrs to die as to dine. (J. Trapp.)

A better resurrection

The better resurrection:

This inspired writer teaches us that these ancient saints were believers in a resurrection to eternal life. It is strange that this should ever be doubted. It seems clear they were, when we think of the very instinct of the spiritual life–of such expressions as those of David: I shall, be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness–or of the language of Martha and Mary when they were still standing on Old Testament ground: I know that He shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Their faith could not have the certainty and clearness which ours should have; but that they did look forward to a life to come there can be no question. They gave the best evidence of their faith, for they submitted to the most cruel tortures and to death, that they might obtain a better resurrection. But what are we to understand by a better resurrection? If we look to the first clause of the verse we shall see, Women received their dead raised to life again. This was one kind of resurrection–a restoration to the life of this world–and to achieve it was a great triumph of faith. But there is another and superior resurrection–to the life of the eternal world and the faith which carries men to this isof a nobler kind, because it is more difficult. There are, then, two spheres of faith–that of those whose dead were brought back to a resurrection in this life, and that of those who pressed on for truths sake to a better resurrection in the heavenly life.

I. THE BETTER RESURRECTION. Imagine to yourselves an event you must in all likelihood meet, or which many of you may already have passed through, when some object of your dearest affection has been torn from you by death. There is the utter blank of desolation–the light of the eyes in which you could read tenderness and truth, quenched–no counsel or comfort, where you could always find it, however sore bestead. And if there came, in that day of darkness, One who gave you back your dead to be with you, to listen to your history of grief–of this very grief–to take your hand in His again, and make you feel He was yours as before–more than before–what could you ask, what could you think of, better than this? And yet if we could for a little rise above feeling, and appeal to reason–the reason which comes of faith–we might see that there is a better resurrection.

1. For think of the place of it. However quiet and happy the home might be to which the earthly life was brought back, it was part of a world which was smitten with the curse. Cares and fears and dangers and griefs were always ready to invade it. And, if we think of the body as the place to which the soul is brought back, it is a home that has also the curse resting on it, subject to pain and disease, which often make death to be chosen rather than life–to long torturing agonies, and to those strange depressions which cloud the soul, so that to those who look out at the windows everything is darkened. It is otherwise with the place of the better resurrection (see Rev 21:27; Rev 22:3-5.) And the body which here depresses the soul shall be framed to lift it up, to give it perception and vigour, insight and wing, made like unto Christs glorious body.

2. Then think, by way of comparison, of the company in the place. In the case of all those who were raised again to life in this world, we find that they were restored to the family circle–the child of the Shunammite and the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain and the brother of Martha and Mary. There was an anxiety, if I may so speak, to surround them with their nearest friends when they opened their eyes again, that the first faces they looked on might be those of kindred–of father, mother, brother, sister. It was a merciful arrangement, to break the strange transition, to soothe the agitated, wondering spirit. But there was surely something more in it than this. It was, I think, also predictive. For if these resurrections, as a whole, were intended to help men to the faith of a power stronger than death, they were also intended to lead us to something of the manner of the life beyond. Do they not shadow out this truth, that God will begin our life again among those we have known and loved, and cause us to open our eyes in the bosom of what we shall feel to be a family and a home, with faces round us that are dear and familiar, and voices whose tones we know, ready to reassure us? God will set the solitary in families, and in some way broken household ties will be re-knit in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound. Only there will be something better in it. The feeling of sad distrust which sometimes comes over us, as if the truest human friendship had an element of selfishness in it, shall pass away. What we gain here, at intervals, in some chosen crisis of our life–the meeting of souls in one, and profound, untroubled trust in the sense of it–shall then be a fixed condition.

3. Think, then, of the essence of this eternal life. Its essence consists in its entire freedom from sin. The presence of sin in our nature is at the root of every ether evil, and deliverance from suffering in heaven is connected with perfect deliverance from sin. That must be a happy condition when all shall feel the blessedness of the man whose iniquity is forgiven, and the subject which often causes anxious thought, Can I look to God as my Friend and Father? shall be settled for perpetuity–no doubt, nor shadow of a doubt, upon it–but quietness and assurance for ever. And when there shall not only be no guilt on the conscience, but no sin in the heart, no lurking sympathy with it, but every fibre of the root of poison extracted, and the tree of life shall find its counterpart in the perfect fruit of every redeemed soul!

4. But we have to think also of the security of this state. These resurrections of earth were a return to a world of change and death. But the children of the heavenly resurrection die no more; death hath no more dominion over them. The shadow is all behind, the light before, and the light shall no more go down.

5. There is one thing more, without which the thought of this better resurrection would be incomplete–the presence to which it introduces.

The best of these other resurrections brought their subjects into the earthly presence of the Son of God; but this, into His heavenly fellowship.

II. THE HIGHER FAITH REQUIRED FOR THIS RESURRECTION. It needed very great confidence in the living God to believe that He could reanimate the dead frame which the soul had quitted for a few hours or days; but to face entire decay and mouldering dust, and to believe that those who sleep in it shall yet awake and sing–this requires a frame of soul still nobler.

1. It needs more of what I may call the patience of faith. We must endure the scorn of unbelievers, the talk of unchanging earthly laws rolled like the great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and must listen to the taunts of those who rejoice most when they think they hear the iron gates of a materialistic universe grate in upon the grave as an eternal prison. We have to struggle with the murmurs of our own hearts, that it is hard in God to put us to so long and so sore an encounter.

2. It needs also more of what we may call the sanctified imagination of faith. The circle of these earthly resurrections was very narrow and very simple compared with that which we expect. Their faith had only to bring back their dead to the old accustomed house, the well-known seat, the familiar haunts. Ours has to win out a footing for itself from the void and formless infinite, where the scenes and inhabitants and states of mind are so different that our friends seem to have passed away beyond our knowledge. There is an imagination of faith, not unbridled nor unscriptural, which has formed for itself a true and real world beyond death, which gives substance to things hoped for, and thereby helps to the evidence of things not seen the Bible has encouraged it by its figures–the tree of life, the river of life, the city of gold, the Fathers house of many mansions–and imagination has no nobler work than to enter among these visions, and brood and muse till they become a palpable and real world: and till those who are not, because God has taken them, are seen walking there.

3. It needs more of the spiritual insight of faith. The faith of those who received their dead back to the present life had a visible Helper with wonder-working power standing before them. Our faith has not such aid. It has a harder, but a nobler work. It must seek to live as seeing Him who is invisible. It must rest for its ultimate foundation, not on any outward sign, not even on any uttered word as spoken to the ear, but on the nature of

God Himself, and the life He infuses into the soul–on that basis which Christ has given it, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Christ Himself must be known to us in His ever-living, spiritual power.

III. SOME OF THE WAYS IN WHICH WE MAY STRENGTHEN OURSELVES IN THIS HIGHER FAITH.

1. The first thought is one addressed to your reason. We read here of men who were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. They surrendered all that life holds dear, and life itself, from loyalty to the God of truth. Not only is the Bible full of this, but the course of history. The noble army of the martyrs is seen in every age, marching on, by scaffold and through fire, into the unseen. Can you imagine that their self-devotion was founded on delusion, and that God has made His world so that the noblest and divinest deeds in its history have a perpetual falsehood at their heart?

2. The next thought is one addressed to your heart. Women received their dead raised to life again.! Observe the expression, Women–their dead. That side of human nature which has the deepest affection is clinging to its dead, claiming an abiding right of possession in them, and aiding faith to draw its lost treasure back to its arms. And it is a striking truth that in all the resurrections of which we read there was not only strong faith, but deep love–the love of woman. God intended that our deepest heart affections should be the helpers of our highest hopes, and the instinctive guarantees of a life to come. We have a right to reason that He would either have made our love less deep and lasting, or that there must be a final home in which its longings shall be realised. Every pure affection points us towards a city in the skies; every happy Christian home is a pledge of it; every bereaved heart is a Divine reason for it. A ground this why you should make your family ties so loyal and sacred that they shall keep your dead still yours, and bind you irrevocably to a life to come.

3. The last way we mention of confirming ourselves in this faith is addressed to the spirit. It is gained by the exercise of that spiritual insight to which we have already referred, leading the way to a spiritual life. The object of this sight, and the source of this life, is described by the sacred writer in words that follow–Looking unto Jesus, etc. Reasoning about immortality may lead us so far, and the instinct of the heart may lead us further; but I know of no certainty save what grows from union with the dying and risen and living Son of God. There is a spring of immortality not only welling out from the throne of God, but ready to rise up in every heart that will admit Him who is the true God and eternal life. It is this faith entering into the soul as a vital principle which formed those ancient martyrs, who counted it all joy to face suffering and shame, and to meet death, when the God of truth summoned them. (J. Ker, D. D.)

The better resurrection

I. REFLECT ON THE LESSON TAUGHT US BY THE CONDUCT OF THE ANCIENT SAINTS, THAT THIS EARTH IS NOT OUR HOME.

II. INQUIRE WHAT THERE IS IN HEAVEN WHICH COULD ENCOURAGE THEM TO ENDURE SUCH EXTREME SUFFERINGS. In heaven a full and constant sense of Gods favour, and uninterrupted communion with Him, are enjoyed. In heaven the most perfect love and gratitude are exercised towards God. Is it any wonder that the martyrs broke the fiercest terrors of death to reach such a heaven? the glorified saints possess the clearest apprehensions of the perfect and unchangeable happiness of God and of His kingdom. This is a source of the most pure and exalted delight.

III. CONTEMPLATE THE GLORIES OF THE RESURRECTION WHICH THEY HAD IN VIEW. (E. Griffin, D. D.)

Maccabaean martyrs:

There can be no doubt that the apostle has here travelled beyond the canonical books of Scripture into the records of Jewish history given in the Apocrypha. If you will read the sixth and seventh chapters of the Second Book of Maccabees, you will find a full elucidation of the very words here employed. You will find the history of a Jewish mother, who, in the persecutions under Antiochus, saw seven sons tortured and put to death on one day, and encouraged them by her words to witness a good confession, on the very ground here stated, that they might obtain a better than any earthly resurrection. You will read there, in express terms, that offer of redemption which they are here said to have refused. Antiochus, while the youngest was yet alive, did not only exhort him by words, but also assured him with oaths, that he would make him both a rich and happy man if he would turn from the laws of his fathers. And you will read there likewise the answer. The King of the universe, says one of these martyrs, shall raise us up, who have died for His laws, unto eternal life. It is good, says another, being put to death by men, to look for hope from God to be raised up again by Him. Fear not this tormentor, the mother said to the youngest, but, being worthy of thy brethren, take thy death, that I may receive thee again in mercy with thy brethren. (Dean Vaughan.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 35. Women received their dead] As did the widow of Zarephath, 1Kg 17:21, and the Shunammite, 2Kg 4:34. What other cases under all the above heads the apostle might have in view, we know not.

Others were tortured] . This is a word concerning the meaning of which the critics are not agreed. signifies a stick, or baton, which was used in bastinadoing criminals. And signifies to beat violently, and is thus explained by the best lexicographers. After considering what others have written on this subject, I am inclined to think that the bastinado on the soles of the feet is what is here designed. That this was a most torturing and dangerous punishment, we learn from the most authentic accounts; and it is practised among the Turks and other Mohammedans to the present day. Mr. Antes, of Fulnek, is Yorkshire, twenty years a resident in Egypt, furnishes the latest account I have met with; he himself was the unhappy subject of his own description. See at the end of this chapter, article 4. See “Heb 11:40“

Not accepting deliverance] This looks very like a reference to the case of the mother and her seven sons, mentioned 2Mac 7:1, &c.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Women received their dead raised to life again: through this Divine faith, both the prophets Elijah and Elisha did raise and restore, the one to the window of Sarepta, 1Ki 17:22,23, the other to the Shunammite, 2Ki 4:35,36, their sons from the dead; and these women and mothers did by faith receive them from the prophets alive again, who by faith and prayer procured this mercy from the quickening Lord, for them. In the general resurrection all shall be raised by the power of God, and the effect of faith therein is only receptive; we shall enjoy life again, and receive others from the dead also.

And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; others also, besides the prophets forementioned, Heb 11:32, , were tympanized; what manner of torturing death this was, is not so certain, whether by excoriation, and making drum-heads of their skins, or extending them on the rack, as the skin or parchment is on the drum head, and then with clubs, or other instruments, beating them to death; of which sort of sufferers seems Eleazer to be under Antiochus Epiphanes, 2Ma 6:19,30, for his not turning heathen, when urged to it by that torture; and though his deliverance from torture and death were offered to him by his tormentors on compliance with them, and renouncing his religion, yet he refused it, as others did, 2Ma 7:24, resolving to endure the utmost extremity rather than turn idolater, and disobey God.

That they might obtain a better resurrection: that which influenced them to suffer, was their faith in Gods promise of obtaining thereby a resurrection to an incomparable better life than they could have enjoyed on earth; for though they might have been spared from death now threatened them, which was a kind of resurrection, yet was it not to be compared with the resurrection to eternal life, glory, bliss, and pleasure, to be enjoyed by them with God in heaven. See what influenced them, 2Co 4:17,18.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

35. Women received their deadraisedas the widow of Zarephath (1Ki17:17-24). The Shunammite (2Ki4:17-35). The two oldest manuscripts read. “They receivedwomen of aliens by raising their dead.” 1Ki17:24 shows that the raising of the widow’s son by Elijah led herto the faith, so that he thus took her into fellowship, analien though she was. Christ, in Lu4:26, makes especial mention of the fact that Elijah was sent toan alien from Israel, a woman of Sarepta. Thus Paul may quote this asan instance of Elijah’s faith, that at God’s command he went to aGentile city of Sidonia (contrary to Jewish prejudices), and there,as the fruit of faith, not only raised her dead son, but receivedher as a convert into the family of God, as Vulgate reads.Still, English Version may be the right reading.

andGreek,“but”; in contrast to those raised again to life.

tortured“brokenon the wheel.” Eleazar (2 Maccabees 6:18, end; 2Maccabees 19:20,30). The sufferer was stretched on an instrumentlike a drumhead and scourged to death.

not acceptingdeliverancewhen offered to them. So the seven brothers, 2Maccabees 7:9, 11, 14, 29, 36; and Eleazar, 2 Maccabees 6:21,28, 30, “Though I might have been delivered from death, Iendure these severe pains, being beaten.”

a better resurrectionthanthat of the women’s children “raised to life again”; or,than the resurrection which their foes could give them by deliveringthem from death (Dan 12:2;Luk 20:35; Phi 3:11).The fourth of the brethren (referring to Da12:2) said to King Antiochus, “To be put to death by men, isto be chosen to look onward for the hopes which are of God, to beraised up again by Him; but for thee there is no resurrection tolife.” The writer of Second Maccabees expressly disclaimsinspiration, which prevents our mistaking Paul’s allusion here toit as if it sanctioned the Apocrypha as inspired. In quoting Daniel,he quotes a book claiming inspiration, and so tacitlysanctions that claim.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Ver. 35 Women received their dead raised to life again,…. As the widow of Zarephath, and the Shunammite, 1Ki 17:22. Their sons were really dead, and they received them alive gain, from the hands of the prophets, Elijah and Elisha, in the way of a resurrection, and by faith; by the faith of the prophets:

and others were tortured; racked, or tympanized; referring to the sufferings of seven brethren, and their mother, in the times of Antiochus, recorded in 2 Maccabees 7 as appears from the kind of torment endured by them; from the offer of deliverance rejected by them; and from their hope of the resurrection: for it follows,

not accepting deliverance; when offered them by the king, see the Apocrypha:

“24 Now Antiochus, thinking himself despised, and suspecting it to be a reproachful speech, whilst the youngest was yet alive, did not only exhort him by words, but also assured him with oaths, that he would make him both a rich and a happy man, if he would turn from the laws of his fathers; and that also he would take him for his friend, and trust him with affairs. 25 But when the young man would in no case hearken unto him, the king called his mother, and exhorted her that she would counsel the young man to save his life.” (2 Maccabees 7)

that they might obtain a better resurrection; which they died in the faith of, see the Apocryha:

“7 And him he sent with that wicked Alcimus, whom he made high priest, and commanded that he should take vengeance of the children of Israel. 11 And said courageously, These I had from heaven; and for his laws I despise them; and from him I hope to receive them again. 14 So when he was ready to die he said thus, It is good, being put to death by men, to look for hope from God to be raised up again by him: as for thee, thou shalt have no resurrection to life. (2 Maccabees)

The resurrection of the saints, which is unto everlasting life, is a better resurrection than mere metaphorical, and figurative ones, as deliverances from great afflictions, which are called deaths; or real ones, which were only to a mortal state, and in order to die again, as those under the Old Testament, and under the New, before the resurrection of Christ; or than the resurrection of the wicked: for the resurrection the saints will obtain will be first, at the beginning of the thousand years; the wicked will not live till after they are ended; it will be by virtue of union to Christ, whereas the wicked will be raised merely by virtue of his power; the saints will rise with bodies glorious, powerful, and spiritual, the wicked with base, vile, and ignoble ones; the righteous will come forth to the resurrection of life, the wicked to the resurrection of damnation. The consideration of the better resurrection is of great use to strengthen faith, under sufferings, for righteousness sake, and this is obtained by suffering; not that suffering is the meritorious cause of it, but saints in this way come to it; it is promised to such, and it will be attained unto, and enjoyed by such; for all that live godly, do, and must suffer persecution in one way or another.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

By a resurrection ( ). Cf. 1Kgs 17:17; 2Kgs 4:8-37.

Were tortured (). First aorist passive indicative of , late verb from (kettledrum, drumstick), to beat the drum, to beat to death (cf. II Macc. 7 about Eleazar and the Mother and the seven sons), once in LXX (1Sa 21:13).

Not accepting their deliverance ( ). Offered at the price of disloyalty as in II Macc. 6:21-27.

That they might obtain a better resurrection ( ). Purpose clause with and the second aorist active subjunctive of to obtain with the genitive case. A “better resurrection” than the temporary ones alluded to in this verse by the women.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

1) “Women received their dead raised to life again,” (elabon gunaikes eks anastaseos tous nekrous auton) “Women received their dead ones by a resurrection,” a bringing up of loved one from among dead corpses, from physical death. Among them was the widow of Zarephath’s son, 1Ki 17:9; 1Ki 17:17-24; and the son of a Shunamite woman, 2Ki 4:32-37.

2) “And others were tortured,” (alloi de etumpanisthesan) “But others were beaten or clubbed to death; This appears to be a general statement regarding people of Israel who were carried into captivity or overrun by heathen nations, especially in the days of the judges and later under Babylonian captivity, Act 7:5-21.

3) “Not accepting deliverance,” (ou prosdeksamenoi ten apolutrosin) “Not accepting (not inclined to receive), of their own accord refusing, the deliverance,” apparently a compromise release that required their recanting or turning from their faith in Israel’s God, as were the three Hebrew children and Daniel, while imprisoned under Babylonian oppression, Dan 3:12-15; Dan 6:16-24.

4) “That they might obtain a better resurrection,” (hina kreittonos anastaseos tuchosin) “In order that they might obtain or secure a better resurrection,” a better release or deliverance. They “loved not their lives to the death; Their release from imprisonment and torture, to start life over, under pressure and the condition that they deny their faith, turn from praying to the living God, is compared with the resurrection from the dead, a better resurrection than merely being released from temporary earthly imprisonment, 2Co 4:17-18; Job 19:25-27.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

35. Women received, etc. He had already mentioned instances in which God had remunerated the faith of his servants, he now refers to examples of a different kind, — that saints, reduced to extreme miseries, struggled by faith so as to persevere invincible even to death. These instances at the first view widely differ: some triumphed gloriously over vanquished enemies, were preserved by the Lord through various miracles, and were rescued by means new and unusual from the midst of death; while others were shamefully treated, were despised by almost the whole world, were consumed by want, were so hated by all as to be compelled to hide themselves in the coverts of wild beasts, and lastly, were drawn forth to endure savage and cruel tortures: and these last seemed wholly destitute of God’s aid, when he thus exposed them to the pride and the cruelty of the ungodly. They seem then to have been very differently treated from the former ones; and yet faith ruled in both, and was alike powerful in both; nay, in the latter its power shone forth in a much clearer light. For the victory of faith appears more splendid in the contempt of death than if life were extended to the fifth generation. It is a more glorious evidence of faith, and worthy of higher praise, when reproaches, want, and extreme troubles are borne with resignation and firmness, than when recovery from sickness is miraculously obtained, or any other benefit from God.

The sum of the whole is, that the fortitude of the saints, which has shone forth in all ages, was the work of faith; for our weakness is such that we are not capable of overcoming evils, except faith sustains us. But we hence learn, that all who really trust in God are endued with power sufficient to resist Satan in whatever way he may assail them, and especially that patience in enduring evils shall never be wanting to us, if faith be possessed; and that, therefore, we are proved guilty of unbelief when we faint under persecutions and the cross. For the nature of faith is the same now as in the days of the holy fathers whom the Apostle mentions. If, then, we imitate their faith, we shall never basely break down through sloth or listlessness.

Others were tortured, etc. As to this verb, ἐτυμπανίσθησαν, I have followed Erasmus, though others render it “imprisoned.” But the simple meaning is, as I think, that they were stretched on a rack, as the skin of a drum, which is distended. (237) By saying that they were tempted, he seems to have spoken what was superfluous; and I doubt not but that the likeness of the words, ἐπρίσθησαν and ἐπειρὰσθησαν, was the reason that the word was added by some unskillful transcriber, and thus crept into the text, as also Erasmus has conjectured. (238) By sheepskins and goatskins I do not think that tents made of skins are meant, but the mean and rough clothing of the saints which they put on when wandering in deserts.

Now though they say that Jeremiah was stoned, that Isaiah was sawn asunder, and though sacred history relates that Elijah, Elisha, and other Prophets, wandered on mountains and in caves; yet I doubt not but he here points out those persecutions which Antiochus carried on against God’s people, and those which afterwards followed.

Not accepting deliverance, etc. Most fitly does he speak here; for they must have purchased a short lease of life by denying God; but this would have been a price extremely shameful. That they might then live forever in heaven, they rejected a life on earth, which would have cost them, as we have said, so much as the denial of God, and also the repudiation of their own calling. But we hear what Christ says, that if we seek to save our lives in this world, we shall lose them for ever. If, therefore, the real love of a future resurrection dwells in our hearts, it will easily lead us to the contempt of death. And doubtless we ought to live only so as to live to God: as soon as we are not permitted to live to God, we ought willingly and not reluctantly to meet death. Moreover, by this verse the Apostle confirms what he had said, that the saints overcome all sufferings by faith; for except their minds had been sustained by the hope of a blessed resurrection, they must have immediately failed. (239)

We may hence also derive a needful encouragement, by which we may fortify ourselves in adversities. For we ought not to refuse the Lord’s favor of being connected with so many holy men, whom we know to have been exercised and tried by many sufferings. Here indeed are recorded, not the sufferings of a few individuals, but the common persecutions of the Church, and those not for one or two years, but such as continued sometimes from grandfathers even to their grandchildren. No wonder, then, if it should please God to prove our faith at this day by similar trials; nor ought we to think that we are forsaken by him, who, we know, cared for the holy fathers who suffered the same before us. (240)

(237) The τύμπανον was, according to Schleusner, a machine on which the body was stretched; and then cudgels or rods, and whips were used. This appears from the account given in 2Ma 6:19. It is said that Eleasar, rather than transgress the Law, went of his own accord “to the torment ” — ἐπὶ τὸ τύμπανον, and in the 30 th verse mention is made of stripes or strokes — πληγαῖς, and of being lashed or whipped — μαστιγούμενος. This was to be tympanized or tortured. — Ed

(238) This conjecture not countenanced by any MSS. that are considered to have much weight. What has led to this conjecture has evidently been a misunderstanding as to the import of the word in this connection. Being a word of general import, it has been viewed as inappropriate here among words of specified meaning: it refers to the temptation or trial to which those who were condemned for their religion were commonly exposed — the offer of life and of favors and recantation: that seems to have been the special temptation here intended. — Ed.

(239) The verse concludes with these words “that they might obtain a better resurrection,” — better than what? Better than the resurrection referred to at the beginning of the verse, when it is said that “women received their dead raised to life again;” or better than the life promised by persecutors to those doomed to die, in case they renounced their religion. The former is the view taken by Scott and Stuart, and the latter by Doddridge: but as deliverance and no deliverance are facts in contrast, the first is the most obvious meaning.— Ed.

(240) The conclusion of the 37 th verse is, “being destitute, afflicted, tormented:” this is said of those who “wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins.” They were destitute, they had been oppressed or persecuted and unjustly dealt with. Wrong treatment and oppression or persecution drove them from there homes and destitution followed. This is the way in which things are often stated in Scripture; the effect or the present state first, and then the cause or what led to it. The words are rendered “destitute, afflicted, maltreated,” by Macknight, — and “suffering want, afflicted, injuriously treated,” by Stuart. The second word often means oppression or persecution. The third word is found only here and Heb 13:2 where it is rendered “suffer adversity.” It is found in the Sept., in 1Kg 2:26, twice and 1Kg 11:39. It is used by Aqula in Exo 22:22, and in Job 37:23. Its meaning properly is, to be ill or wrongfully treated. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(35) Raised to life again.Literally, by a resurrection. (See 1Ki. 17:22-23; 2Ki. 4:35-37.) At this point the character of the record is changed; hitherto we have heard of the victories of faith in action, now it is of the triumph of faith over suffering that the writer speaks. Those who escaped the edge of the sword (Heb. 11:34) and those who were slain with the sword alike exemplified the power of faith.

Others were tortured.See the account of the aged Eleazar (2Ma. 6:30), martyred because he would not pollute himself with swines flesh and the flesh taken from the sacrifice commanded by the king. The following chapter records the martyrdom of seven brethren, who for their adherence to their law were put to death with cruel tortures. (See especially Heb. 11:9; Heb. 11:14; Heb. 11:23; Heb. 11:29; Heb. 11:36.)

Not accepting deliverance.Literally, not accepting the redemption, i.e., the deliverance offered, which must be purchased at the price of their constancy.

A better resurrection.Better than that return to the present life which is spoken of in the first words of the verse.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

35. Women received (literally, from a resurrection) their dead The son of the widow of Zarephath, (1Ki 17:17,) raised by Elijah, and of the Shunammite, (2Ki 4:17,) by Elisha.

Were tortured Literally, were tympanized, or tortured, perhaps to death, on the tympanum, or tambourine, or drum. The tympanum (derived from tupto, to strike) was, first, a musical instrument with a circular frame varying from a drum to a tambourine, with a skin membrane to be beaten to produce the tune. Thence a similar frame, sometimes called a wheel, upon which criminals were stretched for beating, with a severity often ending in death.

A better resurrection Than that of the widows’ sons; being a resurrection not to a temporal but to an immortal life.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Women received their dead by a resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.’

It is noteworthy that he deliberately keeps on including women (note Sarah (Heb 11:11), Moses’ mother (Heb 11:23) and Rahab (Heb 11:31) and now here). They are represented in each section. Both men and women equally exercised faith in God’s promises, although in different ways.

Women received their dead back because they believed God could and would do what He had promised (compare 1Ki 17:17-24; 2Ki 4:17-37). Other believers accepted death through torture (literally by being ‘placed on a rack and beaten to death’. See 2Ma 6:19 ; 2Ma 6:28 ; 2Ma 6:30 where this happened to Eleazar) because they were confident of a better resurrection (see 2Ma 7:9 ; 2Ma 7:14 ; 2Ma 7:29 ). Whether in life or death their faith was in God and His promises.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Heb 11:35. Women received their dead raised to life again: By a resurrection; by a restoration to life. What kind of punishment, or rather cruel usage, is alluded to in the next clause, or whether the word be used as a general term for torturing and putting to extremity of pain, may be hard to say: but as here are several particular kinds of cruelty mentioned, it seems probable that this is one of that sort. They appear to interpret the word very naturally, who understand it of beating with clubs till the poor man dies. The word indeed is used in a more extensive sense, for putting to death in any violent manner, without taking in the idea of being beaten to death with clubs: but in this place it seems to be used in its proper sense. The history of Eleazer may be alluded to, who is said to have come of his own accord, , which we render, to the torment. 2Ma 6:19; 2Ma 6:28. It is certain that he is said to have been ready to die with stripes, and that he endured sore pains in body by being beaten; but by stripes we are not to imagine him ready to die from the effects of whips or thongs, or such sort of small instruments, but , with bruises, such as arise from being stricken with a great stick or club, Heb 11:30. And when it is said that he came of his own accord to the , to the torment, it means that he came voluntarily to the suffering of this horrid bastinading. It is well known that this punishment is still used in the east, and is common among the Turks at this day. See 2Ma 8:11; 2Ma 8:14 and Parkhurst on the word .

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Heb 11:35 . ] Women received back their dead (their sons) through resurrection . Those meant are the widow of Sarepta (1Ki 17:17 ff.), whose son was awakened out of death by Elijah, and the Shunammite woman (2Ki 4:18 ff.), whose son was raised by Elisha. Far-fetched is the supposition of Biesenthal (in Guericke’s Zeitschr. f. die ges. luther. Theol. u. Kirche , 1866, H. 4, p. 616 ff.): reference is made to the tradition, preserved to us in the rabbinical and talmudic literature, of the cessation of the dying away of the male population in the wilderness on the 15th Ab.

Syntactically Heb 11:35 begins a new proposition (against Bhme, who, as unnaturally as possible, makes the statement still dependent on , Heb 11:33 , and regards as apposition to ).

With , to the close of Heb 11:38 , the discourse passes over to examples of a suffering faith, which remained still unrewarded upon earth.

] Others, on the other hand, were stretched on the rack . Allusion to the martyr-death of Eleazar ( 2Ma 6:18 ff.), and of the seven Maccabean brothers, together with their mother (2 Maccabees 7.). means: to be stretched out upon the (comp. 2Ma 6:19 ; 2Ma 6:28 ), an instrument of torture (probably wheel-shaped, Josephus, de Macc . c. 5, 9, 10 : ), to be stretched out like the skin of a kettledrum, in order then to be tortured to death by blows (comp. 2Ma 6:30 ).

] not accepting, i.e. since the expression, by reason of the objective negation , blends into a single notion: disdaining .

] the deliverance , namely the earthly one, which they could have gained by the renouncing of their faith. Comp. 2Ma 6:21 ff; 2Ma 7:27 ff.

] that they might become partakers of a better resurrection . Motive for the contemning of earthly deliverance. Comp. 2Ma 7:9 ; 2Ma 7:11 ; 2Ma 7:14 ; 2Ma 7:20 ; 2Ma 7:23 ; 2Ma 7:29 ; 2Ma 7:36 , as also 2Ma 6:26 . stands not in opposition to the resurrection of the ungodly unto judgment, Dan 12:2 (Oecumenius: , , , , . Comp. Theophylact), neither does it form any antithesis to in the beginning of the verse (Chrysostom: , ; Theophylact, who does not, however, decide; Bengel, Schulz, Bhme, Bleek, Stein, de Wette, Stengel, Ebrard, Delitzsch, Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebrerbr . p. 617, Obs .; Alford, Maier, Kurtz, and others), which is too remote; but corresponds to the immediately preceding. A much higher possession was the resurrection to the eternal, blessed life, than the temporal deliverance from death; which latter could be regarded, likewise, as a sort of resurrection, but truly only as a lower and valueless one.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

35 Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

Ver. 35. Women received ] As the Sareptan Shunammite, widow of Nain, &c. No such midwife as faith; it hath delivered even graves of their dead.

Others were tortured ] Gr. , they were tympanized, distended, stretched upon the rack, as a sheep’s pelt is upon a drum head. Others render it, “They were bastonaded or beaten with bars or cudgels to death,” as if it were with drum sticks.

Not accepting deliverance ] On base terms; they scorned to flee away for the enjoyment of any rest, except it were with the wings of a dove, covered with silver innoceney. As willing were many of the martyrs to die as to dine. The tormentors were tired in torturing Blandina. And, We are ashamed, O emperor! The Christians laugh at your cruelty, and grow the more resolute, said one of Julian’s nobles. Illud humiliter sublime et sublimiter humile, nisi in Christi Martyribus non videmus, saith Cyprian. This the heathens counted obstinacy (Tertul. in Apelog.); but they knew not the power of the Spirit, nor the private armour of proof that the saints have about their hearts.

That they might obtain a better resurrection ] The resurrection they knew would recruit and rectify them. This held life and soul together. So Dan 12:3 . These miserable captives, saith Lucian (the atheist of the Christians of this time), have vainly persuaded themselves of a glorious resurrection, and hence their fool hardy forwardness to die. Other of the heathens jeered the Christians, and told them they needed not to care for their lives, since they should rise again. Will you, said they, rediturae parcere vitae, spare your carcases that shall rise.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

35 .] Women received (back: so Xen. Cyr. v. 1. 1, ( ) . See also below) their dead by (out of, by means of, their reception springing out of it as its cause) resurrection (not, the resurrection : see below. The cases alluded to seem to be those of the widow of Zarephath, 1Ki 17:17 ff., and the Shunamite, 2Ki 4:17 ff., whose sons were raised, the former by Elijah, the latter by Elisha. The faith must be that of the women themselves, the subject of the sentence, not merely that in the Prophets): but (for the contrast, see below) others were broken on the wheel (the case especially referred to is that of Eleazar, 2Ma 6:18 end; and the seems to have been an instrument like a wheel or drumhead, on which the victim was stretched and scourged to death: cf. reff. Josephus, de Macc. Heb 11:9-10 ( 4Ma 5:32 ), makes Eleazar say to Antiochus, . . . And in the deaths of the seven brothers, which are related differently from the account in 2 Maccabees 7, we read of the first ( 4Ma 9:12 ), , and similarly of several of the others. See Bleek and Wetst. for examples of the word. It occurs in the Schol. to Aristoph. Plut. 476, , , where the Schol. says, ., , . And in Aristot. Rhet. ii. 5 al.), not accepting ( , because the fact of their absolutely refusing is mainly in view) the deliverance (offered to them: see in the deaths of the seven brethren passim, 2 Maccabees 7. Eleazar himself says, 2Ma 6:30 , , ), that they might obtain a better resurrection (there can I think be little doubt that Chrys.’s explanation of is right: ; , . Those sons were raised by a kind of resurrection to a life which should again end in death: but these expected a glorious resurrection to endless life. Cf. 2Ma 7:9 , : also 2Ma 7:11; 2Ma 7:14; 2Ma 7:20; 2Ma 7:23; 2Ma 7:36 . And so Thl., Bengel, Schulz, Bhme, Bleek, De Wette, Stuart, Ebrard, Delitzsch, al. c. understands as opposed to the resurrection of the ungodly to judgment, Dan 12:2 ; , , , , . And so Thl. as an altern. Seb. Schmidt, Hammond, Winer, Lnemann, al. strangely regard it as comparing the with the mere temporal just spoken of: but if so, why not ? Hence we may perhaps understand the , distinguishing these even higher triumphs of faith from these former):

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Heb 11:35 . . “Women received their dead by resurrection,” as is narrated of the widow of Sarepta, 1Ki 17:17-24 , and the Shunamite, 2Ki 4:34 . “others were beaten to death”. (sc. from . strike) a drum, , I beat. From the expression in 2Ma 6:17 ; 2Ma 6:28 , , it might be supposed that some instrument more elaborate than a rod was meant and Josephus speaks of “a wheel” as being used. But that it was substantially a beating to death is proved by what is said of Eleazar ( 2Ma 2:30 ), , . That Eleazar and the seven brethren (2 Maccabees 7) are alluded to is obvious, for it was characteristic of them that they died , not accepting the offered deliverance. Eleazar was shown a way by which he could escape death ( 2Ma 6:21 ), and the seven brethren also were first interrogated and would have escaped death had they chosen to eat polluted food. They endured martyrdom, not accepting the escape that was possible, , “that they might obtain a better resurrection,” “unto eternal life ‘better’ than that spoken of in the beginning of the verse, to a life that again ended” (Davidson, Weiss, von Soden). How fully the resurrection was in view of the seven brethren is shown in the saying of the second: “the King of the world shall raise us ; of the third who when his hands were cut off declared that he would receive them again from God; of the fourth, who in dying said, “It is good, when put to death by men, to look for hope from God to be raised up again by Him;” and the youngest said of them all, “they are dead under God’s covenant of everlasting life”.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

raised, &c. = from (Greek. ek) resurrection (App-178.)

others. Greek. allos. App-124.

tortured = bastinadoed to death Greek. tumpanizomai. Only here.

deliverance. Same as “redemption”, Heb 9:15. See 2 Macc. 6:19-30; 7:1-42.

that = in order that. Greek. hina.

resurrection. Greek. anastasis, as above.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

35.] Women received (back: so Xen. Cyr. v. 1. 1, ( ) . See also below) their dead by (out of, by means of, their reception springing out of it as its cause) resurrection (not, the resurrection: see below. The cases alluded to seem to be those of the widow of Zarephath, 1Ki 17:17 ff., and the Shunamite, 2Ki 4:17 ff., whose sons were raised, the former by Elijah, the latter by Elisha. The faith must be that of the women themselves, the subject of the sentence, not merely that in the Prophets): but (for the contrast, see below) others were broken on the wheel (the case especially referred to is that of Eleazar, 2Ma 6:18-end; and the seems to have been an instrument like a wheel or drumhead, on which the victim was stretched and scourged to death: cf. reff. Josephus, de Macc. Heb 11:9-10 (4Ma 5:32), makes Eleazar say to Antiochus, … And in the deaths of the seven brothers, which are related differently from the account in 2 Maccabees 7, we read of the first (4Ma 9:12), , and similarly of several of the others. See Bleek and Wetst. for examples of the word. It occurs in the Schol. to Aristoph. Plut. 476, , , where the Schol. says, ., , . And in Aristot. Rhet. ii. 5 al.), not accepting (, because the fact of their absolutely refusing is mainly in view) the deliverance (offered to them: see in the deaths of the seven brethren passim, 2 Maccabees 7. Eleazar himself says, 2Ma 6:30, , ), that they might obtain a better resurrection (there can I think be little doubt that Chrys.s explanation of is right: ; , . Those sons were raised by a kind of resurrection to a life which should again end in death: but these expected a glorious resurrection to endless life. Cf. 2Ma 7:9, : also 2Ma 7:11; 2Ma 7:14; 2Ma 7:20; 2Ma 7:23; 2Ma 7:36. And so Thl., Bengel, Schulz, Bhme, Bleek, De Wette, Stuart, Ebrard, Delitzsch, al. c. understands as opposed to the resurrection of the ungodly to judgment, Dan 12:2; , , , , . And so Thl. as an altern. Seb. Schmidt, Hammond, Winer, Lnemann, al. strangely regard it as comparing the with the mere temporal just spoken of: but if so, why not ? Hence we may perhaps understand the , distinguishing these even higher triumphs of faith from these former):

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Heb 11:35. , women received) They as it were snatched them (rescued them).-, women) that were believers, naturally weak.- , out of or from the resurrection) He says, from, not by. They anticipated a future resurrection.-) dead sons, 1Ki 17:22; 2Ki 4:35.- , and others) He comes from them that act to them that suffer (although Abel, Heb 11:4, was already long ago an example of one both acting and suffering); and the particle , but, makes an emphatic addition (Epitasis). The , others, distinguishes these genera; the word , others, Heb 11:36, distinguishes the species of sufferers. Paul observes the same distinction, 1Co 12:8-9.-) , a drum-stick, then a cudgel with which men were beaten to death; French, bastonnade; , they were beaten with clubs. Hesychius: , , . The Vulgate, they were distended (distenti sunt): for as in a drum the parchment or skin is distended, so in this kind of punishment the bodies were distended, that they

1. .

2. .

3. .

4. .

5. .

6. .

7. ,

might more readily receive the blow. The apostle refers to Eleazar in the persecution of Antiochus, 2 Maccabees 6, of whom at Heb 11:20 we have the following account: he came of his own accord to the torture ( ); again at Heb 11:28 : and at Heb 11:30, but when he was at the point of death by the blows, he groaned, and said, It is manifest to the Lord, who has the holy knowledge, that though I might have been delivered () from death, I endure these severe pains in my body, being beaten, etc. Furthermore, as is to beat with clubs, so , is to Kill with clubs; and the apostle uses the simple verb, because after (comp. Heb 11:36), after they had made trial of this species of torture, they might, if they were disposed to break their faith, have even still accepted of deliverance (). See Suicers Thesaurus, which also proves the fact from Gataker, that this word is frequently used to express any violent death. I fancy the reason is, because clubs are a kind of arms most generally met with in all tumults and in a concourse of people: at least in this very passage the apostle seems to point to all kinds of death caused by tumults and inflicted by clubs (in which is included the mode adopted by Antiochus [the tympanum], and mentioned as surpassing the other instruments of torture), and in the following verse he comes to more exquisite punishments [punishments more refined in cruelty]. But the passive form has the middle signification: They suffered themselves to be beaten with clubs. So also Heb 11:37, comp. Heb 11:36.- , deliverance) Eleazar, as we have already seen, used the word . The writer of the second book of Maccabees took care to make it appear, that he stood in need of some indulgence; he pleads his excuse, 2Ma 2:24-32 : but yet the history of the Jewish people from the building of the second temple to the beginning of the New Testament is exceedingly valuable.-, better) This resurrection is better than that which restores mortal life. There is a reference to the beginning of this verse. The antithesis is plain: Women received their dead and recovered them from the resurrection (resuscitation) to a temporal life; [in antithesis to]: Martyrs, who were subjected to death, set before their minds a better resurrection, not to temporal but to eternal life. Comp. 2Ma 7:9; 2Ma 7:11; 2Ma 7:14; 2Ma 7:29; 2Ma 7:36.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

He proceeds in the next place unto instances quite of another nature, and which were more immediately suited unto the condition of the Hebrews. For hearing of these great and glorious things, they might be apt to think that they were not so immediately concerned in them; for their condition was poor, persecuted, exposed to all evils, and death itself, for the profession of the gospel. Their interest, therefore, was to inquire, what help, what relief from faith, they might expect in that condition. What will faith do where men are to be oppressed, persecuted, and slain? Wherefore the apostle, applying himself directly unto their condition, with what they suffered and further feared on the account of their profession of the gospel, produceth a multitude of examples, as so many testimonies unto the power of faith in safeguarding and preserving the souls of believers, under the greatest sufferings that human nature can be exposed unto. And sundry things lie plain in this discourse of the apostle:

1. That he would not hide from these believers what they might meet withal and undergo in and for their profession, lie lets them know that many of them who went before them in the same cause, underwent all manner of miseries on the account thereof. Therefore ought not they to think it a strange thing if they also should be called unto the like trials and sufferings. Our Lord Jesus Christ dealt openly and plainly in this matter; he hid nothing of what was likely to befall them whom he called to be his disciples, but professed directly that he would admit of them on no other terms to be his disciples, but that they denied themselves and took up the cross, or engaged to undergo all sorts of sufferings for his sake and the gospels. He deceiveth none with fair promises of things in this world; nor ought we to be surprised, nor ought we to complain, of any thing that may befall us in our following him; no, not of a fiery trial, 1Pe 4:12; 1Pe 5:9. So the apostle here, having given instances of the great and glorious things that have been done even in this world by faith, that those Hebrews might not expect that they should also be called to enjoy the like successes and victories, because they had the same spirit of faith with them who did so, he minds them of those who were called to exercise their faith in the greatest miseries that could be undergone.

2. That all the evils here enumerated did befall the persons intended on the account of their faith, and the profession thereof. He doth not present them with a company of miserable, distressed creatures, that fell into that state through their own default, or merely on the account of a common providence disposing their lot in this world into such a state of misery, as it is with many; but all the things mentioned they underwent merely and solely on the account of their faith in God, and the profession of true religion: so as that their case differed in nothing from that which they might be called unto. And from both these we may learn,

Obs. 1. That it belongs unto the sovereign pleasure of God, to dispose of the outward state and condition of the church as unto its seasons of prosperity and persecution. As also,

Obs. 2. That those whose lot falleth in the times of greatest distress or sufferings are no less accepted with him than those who enjoy the highest terrene felicity and success.

3. There is as much glory, unto a spiritual eye, in the catalogue of the effects of faith that follows, as in that which went before. The church is no less beautiful and glorious when encompassed and seemingly overwhelmed with all the evils and dreadful miseries here recounted, than when it is in the greatest peace and prosperity. To look, indeed, only on the outside of them, gives a terrible, undesirable prospect. But to see faith and love to God working effectually under them all, to see comforts retained, yea consolations to abound, holiness promoted, God glorified, the world condemned, the souls of men profited, and at length triumphant over all; this is beautiful and glorious.

4. That to do the greatest things, and to suffer the hardest, is all one to faith. It is equally ready for both, as God shall call; and equally effectual in both. These things, unto the flesh, differ next to heaven and hell: they are both alike to faith, when duty calls.

5. That the evils here enumerated are of such various sorts and kinds, as to comprise every thing that may befall believers on the account of their profession: temptation, scorn, mockings, scourgings, bonds, imprisonments, troubles of poverty, fears, and dangers; and those of long continuance, with death itself by all sorts of tortures and extremities. It is impossible that any believer can be called to suffer any thing, in any kind whatever, for the profession of the gospel, but that he may find an instance of it in the sufferings of these martyrs. And it is an encouragement in the greatest distresses, to remember that others in the same cause have undergone them, and been carried victoriously through them. There is good use to be made of the records of the sufferings of the primitive Christians under their pagan oppressors, and of believers of late ages under the power of antichrist.

6. It may be observed, that as the apostle obliged not himself unto the order of time in naming the foregoing witnesses, so here he useth his own liberty in representing these sufferings of the church, without respect unto any method of coherence between the things themselves, or order of time as to the seasons wherein they fell out. Hence, in the midst of his account of the various sorts of death which they underwent, he interposeth that they were tempted: Heb 11:37, They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword. This hath given occasion to many to question whether the word tempted do indeed belong unto the text, or whether it is not a mistake in the copies, for a word of almost an alike sound, but quite of another signification, namely, they were burned; but without cause; for it is evident that the apostle obligeth himself unto no such order as that things of the same nature should be placed together, without the interposition of any thing else. And we shall see there was occasion to interpose that expression, They were tempted, in the place where it is put by the apostle.

7. It may also be observed, that the apostle takes most of these instances, if not all of them, from the time of the persecution of the church under Antiochus, the king of Syria, in the days of the Maccabees. And we may consider, concerning this season,

(1.) That it was after the closing of the canon of the Scripture, or putting of the last hand unto writings by divine inspiration under the old testament. Wherefore, though the apostle represented these things from the notoriety of fact, then fresh in memory, and, it may be, from some books then written of those things, like the books of the Maccabees, yet remaining; yet as they are delivered out unto the church by him, they proceeded from divine inspiration.

(2.) That in those days wherein these things fell out there was no extraordinary prophet in the church. Prophecy, as the Jews confess, ceased under the second temple. And this makes it evident that the rule of the word, and the ordinary ministry of the church, are sufficient to maintain believers in their duty against all oppositions whatever.

(3.) That this last persecution of the church under the old testament, by Antiochus, was typical of the last persecution of the Christian church under Antichrist, as is evident unto all that compare the prophecy of Daniel, Dan 8:9-14; Dan 8:23-25; Dan 11:36-39, with that of the Revelation in sundry places. And indeed the Martyrologies of those who have suffered under the Roman Antichrist are a better exposition of this context than any that can be given in words.

Heb 11:35. ., .

. Syr., , they died with torments. Vulg. Lat., districti sunt; Rhem., were racked, stretched out; respecting that kind of torture wherein they were stretched on a wheel, as a skin is on the head of a drum. So Beza and Erasmus. We use a more general word, were tortured.

. Syr., . Trem., neque intenti expectarunt ut liberentur. Others render it by non speraverunt. They looked not earnestly after deliverance, they hoped not for it; that is, they regarded it not. Vulg., non suseipientes redemptionem. Not accepting redemption; that is, deliverance: liberationem.

. Syr., that there might he to them a more excellent resurrection. Vulg., ut meliorem invenirent resurrectionem. Rhem., that they might find a better resurrection. Invenio is ofttimes used for to attain, or obtain. Others, ut consequerentur, naneiscerentur, that they might obtain.

Heb 11:35. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.

The apostle passeth unto the second sort of them in whom faith exerted its power and efficacy in their sufferings. These he saith were others; persons of another sort, that were called unto other duties than those before mentioned. And this distinction is further signified by the particle , but; others there were.

Three things he mentions of them in this first instance:

1. What they suffered.

2. How they acted faith in their sufferings.

3. On what grounds they did it.

1. For the first, he affirms that they were tortured. The word here used, , hath been by critics and others so coursed through all sorts of authors, that there needs no further search after it. The substance of their discoveries is, that , tympanum, whence the word is framed, doth signify either an engine whereon those who were tortured were stretched out, as a skin is stretched on the head of a drum; or the instruments which were used in the striking and beating them who were fastened unto that engine, like those who have their bones broken on a wheel. So some render the word by fustibus multati, contusi, caesi. But whereas the word is frequently used to signify taking away the lives of men by any kind of torture or tormenting pain, the precise notation of it from its original is not here much to be regarded. We have therefore rendered it, and that properly in general, were tortured; that is, unto death.

There is no doubt but the apostle hath respect herein unto the story that is recorded in the sixth and seventh chapters of the Second Book of the Maccabees. For the words are a summary of the things and sayings there ascribed unto Eleazar, who was beaten to death, when he had been persuaded and allured to accept deliverance by transgressing the law. And the like respect may be had unto the mother and her seven sons, whose story and torments are there also recorded.

And this is the height of what the old murderer could rise and attain unto. He began with a sudden death, by violence and blood. But when he had got advantages, he was not contented therewith. He would have the servants of the living God to die by all sorts of tortures. This was his hell, a hell of his making. But he could never put the displeasure of God into it, nor make it of any continuance. Divine wrath, and perpetuity under it, are his own portion. But that which is most marvelous herein is, that he should get amongst men such as should execute his infernal rage and malice. There was never any greater instance of the degeneracy of human nature unto the image and likeness of the devil than this, that so many of them have been found, and that in high places of power; emperors, kings, judges, and priests, who were not satisfied to take away the lives of the true worshippers of God by the sword, or by such other ways as they slew the worst of malefactors, but invented all kinds of hellish tortures whereby to destroy them. For although the crafts of Satan were open and evident herein, who designed by these ways to get time and advantage for his temptations to draw them off from the profession of the faith, which he could not have had in a speedy execution, yet is it astonishable that the nature of man should be capable of so much villany and inhumanity.

But this also hath God seen good to permit, in that patience whereby he endures with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath, that are fitted for destruction. And he doth it for many blessed ends of his own glory and the eternal salvation of his church, not here to be insisted on.

They were tortured. This is the utmost that the devil and the world can reach unto, all the hell he hath to threaten his enemies withal. But when he hath done his utmost it falls only on the body, it cannot reach the soul; it is but of a short continuance, and gives assurance of an entrance into a blessed eternity. It can shut out no divine consolation from the minds of them that suffer; a little precious faith will carry believers victoriously through the worst of all.

The work of faith with respect unto these tortures, which are the utmost trials of it, may be reduced unto these heads:

(1.) A steady view of that promised eternal glory which they are on an entrance into, 2Co 4:17-18.

(2.) A due comparing of present sufferings with the eternal miseries of the damned in hell, Mat 10:28.

(3.) .4 firm persuasion that these things shall make no separation between God and them, Rom 8:35-39.

(4.) A derivation of present help, strength, and consolation from God, by mixing itself with his promises.

(5.) By a due consideration of the presence of Christ With us, and his concernment in our sufferings. And sundry other ways there are of the like nature whereby faith acts itself, and is victorious under tortures; that none of us may tremble at the thought of Smithfield flames.

2. The way whereby those who were tortured did evidence their faith, was, that they accepted no deliverance; that is, freedom from their tortures, which was offered them in case they would forego their profession. This is expressly affirmed of Eleazar and the seven brethren. Yea, they were not only offered to be freed from tortures and death, but to have great rewards and promotions: which they generously refused. And it was not thus only with them, but it hath been so always with all that have been tortured for religion. For the principal design of the devil in bringing them unto tortures, is not to slay their bodies thereby; though that he aims at in the next place, in case his first design fail, which is to destroy their souls. And therefore we find in all ages, especially in the primitive times of Christianity, that when the cruel persecutors brought any unto tortures, after they began with them they still gave them a space and respite, wherein they dealt with them by fair means and entreaties, as well as threatening further torments, to renounce their profession. And with some they prevailed; but those who were steadfast in the faith refused to accept of deliverance on such terms. The story of Blandina, a virgin and a servant, in the excellent Epistle of the Churches of Vienne and Lyons, about their persecution, is worth the perusal of all good Christians.

Now, that which those persons intended suffered these tortures for, and from which they would not accept of deliverance, was only because they would not eat swines flesh. And unto Eleazar it was offered, that he should bring flesh of his own providing unto the place where he was to eat, and only make an appearance that he had eaten swines flesh; which he refused, 2Ma 6:21. It may be this would by some be esteemed a small matter, and such as by the refusal whereof wise men ought not to have undergone martyrdom by tortures. But the things which are commanded or forbidden of God are not to be esteemed by the matter of them, or what they are-in themselves, but by the authority of him that commands or forbids them. And this is the same in the least as well as in the greatest things in religion. The authority of God may be despised in small things as well as in great. And therefore God doth ordinarily choose out arbitrary institutions to be the trial and touchstone of the faith of the church. So the martyrs here in England died on the account of the sacrament of the Lords supper. And if we begin at any time to suppose, that, to save our lives, we may comply with some lesser things (such as bowing in the house of Rimmon) that God hath forbidden, both faith and profession are lost. We know not what command, what ordinance, what institution, what prohibition, God will single out to be the means and subject of our trial as unto sufferings. If we are not equally ready to suffer for every one, we shall suffer for none at all. See Jas 2:10.

3. The ground of their steadfastness in their profession and under their tortures, was, That they might obtain a better resurrection. So one of the brethren in the Maccabees, chapter 7:9, affirmed expressly that he endured those torments, and death itself, in that he believed that God would raise him up at the last day. This, as the Syriac hath it, they were intent upon.

And this the apostle calls a better resurrection, not only in opposition unto the deliverance which they refused, a resurrection that was better than that deliverance, but because he intends that better resurrection which is to life, seeing all shall rise again, but some to life, and some to everlasting torments.

Now, this faith of the resurrection of the dead is the topstone of the whole structure, system, and building in religion; that which states eternal rewards and punishments, and gives life unto our obedience and suffering. For without it, as the apostle testifies, we are of all men the most miserable. This, therefore, is that which their minds were fixed on under all their tortures, and wherewith they supported themselves, namely, that after all this they should have a blessed resurrection. See Php 3:10-11.

Schlichtingius on this place acknowledgeth, that believers under the old testament had hopes of a blessed resurrection, but not by virtue of any promise of God, only they gathered it up out of some considerations of his goodness, and of his being a rewarder of them that seek him; a vain, foolish opinion, striking at the very foundation of all religion, laying the ground of faith in the conjectures of men, and not on the veracity and faithfulness of God. But,

Obs. Sufferings will stir us up unto the exercise of faith on the most difficult objects of it, and bring in the comforts of them into our souls. Faith of the resurrection hath been always most eminent in prisons and under tortures, Heb 11:36. In the next place we have the example of them who suffered also, but not by tortures, nor unto death, yet in such ways as were a great trial of their faith.

Heb 11:36. , .

The Syriac makes here two distinct sorts, repeating , alii, others, after : as in the next verse it repeats the same word four times, which is not once in the original. it renders by , they exposed themselves to mocking and stripes.

Heb 11:36. Others had trial of [had experience of, or were tried by,] [cruel] mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment.

1. Those spoken of are said to be , not merely ; not only others, but of another sort, namely, such as suffered through faith, but not by tortures, nor unto death. And the exceptive particle intimates the introduction of another kind of sufferings.

2. It is of no use to fix the particulars mentioned unto certain determinate persons, as Jeremiah or others; for seeing the apostle hath left that undetermined, so may we do also. Certain it is, that there were in those days believers who, through faith, patiently and victoriously underwent these things.

There are four things mentioned distinctly under this head:

1. Mockings.

2. Scourgings.

3. Bonds.

4. The prison, or imprisonment.

And they contain all the outward ways of the sufferings of the church, when God restrains the rage of the world, so as that it shall not rise to blood and death.

So it often falls out. It is the utter destruction of the church that Satan and the world do always aim at; but ofttimes there are such bounds set unto their rage, by the division of their own counsels, by their supposed interests, by the more gentle inclinations of some Gamaliels among them, or for want of a pretense to execute the utmost of bloody cruelty, that they take up in mockings, stripes, imprisonments, spoiling of goods, and the like. Of these things it is said they had trial. Experti sunt, they had experience of them, they really underwent them; and so, by consequent, their faith was tried with them.

And the first thing mentioned is, as we render it, cruel mockings. is the word constantly used for the mockings that were cast on our Lord Jesus Christ himself, Mat 20:19; Mat 27:29; Mat 27:31; Mat 27:41; Mar 10:35, Luk 14:29; Luk 18:32; Luk 22:63; Luk 23:11; Luk 23:36. Neither is the verb in either voice, active or passive, used in the New Testament, but only as applied to Christ. And it is joined with , to scourge, as it is here with stripes. , nowhere used but here, is ludibrium, a mocking with reproach and contumely or scorn. Hence we have rendered it cruel mockings. They reproached them with their God, with their religion, with folly, with feigned crimes. Such mockings are recorded in all the stories of the persecutions and sufferings of the church. The world is never more witty, nor doth more please itself, than when it can invent reproachful names, terms, and crimes, to cast upon suffering believers. And whereas the word is derived from , (as that is from ,) to play and mock childishly, it may respect the calumnious reproaches that ofttimes in the streets are cast on suffering professors, by the rude, foolish multitude, like the children that ran after Elisha, mocking and scoffing at him.

And this is reckoned among severe sufferings, there being nothing more harsh to ingenuous minds, nor any thing almost which they had not as willingly undergo. Nor is there any thing that their adversaries inflict on them with more self-pleasing and exultation of mind. Mockings are persecutorstriumphs. But these also faith will conflict withal and conquer: it hath done so in all ages. And it is a fruit of faith which we ought to aim at, namely to keep our spirits composed, unto a contempt of shame under the most severe and scornful mockings.

Unto these sometimes stripes are added; a servile punishment, used towards vagabonds and the vilest of men.

Of the last two ways of trial, namely, bonds and imprisonment, we have had so full an exposition in the days wherein we live, that they need no further explication. And,

Obs. There may be sufferings sufficient for the trial of the faith of the church, when the world is restrained from blood and death. But how long at present it will be so, God only knows.

Heb 11:37. , , , , , , .

, dissecti, secti sunt, they were cut asunder; serrati sunt, they were sawn asunder, cut asunder with a saw; which is usually referred to Isaiah, but without any ground from the Scripture: a punishment and torment used in the east, 2Sa 12:31; Amo 1:3.

. This word is omitted by the Syriac; nor doth Chrysostom take any notice of it. The Vulg. Lat. retains it; and it is in all approved Greek copies. But because it contains a sense which seems not to be suited unto the place it holds in the text, critics have made bold to multiply conjectures about it. Some say it is the word beforegoing, first written a second time upon a mistake, and afterwards changed, by the addition of a letter or two, to give it a distinct signification; some say it should be , and others , they were burned with the fire; and every one doth well confute the conjectures of others. We shall retain the word in its proper place and signification.

. Syr., , in the mouth or edge of the sword. Vulg. Lat., in occisione gladii, caede gladii occubuerunt; they fell or died by slaughter of the sword.

. Vulg., circuiverunt, they went about. Syr., they wandered. Beza, oberraverunt.

. The Syriac interposeth , induti, amicti, clothed; which is necessary unto the sense. Vulg. Lat., in melotis. All suppose that translator understood not the sense of the Greek word, and so retained it. And Erasmus makes himself very merry in reflecting on Thomas, who gives some wild interpretations of it. is a sheep. In sheep-skins. . The Syriac transposeth this word, and prefixeth it unto the other, in the skins of sheep and goats; without necessity, for is a sheep-skin.

. Vulg., egentes; Syr., ; properly, destitute, deprived of all. wanting, poor; . Vulg. Lat., angustati, straitened. Syr., , oppressed. Pressi, afflicti; pressed, afflicted.

. Vulg. Lat., afflicti. Syr., , conquassati, conturbati; shaken, troubled. Male habiti, male vexati. Tormented, say we, as I suppose not properly. Evilly-entreated, vexed with evils.

Heb 11:37. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, [died by slaughter of the sword:] they wandered about in sheepskins and goat-skins, being [15] destitute, afflicted, tormented, [evilly-entreated.]

[15] VARIOUS READING. : unable to account for this word in an enumeration of physical sufferings, critics have proposed other readings. Wakefield suggests , transfixed with stakes; and Juntas, Beza, and others, suggest or , were burned. ED.

Two sorts of persons and two sorts of sufferings are here represented unto us:

1. Such as fell under the utmost rage of the world, suffering by death itself.

2. Such as, to escape death, did expose themselves to all sorts of miseries to be undergone in this life.

The same faith works equally, in them that die by violence, and them who, to escape death, expose themselves to other miseries, provided that the call unto the one or the other be of God.

1. Those of the first sort were killed three ways, or died three kinds of death; that is, some of them one way, and some of them another, as the Syriac translation distinguisheth them, by prefixing some, or others, to each sort: Some were stoned, some were sawn asunder, some were slain with the sword. Amongst these outward sufferings of the body, the apostle interposeth the inward sufferings of their minds, They were tempted; or whether this denoteth a peculiar kind of suffering, we shall afterwards consider.

(1.) The first way of their suffering death, was that they were stoned. This kind of death was peculiar unto the people of the Jews. And therefore it is not amiss applied unto Naboth, 1Ki 21:13; and Zechariah, 2Ch 24:20-21. This punishment was appointed by law for blasphemers, idolaters, false prophets, and the like profaners of the true religion only. But when the persecuting world grew unto the height of impiety, it was applied unto those that were the true professors of it. So was the blood of the first Christian martyr shed under pretense of that law, Act 7:59. And indeed the devil is never more a devil, nor more outrageous, than when he gets a pretense of Gods weapons into his hands. Such hath been the name of the church, and the like profaners of the true religion only. But when the persecuting world grew unto the height of impiety, it was applied unto those that were the true professors of it. So was the blood of the first Christian martyr shed under pretence of that law, Act 7:59. And indeed the devil is never more a devil, nor more

(2.) They were sawn asunder. Some were so, although their names and the particular fact are not recorded. A savage kind of torture, evidencing the malice of the devil, with the brutish rage and madness of persecutors.

(3.) It is added, they were tempted. This seems to be a trial of another kind than those wherewith it is joined; for it is mentioned among various sorts of violent deaths. But we are not to question the order or method of the apostles words. The expression may denote either a distinct kind of suffering, or what befell them under their other sufferings, with which it is joined. In the first way, it lets us know how great a trial there is in temptations in a suffering season, and what vigor of faith is required to conflict with them. They are the fiery darts with which Satan in such a season fights against the souls of believers; and whereby ofttimes he more prevails than by outward and bodily pains. And when a season of persecution approacheth, there is nothing we ought to be more prepared for and armed against. Or the word may denote the temptations wherewith they were tempted by their persecutors under their sufferings, and the threatenings of death unto them. For, as we declared before, in all such seasons the craft and malice of the devil and his instruments, ignorant of the hidden power of faith, endeavored to work upon human frailty, by persuading them to spare themselves, requiring but little of them for their deliverance, with promise of rewards if they would forego their profession. And that this proceeds from the subtilty of Satan, our Lord Jesus Christ declares, in that when his apostle Peter would have dissuaded him from suffering, he lets him know that it was not from himself, but from the suggestion of the devil, Mat 16:22-23. This temptation, therefore, was the engine whereby he wrought in all those sufferings, that which gave them all their power and efficacy towards his principal end, which was the destruction of their souls. For he will willingly spare the lives of many, to ruin the soul of one. Well, therefore, might this be reckoned among their trials, and in the conquest whereof their faith was eminent. And therefore it is an especial promise of our Lord Christ, that when persecution cometh, he will keep his from the hour and power of temptation, Rev 3:10. This word, therefore, may keep its station in this place against all objections.

(4.) The third instance of the ways whereby they suffered death, is, that they were slain with the sword, or died by the slaughter of the sword. The sword intended, is either that of injustice and oppression in form of law, or of violence and mere force. Sometimes they proceeded against those holy martyrs in form of law, and condemned them unto decollation, or the cutting off their heads by the sword; a way of punishment in use among the Grecians, and the Romans afterwards. And if this be intended, it refers probably unto the days of Antiochus, wherein many were so destroyed. Or it may intend the sword of violence, when persecutors in their rage have pursued, fallen upon, and destroyed multitudes by the sword, for their profession. So Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord with the sword, 1Ki 19:10. And in all times of the general prevalency of persecution, multitudes have been so destroyed. And the same course hath been continued under the new testament. Many have been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, Rev 20:4; as his forerunner John the Baptist was, Luk 9:9. And innumerable multitudes have been slain both under the pagan and antichristian tyranny with the sword.

So have all sorts of death been consecrated to the glory of God in the sufferings of the church. Christ himself, Gods great martyr, the amen and faithful witness, was crucified; John the Baptist, his forerunner, was beheaded; Stephen, his first witness by death, was stoned. Nero first invented torments in the case of religion, which afterwards the devil and the World placed their greatest hopes of prevalency in. But,

Obs. 1. No instruments of cruelty, no inventions of the devil or the world, no terrible preparations of death, that is, no endeavors of the gates of hell, shall ever prevail against the faith of Gods elect.

2. The latter part of the verse gives us an account of others, who, though they escaped the rage of their adversaries, as unto death in all the ways of it, yet gave their testimony unto the truth, and through faith bare that share in suffering which God called them unto. And two things the apostle declares concerning them:

(1.) What they did; and,

(2.)What was their inward and outward estate in their so doing.

(1.) As unto what they did, they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat- skins.

[1.] They wandered about. They went about from place to place, To wander, as we have rendered the word, is to go about from place to place without any fixed residence, or design of any certain, quiet habitation. So was it with them. They were driven from their own houses by law or violence. Cities, boroughs, corporations, were made unsafe for them, yea, and sometimes villages also, on one pretense or another. This cast them on this course of life, to wander up and down, sometimes fleeing from one city unto another, sometimes forced to forsake them all, and betake themselves unto the wilderness, as the apostle immediately declares. However, they had not any fixed, quiet habitation of their own. The best interpretation of this word and place is given us by the apostle in the instance of himself, 1Co 4:11 : , We wander; we have no abiding place, but move up and down, as men altogether uncertain where to fix.And indeed the representation he makes of the state of the apostles in those days, 1Co 4:9-13, and 2Co 11:23-27, is a full and plain exposition of this place. And,

Obs. 2. It is no small degree of suffering, for men by law or violence to be driven from those places of their own habitation which the providence of God and all just right among men have allotted unto them. A state whereof many in our days have had experience, who, being conscious unto themselves of no evil towards any sort of men, yet merely for the profession of the gospel and exercise of their ministry, have been driven from their own houses, driven from all places that might accommodate them with any refreshment, to wander up and down that they might find a place to lodge a night in peace.

[2.] But it may be said, that although they did thus go up and down, yet they traveled in good equipage, and had all manner of accommodations; which is not the worst kind of sojourning here in this world. But all things were otherwise with them. They thus wandered in sheep-skins and goat- skins. There is no more intended in these expressions, but that in their wandering their outward condition was poor, mean, and contemptible. For as he declares it fully in the next words, so he gives an instance of it in the garmentsthey wore, which were of the meanest and vilest sort that can be made use of, the unwrought skins of sheep and goats. Some, indeed, did voluntarily use these kinds of garments, as a testimony of their mortified condition. So did Elijah, who was said to be an hairy man, girt with a girdle of leather; not from the hair of his face or body, but from the kind of his garments, 2Ki 1:8. So John the Baptist had his raiment of camels hair, while his meat was locusts and wild honey, Mat 3:4. And therefore the false prophets that were among the people did many of them wear garments of hair, which we render rough garments, Zec 13:4; to beget an opinion of that mortification which they pretended unto. Nothing here is intimated of choice, but necessity. They were poor men, that wandered up and down in poor clothing.

So have the saints of God in sundry seasons been reduced unto the utmost extremities of poverty and want which any man can be exposed unto. And there is a proclamation herein to all the world of these two things:

1st. That there is a satisfaction in faith and obedience to God; there are such internal consolations in that state as do outbalance all the outward evils that may be undergone for the profession of them. Without them the world may know, if they please, that those who do expose themselves unto these straits and difficulties for the preservation of their consciences entire unto God, do know as well as themselves how to value the good things of this life, which are needful to the refreshment of their natures.

2dly. That there is a future state, that there are eternal rewards and punishments, which will set all things aright, unto the glory of divine justice and the everlasting glory of them that have suffered.

(2.) The apostle more particularly declares their state in those expressions, destitute, afflicted, tormented, or evilly-entreated.

[1.] He useth many words to express the variety of their sufferings in their wandering condition. Nothing was absent that might render it troublesome and afflictive. Wherefore, although, it may be, we may miss it in the especial intention of each word or expression, yet we cannot do so as unto the general intention, which is to declare all the properties and concomitants of a calamitous condition. And they are here so set forth, that no believer at any time may faint or despond on the account of any thing which may fall under the power of the world to inflict upon him.

[2.] In particular, they are said,

1st. To be destitute. The Syriac and Vulgar render the word by egentes, or indigentes, pauperes; poor, needy, wanting. All good Latin interpreters render it by destituti: which word is by use more significant in our language than any to the same purpose; for which cause we have borrowed it of the Latin, as we have done other words innumerable, destitute. and are used in the New Testament sometimes in their proper signification, which is to come behind, and so to fall short, or to be cast behind, Rom 3:23, 1Co 1:7, 2Co 11:5; but most commonly to want or lack in any kind, to be deprived of what we stand in need of, Luk 15:14; Php 4:12. Being referred, as it is here, to a course of life, it is to want, to be deprived of necessary accommodations, to be kept without friends, relations, habitation, and such other supplies of life as others do enjoy. So is penuria, poverty, a poor, wanting condition, Luk 21:4. That I judge which is most particularly intended in this word, is want of friends, and all means of relief from them or by them. And this, as some know, is a severe ingredient in suffering. But as our Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples, they should all forsake him and leave him alone, yet he was not alone, for the Father was with him, Joh 16:32; so is it with suffering believers: though they are outwardly destitute, left and forsaken of all means of comfort and relief, yet they are not utterly so; they are not alone, for Christ is with them.

2dly. In this condition they were afflicted. The former word declares what was absent, what they had not, namely, outward supplies and comforts; this declares what they had, what was present with them, they were straitened, or afflicted. The Vulgar renders the word by angustiati, brought into straits: the Syriac by pressi or oppressi; pressed, oppressed: we constantly render this word, in all its variations, by affliction and afflicted. But this is of a general signification, every thing that is grievous, evil, or troublesome. Here the word seems to have peculiar respect unto the great straits which they were brought into, by the great dangers that continually pressed on them. This state was very afflictive; that is, grievous, pressing, and troublesome unto their minds. For when we are called to suffer for the gospel, it is the will of God that we should be sensible of and affected with the evils we undergo, that the power of faith may be evident in the conquest of them.

3dly. It is added, that they were tormented. So we render the word; the Vulg. Lat. reads afflicti; which is the proper meaning of the foregoing word: the Syriac by conquassati, conturbati; shaken, greatly troubled: others properly male habiti, or male vexati; evilly- entreated, which is the signification of the word, and not tormented, as we have rendered it. In this wandering condition they met with very ill treatment in the world. All sorts of persons took occasion to vex and press them with all sorts of evils. And this is the constant entertainment that such wanderers meet withal in this world. Whatever is judged evil and vexatious unto them is on all occasions cast upon them. Reproaches, defamations, revilings, threatenings, contempt, are the things they continually meet withal. And,

Obs. 3. He will be deceived who at any time, under a sincere profession of the gospel, looks for any other, any better treatment or entertainment in the world.

Fuente: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews

A Better Resurrection

“Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.” Heb 11:35

The better resurrection for which the saints of old hoped, the hope of which sustained them in times of great trial and severe persecution was exactly the same as that for which Gods saints today live in confident hope. They did not hope for a superior place in heavenly glory, but for something better than mere deliverance from temporal trouble. They lived and died in the confident hope of resurrection glory with Christ. That is the blessed hope of faith.

Our assurance of the resurrection is much more than belief in a point of orthodoxy. It is faith in and hope in a Person. Christ is Himself our Resurrection. This is not some fools philosophy. It is not a mere religious tranquilizer by which we are able to cope with the trials of life. This is the calm, confident assurance of believing hearts. It is the necessary, inevitable result of faith in Christ (Joh 11:25-26). The Lord Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life of all who trust him; and all who trust him shall in the last day be resurrected with him. All who trust Christ shall, indeed, obtain a better resurrection!

Let me show you why I hope to obtain this better resurrection. I live in hope of the resurrection for three reasons:

A Representative Resurrection

FIrst, I have been resurrected with Christ representatively (Eph 2:5-6; Rom 8:29-30). When the Lord Jesus Christ arose from the grave, he arose as my Representative. All that he did and all that he experienced, all of Gods elect did and experienced in him, by virtue of our representative union with him. His obedience to the law was our obedience (Rom 5:12; Rom 5:18-21). His death as a penal sacrifice for sin was our death (Rom 6:6-7; Rom 6:9-11; Rom 7:4). This is our atonement! His resurrection was our resurrection. This is our life!

The resurrection of Christ is an indisputable fact of revelation and history upon which we rest our souls (1Co 15:1-8). Disprove the resurrection and you disprove the gospel If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins (1Co 15:17).

The bodily, physical resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ necessitates the resurrection of all who are in Christ. That which has been done for us representatively must be experienced by us personally. We are members of Christs mystical body, the church. If one member of the body were lost, the body would be maimed (1Co 12:12; 1Co 12:27). If one member of the body were lost, the Head would not be complete (Eph 1:22-23). These bodies of ours must be fashioned like unto his glorious body (Php 3:21; Joh 17:24).

Christ was raised as the firstfruits of them that sleep (1Co 15:20). The full harvest must follow. Christ is the second Adam. As we have born the image of our first covenant head, we must bear the image of the second (1Co 15:21-23; 1Co 15:47-49). Our Lord Jesus Christ has obtained the victory over all that could hinder the glorious resurrection of his people (Sin, Death, Hell, the Grave, and the Devil – Col 2:13-15; Heb 2:14-15).

The covenant engagements of Christ as the Surety of Gods elect are not complete until the hour of our resurrection (Joh 6:37-40). He shall soon present his bride before his throneholy, unblameable, and unreproveable. In that great day he will present all his elect to the Father, saying, Lo, I and the children thou hast given me. There shall be one fold and one Shepherd.

A Spiritual Resurrection

Second, I have experienced the resurrection of Christ in regeneration. The new birth is nothing less than a resurrection from the dead. To be born again by the Spirit of God is the first resurrection (Rev 20:6; Joh 5:25; Joh 11:25-26; Eph 2:1-4). This is beautifully illustrated in Ezekiels infant (Ezekiel 16), the dry bones that were made to live by the Spirit of God (Ezekiel 37), and by the resurrection of Lazarus (John 11).

A Better Resurrection

Third, I believe the revelation of God concerning the resurrection (Joh 5:28-29). Our Savior declared, Whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die. Gods elect never die!

There shall be a resurrection of life at the second coming of Christ (1Co 15:35-44; 1Co 15:51-58; 1Th 4:13-18). This will not be a secret rapture, but a glorious resurrection. The dead in Christ shall be raised. After their resurrection, all the saints living upon the earth shall be raised into glory. Then, there shall also be a resurrection of damnation (Joh 5:29).

The wicked and unbelieving shall be raised by the power of Christ in order to be judged and condemned. The believer shall be raised by virtue of his union with Christ in order to be judged and rewarded with everlasting glory. The wicked shall be raised in wrath. The believing shall be raised in love. The wicked shall be raised for execution. The righteous shall be raised for a wedding. Prepare to meet thy God. Soon you and I will stand before the living God in judgment (2Co 5:10-11).

Let us comfort one another with these words. Let us be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. What we now do is not in vain (1 Cor. 15:59). Would you have part in the first resurrection and in that glorious resurrection to come? Awake (Eph 5:14), believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall never die.

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

Women: 1Ki 17:22-24, 2Ki 4:27-37, Luk 7:12-16, Joh 11:40-45, Act 9:41

tortured: Act 22:24, Act 22:25, Act 22:29

not accepting: Act 4:19

that they: Mat 22:30, Mar 12:25, Luk 14:14, Luk 20:36, Joh 5:29, Act 23:6, Act 24:15, 1Co 15:54, Phi 3:11

Reciprocal: 1Ki 17:23 – thy son liveth 2Ki 4:36 – Take up Mat 10:28 – And Mar 8:35 – will save Luk 9:24 – General Luk 11:48 – for Luk 20:35 – to Joh 5:39 – ye think Joh 11:24 – I know Joh 12:25 – that loveth Rom 8:18 – I reckon 1Co 10:13 – hath Heb 6:2 – resurrection 1Pe 1:6 – manifold Rev 12:11 – they loved not

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Heb 11:35. The phrase raised to life again and the word resurrection are from the Greek word ANASTASIS, and the phrase is a good definition of the word. Two cases of such a favor shown to women are in 1Ki 17:17-24 and 2Ki 4:18-37. Were tortured. This was done to force the servants of God to renounce their faith. They were promised relief from the torture if they would turn against the Lord, but they would not accept deliverance on such terms. Their motive for such resistance was that they might obtain a better resurrection. All mankind will be resurrected. but only those who are faithful till death will come forth to a happy life (Dan 12:2; Joh 5:29.)

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Heb 11:35-38. What faith has done we have seen; what it helps men to suffer is now told us. Women received (back) their dead raised to life again (literally, by a resurrection, which is regarded as the cause or origin of their so receiving them), true of the widow of Sarepta and of the Shunamite.

And others were tortured (broken upon the wheel). The word here used (a wheel or drum-head on which the victim was stretched and beaten to death) shows that the reference is to Eleazar (2Ma 6:18-31), and the heroic mother and her seven sons mentioned in chap. 7. Fuller details of the same martyrdom are given in the so-called Fourth Book of Maccabees, sometimes, though erroneously, ascribed to Josephus.

Not accepting (rejecting would be more exact) the deliverance which was offered them at the price of their principles (so the original means), in order that they might obtain a better resurrection than the mere return to the present life. The king of the world shall raise us up, they said, unto everlasting life (2Ma 7:9, etc.).

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Heb 11:35-36. Women, naturally weak, received their dead children raised to life again Compare 1Ki 17:22-23; 2Ki 4:36-37; and others Particularly seven children and one pious and holy mother; were tortured In the most inhuman manner, to compel them to renounce their religion, and be guilty of idolatry. See the margin. Thus from those who acted great things the apostle rises higher, even to those who showed the power of faith by suffering; not accepting deliverance When it was offered them on sinful terms, nor even riches and preferments added to the proposal; that they might obtain a better resurrection A resurrection to a better life than that they were to lose, and a higher reward than they could have received had they not endured these afflictions; seeing the greater their sufferings, the greater would be their felicity and glory hereafter; and others In the same glorious cause; had trial of cruel mockings As Samson before Dagon, when the Philistines had put out his eyes; and doubtless hundreds of others, whose names and trials have not been recorded; and scourgings Jeremiah was beaten by Pashur, Jer 20:2; and by the princes, Jer 37:15 : but scourging was so frequent a punishment, both alone and before a capital execution, that it is probable it was inflicted on many pious persons; moreover, of bonds and imprisonments Joseph was cast into a prison, Jeremiah was let down into a dungeon full of mire, Jer 37:13; Jer 37:16; Jer 38:6; and Micaiah was imprisoned by Ahab, 1Ki 22:27.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Verse 35

Women received, &c.; perhaps referring to the account commencing 2 Kings 4:8-37.–A better resurrection; a better salvation than deliverance from earthly sufferings.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

11:35 {t} Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were {u} tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

(t) He seems to mean the story of that woman of Sarepta, whose son Elijah raised again from the dead, and the Shunammite, whose son Elisha restored to his mother.

(u) He means that perfection which Antiochus wrought.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Faith does not result in deliverance in every case, however. These verses refer to many different forms of persecution, which would have been particularly comforting to the original distressed readers. Traditionally Isaiah suffered death at King Manasseh’s hand by being sawn in two. [Note: The Martyrdom of Isaiah 5:1-14.]

"According to . . . mutually complementary rabbinic sources, Manasseh, enraged because Isaiah had prophesied the destruction of the Temple, ordered his arrest. Isaiah fled to the hill country and hid in the trunk of a cedar tree. He was discovered when the king ordered the tree cut down. Isaiah was tortured with a saw because he had taken refuge in the trunk of a tree . . ." [Note: Lane, Hebrews 9-13, p. 390.]

Sometimes the faithful person’s reward comes on the other side of the grave. Some of the readers, and we, might have to endure death. Those who accept death without apostatizing are those the world is not worthy of because they do not turn from following the Lord even under the most severe pressure.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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