Hebrews 11 – The Heroes of Faith

When trying to get to grips with a passage, and understand it’s meaning, it can be helpful to look at how it is divided up into sections, and I shall use this structure:

A 11:1-3 Introduction: the ancients commended for their faith – but they did not see [its fulfilment – implied]
  B   11:4-12 Examples of men and women of faith – Abel to Abraham
    C     11:13-16 Interlude: Pilgrim faith sees beyond the grave
  B’   11:17-38 Examples of men and women of faith – Abraham to Maccabean revolt
A’ 11:39-40 Conclusion: these men and women were commended for their faith – but did not see the fruit of it

Straightaway this structure tells us something important about the central message of this chapter – faith is not based upon what we can see, i.e., it’s not based on experience.  As we shall see, faith is focussed on the person who makes the promise – Jesus the Christ.

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