[Home Page]  [Part I] [Part II]  [Part III] [Part IV]  [Part V]  [Appendix]  [Spir.Pathology]  [Fixes (Nature of God)]  [Timeline]  [God's System] 

Heb 11:1 Inset to Part IVa, The Lord vs. Satan: SupCtHeaven

aka, the Trial of Human History.. aka, Did God err?

God's Script: NOW, versus "Later"
IVa: Macro Role, of Alpha Precedence IVb: ..of Body IVc: ..of Trial Combat IVd: ..of Your Own Destiny

Why does our "NOW" end with a Pre-Trib Rapture?
Says Eph1: Because Bride is COMPLETED!
Matt22:9 -- Vashti refused: go find Esther!
Hebrews 11:1

The new Youtube player is now stupid, won't show all the videos in the playlist, so you can't pick among them. (Youtube changed its programming again, so in Firefox either the videos won't show at all, or need to be re-programmed. Let me know if you can't play an embedded video, and what browser you had trouble with.) So if you want, just view the videos in Youtube, where finally you get a player 'ribbon' at the bottom of the screen, so can pick the videos you want. Here, the playist has five videos, showing both pronunciation of the Greek in Hebrews 11:1 and the exegesis.

The exegesis-only videos can be downloaded, here:

  • Click here to download Part 1 of exegetical video on Hebrews 11:1.
  • Click here to download Part 2 of exegetical video on Hebrews 11:1.

    Greek Inspired text: "Estin.de pistis elpizomenon hupostasis pragmaton elegchos ou blepomenon."
    Here's how you'd pronounce it: "Estin duh PIStis elpidzohMENon hooPOStasis praMAHtohwn Elegkhos ou blepoMENown." Note that meter: 7 syllables per noun+genitive participle, each using eimi (the "ou" is elided). [pragmaton is a noun in the genitive plural, but used like a verb, and is a LEGAL term for court cases, here. Very significant and unusual, since normally the participle would be used as a noun -- here, it is reversed, and the noun is used like a verb.] Seven Is The Number Of Promise, Appointment At Temple, Coming Of Messiah, all over the OT. So now, watch this narrow, literal English rendering, to best demonstrate Greek word order and syntax. Remember that the genitive case is a BELONGING TO, and in Attic, genitive absolutes 'play' like split-screen TV:

      "Now it is [about] Doctrine of [their/our] hopings; Christ of [their/our] trials; Evidence of [their/our] not-seeings."

      or, closer to the Greek words' poetic drama meaning,

      It's about Confidence, in Word! His Thinking, On Trial! Evidence, Unseen!
    Three EQUATINGS: Doctrine confidently believed (meaning of elpis)=Christ-on-Trial=Evidence Unseen. Happening TO us, passive voice in both participles. [A genitive absolute is technically a noun in the genitive case with a participle in the genitive case, plus eimi. The function of a genitive absolute is to simultaneously show you who's the good guy and who's the bad, plus show simultaneous action by both actors. Here, you have nouns in the nominative case, not genitive, yet the function being depicted, is the same function as the genitive absolute plays: 1) what is really happening in the Trial, and 2) what seems to be happening, in the believer's life (i.e., he doesn't SEE the real meaning, humanly -- meaning seems to be the opposite, or meaningless). Very unusual: play on hupostasis, itself: unifying 'to' a nominative, the only truth, the only norm (nominatives are normative syntax). Needs lots of rumination and study. Every time I think of this verse in Greek I see it 'play' in yet another variation (so, multiple translations), kinda like fractals.]

    Yet notice the insipid, weepy stripping-Christ-out translations: let's just pick the most popular ones (pasted from BibleWorks 5), shall we? Bear in mind these people have NO desire to dishonor the Lord. They also have reputations to protect, so to go against a 'hallowed' old but wrong translation, is impolitic:

    New American Standard (NASB) Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

    Young's Literal Translation Hebrews 11:1 And faith is of things hoped for a confidence, of matters not seen a conviction,

    New International Version Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

    King James Version Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

    Revised Standard Version (1950's) Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

    Are these translations insulting, or what? See how Christ is completely missing from the translations, even though in Hebrew 1:3, the same "hupostasis" term is used to identify Him? So now it's YOUR faith, not HIS THINKING, which the translation seems to reference. So, having stripped out The Human Who Is Also God, let's also strip out ALL humans who belong to Him, next. See how, in the translations, all the persons, are made "things"? What garbage! And to think that for centuries no one bothers to correct these horrible translations. Notice how they COPY the King James. Puleese.

    Of course someone with a pigeon's brain in Greek will smugly reply, "But all those genitive participles are neuter! Ha! So 'things' is correct!" Sigh: Epic import is often communicated by use of the neuter in Greek drama, to stress Divine Origin. Like, look at "touto" in Ephesians 2:8, referencing Grace SALVATION through faith, NOT from yourselves -- the entire prior clause.

    Here in Heb11:1, the Actor in those participles is not human. The humans are acted ON, because the participles are in the passive voice. So acted on by Whom? Oh, the neuter pneuma, The Monadic Holy Spirit -- get it?

    Well, all that stripping-out-of-God's Book, is Satan's goal, not God's: strip everyone down to his chemical elements, just tools, cannonfodder for Satan&Co.'s ego. And that's Satan's translating work, too, not man's -- for you just know a translator would not be AWARE he just converted the Lord of the Universe, into a mere 'substance', and all humanity being tried on His Behalf, into "things". It's very witty on Satan's part. That's how he got to Isha, in Gen 3, calling God only by His Last Name, "Elohim", as if God wasn't a REAL Person, but a mere collection of Attributes (origin of the oneness scheme, actually). So here, THE PERSON OF THE UNIVERSE is relegated to mere "substance". Cute. So of course, those believings, trials and not-seeings by Real People of the Unseen, Quintessential Person, are translated, "things". What, do things hope, or do PEOPLE? And do you hope in a thing, or in a Person's THINKING? What, do things undergo TRIAL, or do people? The Person, in fact; and persons, undergoing trials because He did; Trials of FAITH, of HIS THINKING. What, do things SEE? And do you want to see mere things (cf. Romans 8:1-10) -- or, HIM? Yeah, translate this verse into just a bunch of works-won chemicals, goodies. Like the Evolutionist's dream, to make self the most high!

    Of course, the lowest layer of meanings in that verse, is that you will be confident of things you can't see: confident of the things the Holy Spirit is doing to make you grow spiritually, for example. But the entire TRIAL, is about ONE PERSON: Christ. And we are Body, which in this segment of the Book of Hebrews, is all about PEOPLE who learned Him. All the text following verse 1, is TESTIMONY in the Trial. So if you don't get verse 11:1 right, you can't understand what the rest of the Chapter, is talking about. So chalk up another victory for Satan -- he wipes out a whole Chapter's meaning -- how one wins in the Trial, by learning Son's Thinking -- with a simple swipe at the hupostasis and genitives, in Hebrews 11:1. Satan's NOT stupid. But we, are.

      Hebrews 11 is about the efficacy of Bible Doctrine Believed, how it is THE Trial issue; how it makes a person HAPPIER than all the goodies on the planet (so Satan's argument about how God should be nice, is wrong). Even, when there are maximum baddies, and no human goodies, at all. Very pointed reference back to the Book of James, to Paul's emphasis on this Word in Your Head in 1Cor, Ephesians 2-4. Very pointed about the plunder of Him which Isaiah 53:10-12, prophesied. More, on how the Trial issue is UPGRADED due to Jer31:31-34 being realized, Canon in writing, and how it plays out in our hearts and minds, to FINISH the Angelic Trial. Of course, if you read the translation of Hebrews 11, you get the typical Christian idea of BLIND belief -- it's not supposed to make sense. So you miss the real meaning: it's about KNOWING due to Bible Doctrine In Your Head, so you SEE, and are satisfied (Isa53:11). 7th day. So, you rest. In Him. Even though all around you, belies what you KNOW.

      So note the reversal, in the translations above. Kinda like how the OT sacrifices depicted Him sacrificing AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR us, rather us sacrificing to Him, this real meaning of CERTAINTY based on SCRIPTURE becomes -- in translation -- a blasphemy: us blindly sacrificing ourselves, for Him. How insulting. Just like, for eons humankind has depicted his sacrifices as being demanded from God (reversing the true meaning of those sacrifices as GOD doing for you).

    Notice how the Holy Spirit's WRITING SCRIPTURE is thus denigrated, as well. Translations emphasize what WE do (making "faith" look like the act of believing, rather than the WORD the Spirit put in us), rather than what HE does to us. Everywhere (and James 2 is a perfect parallel passage, in the Greek) the inspired text of the Bible stresses what GOD does. Translations, reverse that meaning, so the poor reader of a translation, thinks he is supposed to be doing something. Yeah, doo-doo. Again, Satan's NOT stupid. But we are. Well, we are uninterested in this Diamond Book God so assiduously preserved for us. Back in 1611, they had some excuse for not knowing. But we've had the original languages of Scripture commonly available, for a good century or more. So it's disinterest, the quintessential symptom of hating God, which makes us stupid. Just as, it does Satan.

    So notice how this disinterest gets perpetuated by slovenly and marionettish scholarship. See, you can just claim that

  • because all the endings are neuter genitive plurals, and pragmatwn itself is SOMETIMES translated as a "matter" (ignoring the TRIAL context of the entire chapter!),
  • THEN you ignore that estin is FIRST in the verse,
  • so then you can claim that both hupostasis and pistis are equated (yes, they are, since the Hupostasis is a PERSON you BELIEVE in, and He's the EPITOME of Believed Word), and so
  • since elegchos is also a 'thing' (evidence -- yes, another TRIAL word, dummy), so
  • YOUR FAITH is the meaning of the verse.
  • Of course, if ignoring all that, you must ignore the meter, too, and turn the verse into this bland thing. Bible translation is nothing, if not snoozy. That's why people fall asleep when reading one.

    Clever, huh. So you end up with this nicely fuzzy verse praising YOUR FAITH; so you smile and quote it, never knowing what it says.

    So what will happen then? You'll be busy alternately chastising or praising YOUR FAITH and that of others, so you will flunk in the Unseen Trial, which is nicely masked in this verse. So now the rest of the Chapter, which is about How DOCTRINE Sustains The Believer, is nicely obscure. Added bonus: you'll think all those people in the Chapter are WORKING AT THEIR FAITH! So you better work at your faith, too!

    Just the opposite of what the chapter means. For centuries. Satan laughs his head off. LOL, the believer sustains the doctrine! Just the opposite of Divine Writ!

    • Sisyphus