Hebrews 11:1–6

Verse 1. All this chapter is a commendation and recommendation of faith, which is the substance [1] of things hoped for, giving as it were a substance in our minds to such things as we are in hopes and in expectation of hereafter, and making them present to us before they come to pass.—It is also a sure conviction [2] of things that appear not. For when God has revealed things, and we believe them upon the divine and infallible authority of the revealer, we have a greater certainty of them than any demonstration can afford us. By this virtue of faith, they of old, our forefathers, obtained [3] a testimony from God that their actions were pleasing to him. Witham.—Faith is the basis, the foundation supporting our hope; for unless there be faith, there cannot possibly be any hope. Menochius.

Verse 3. The faith so highly commended here is not that special faith of sectarists, by means of which persons of various and contradictory tenets pretend to assure themselves that their sins in particular are pardoned for Christ’s sake, but a firm and lively belief of all that God has revealed or promised.

Verse 4. A sacrifice. [4] Lit. a greater sacrifice than his brother Cain, offering to God the best and fattest cattle he had, by which he obtained a testimony (a mark of God’s approbation) that he was just, and his piety pleasing to God. S. Jerom, from a tradition among the Hebrews, thinks that this mark was, that fire descended from heaven upon Abel’s sacrifice and not upon that of Cain.—And by it, he being dead, yet speaketh. By it, in construction, may be either referred to his faith or to his sacrifice. Some expound it, that by reason of his faith, or of his sacrifice, his memory still lives after his death, and he is commended by all good men. Others think that the apostle alludes to the words which God spoke to Cain, (Genesis 4:10) “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth to me from the earth,” and that in this manner he is said to have spoken after his death. Witham.—Men of all religions, whether true or false, have offered sacrifices, as being the supreme act of religion; and therefore we may conclude, that what is so general and universal, must have come from the instinct and light of our nature, and be a kind of first principle implanted in us by God himself.

Verse 5. Henoch was translated, so as not to die nor see death. In Ecclesiasticus (Calmet. 44) he is said to be translated into paradise. By these words, that he should not see death, it is the general exposition of the ancient interpreters, that he is not dead; but in what place, or in what manner God preserveth him, we know not. See Saint Augustine l. de pec. orig. c. xxiii. Saint John Chrysostom and so forth Witham.

Verse 6. He proves the Henoch was translated by faith, or on account of faith, thus: Henoch was translated because he pleased God; now he could not please God but by faith; therefore by faith he was translated. Menochius.