Now the fact of the matter is that even when Hebrews
11:1 is translated as it is in the NIV for example, it is not actually about
the substance of the personal belief. That is that it is not about
the warrant or justification for the content of what one believes. This
is what Terry Eagleton has called the “Yeti Fallacy” where one’s faith is the
same kind of thing as when one believes that they have seen the Yeti. Faith is
not about the justification for the belief that God exists but is the
act of the will to trust the God that one already believes exists. So the
question is whether or not the previous statement of the Hebrews 11:1 is even a
very good translation of the Greek. Often times I have noticed when I look at
English translation that they are what is called “dynamic equivalence”
translations – they are meant to portray the general meaning of the words or
passage involved, and often reflect translation traditions. Frequently
when I look at the Greek I think that a much better translation is possible
than what we find in our mass market translations.[4]
This verse is no exception.
The reason for this article is due in part to the fact that I’m tired of simply dancing around the issue with a he said/she
said with skeptics – trying to convince them that my interpretation of
the passage as it stands in major translations is the correct one. We often
veer away from being too “academic” with people, especially when it comes to
technical language issues that require in depth study of a dead language so we
side step “going to the Greek” in fear of a kind of “it’s all Greek to me”
response, or, more devastatingly, the “so you’re saying it takes a Phd in Greek
to understand God’s word?!” But in this case I think the meaning in the Greek
text has been too obscured by modern translation that revisiting the original
Greek text is the only possible way forward.
With that said I will present a little Greek[5] break down on each word in the text and then provide what I think
is a better translation, followed by some interpretive thoughts of the verse.
Hebrews 11:1 in Greek is: Ἔστιν δὲ πίστις ἐλπιζομένων ὑπόστασις, πραγμάτων ἔλεγχος οὐ βλεπομένων
Definitions:
Ἔστιν – present active indicative 3rd
singular of εἰμί, verb, I am ,
am, it is I , be, I was , have been
Usage: to be, to exist, to happen, to be
present
δὲ - conjunction, but, and, now, then, also, yet, yea, so,
moreover, nevertheless, for, even, misc
Usage: but, moreover, and, now
πίστις –
nominative singular feminine of πίστις, noun, faith, assurance, believe , belief, them that
believe, fidelity
Usage: Conviction of the truth of anything,
belief; in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to
God and divinity, generally with the included idea of trust.
ἐλπιζομένων – present passive participle genitive plural
masculine of ἐλπίζω, verb, to trust, hope, hope for, things hoped for
Usage: to hope; to hopefully trust in
ὑπόστασις – nominative singular feminine of ὑπόστασις, noun, confidence, confident, person, substance
Usage: a setting or placing under; a thing put
under; foundation, that which has foundation, is firm; that which has actual
existence; a substance, a real being; the substantial quality; nature of a
person or thing; the steadfastness of mind, firmness, courage, resolution; a
confidence; a firm trust
πραγμάτων –
genitive plural neuter of πρᾶγμα, noun, thing, matter, business, work
Usage: that which has been done, a deed, an
accomplished fact; what is done or is being accomplished; a commercial
transaction; a matter of law, case or suit, that which is or exists
ἔλεγχος – nominative singular masculine of ἔλεγχος, noun, reproof, evidence
Usage: A proof, that by which a thing is proved
or tested; conviction
οὐ - οὐ, not,
no, cannot , misc
Usage: no, not, in direct questions expecting
an affirmative answer
Βλεπομένων - present, passive, participle, genitive, plural,
neuter of βλέπω, verb,
to see, take heed, behold, beware, look on, look, beware of
Usage: to see, discern, of the bodily eye’
behold with the bodily eye; to be possessed of sight; have the power of seeing;
to turn the eyes to anything; to look at, upon or gaze at
With the lexicology of the words now in
place we can see that a very literal translation of the Greek would be
something like,
“Now this is faith: a steadfast confidence
in the things that are trusted in; being convinced by evidence (or
testing/proving) of the things that have been accomplished that you have not
seen with your own eyes.”
The point of the passage is not an
admonition to have blind faith apart from evidence. I mean one of the words in
the text (ἔλεγχος) means exactly a proof by evidence
and testing! The entire passage is surrounded by examples of testimony and
historical events from the Old Testament and nearly the entire book leading up
to this point has been a testimony about the person and work of Jesus Christ. Therefore
the point of the passage in which this verse is found is that faith is trusting
in (acting in accord with and submission to) a person, the finished work and
the future actions of Christ, based on evidence and testimony, even though
we may not have been among the eyewitnesses to the events described. It is an
admonition not to blind faith, but to continued trust even in the face of
adversity.
In fact, we can say the exact same thing about
belief for any historical event. I was not an eye witness to anything outside
of my own experience, which includes every single event in the history of the
world from before my birth and every event outside of my direct experience in
the world after my birth. Yet in many cases I trust the eye witnesses, the
historians, etc. who give reasonable accounts and interpretations of these
events that they were privy to or have studied – and I am reasonable to
do so. The only difference is that trusting the historians about, say, WWII
does not necessarily require any volitional action on my part – I may
believe that it is true without it requiring any personal trust on my
part. The point of Hebrews 11:1 is that within Christianity we alter our lives,
we make decisions, we act in accordance to our “faith” (trusted belief). We
take a step. We have evidence that the bridge will hold and we must either
choose not to cross it or to cross it. There is no neutral stance. And we find
this meaning of faith consistently throughout the Bible – faith is trusted
belief. That is the meaning of faith in the Bible.
[1]
That is, is it what makes faith faith – is it the essential essence of
what faith, all faith, is.
[2]
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene. 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1989, 198
[3] A
good example of this is the downright terrible article found here: http://thinkwelllivewellnow.hosterize.com/positioning-your-faith/
[4] I
think a fantastic example of this is found in Luke 11:5-8 which is Jesus
parable of the “persistent” knocker. I will write a follow up article on this
about how the meaning is actually radically different than what we usually
conclude based on a commonly propagated poor translation of a single word
in the text - ἀναίδεια.
[5]
Those interested in looking learning Koine Greek I think are best served by
either Croy’s A Primer of Biblical Greek or William D Mounce’s Basics
of Biblical Greek Grammar. Also there is a good website with the entire
OT/NT in their original languages with good morphological breakdowns: http://biblewebapp.com/reader/
