Hebrews 11:12

11:12 this one man who was as good as dead: Abraham was very old, yet he became the source for a whole nation. Faith involves believing that God is able to answer his promises seemingly out of nothing. • like the stars . . . and the sand: See Gen 22:17. God fulfilled the promise (Exod 1:7).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Heb 11:12. Ἀφʼ ἑνὸς, from one) from Abraham, by Sarah.—ἐγεννήθησαν) sprung, namely, sons.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb_11:12. The wondrous result of the faith displayed by Sarah.

ἐγενήθησαν] sc. through Sarah as mother and ancestress, γίνεσθαι, of being born, usual also elsewhere in classic (Xen. Cyr. 1:2. 1, al.) and Hellenistic Greek (Rom_1:3; Gal_4:4, al.).

ἀφʼ ἑνός] from one, namely Abraham. Wrongly does Carpzov apprehend ἑνός as a neuter, in that he will have it supplemented by σπέρματος or αἵματος. Just as wrongly Zeger: vel ab uno Abrahae et Sarae corpore (juxta illud: Erunt duo in carne una). Comp. already Theodoret: Ἀφʼ ἑνὸς τοῦ Ἀβραάμ· εἰ δὲ καὶ ἀμφοτέρους ἕνα νοήσαιμεν, οὐχ ἁμαρτησόμεθα· ἔσονται γάρ, φησίν, οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν.

καὶ ταῦτα] and that too, and more than that. According to Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 153, equivalent to καὶ τοῦτο. But the plural is, no doubt, placed because the author has in his mind, besides the νενεκρωμένον εἶναι of Abraham, also that remarked in Heb_11:11 with regard to Sarah (her former unbelief and her advanced age).

νενεκρωμένου] has reference to the dead power of generation, as Rom_4:19.

Of one were born even as the stars of heaven in regard to number, i.e. of one were descendants born innumerable in multitude as the stars of heaven. A supplementing of ἔκγονοι or ἄνθρωποι (so still Bleek) is, moreover, unnecessary. The comparison of the multitude of descendants to the stars of heaven, and the countless sand upon the sea-shore, is based upon the use of the same figures in the words of the promise given to Abraham; comp. Gen_13:16; Gen_15:5; Gen_22:17; Gen_26:4; Gen_32:12; Exo_32:13; Deu_1:10.

χεῖλος] for shore occurs also with the classics, and that in prose equally (Herod. 2:94; Polyb. 3:14. 6, and frequently) as with the poets (Hom. Il. xii. 52). Comp. also Plin. xxxi. 2 : Herba in labris fontis virens; Caes. de hello Gall. vii. 72: ut ejus (fossae) solum tantundem pateret, quantum summa labra distabant.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As unlikely to bear children, as if she had been stark dead.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

as good as dead--literally, "deadened"; no longer having, as in youth, energetic vital powers.

stars . . . sand-- (Gen 22:17).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 12. Him as good as dead] According to nature, long past the time of the procreation of children. The birth of Isaac, the circumstances of the father and mother considered, was entirely supernatural; and the people who proceeded from this birth were a supernatural people; and were and are most strikingly singular through every period of their history to the present day.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. Therefore sprang there even of one, etc. He now also reminds the Jews, that it was by faith that they were the descendants of Abraham; for he was as it were half dead, and Sarah his wife, who had been barren in the flower of her age, was now sterile, being far advanced in years. Sooner then might oil be expected to flow from a stone, than a nation to proceed from them: and yet there sprang from them an innumerable multitude. If now the Jews are proud of their origin, let them consider what it was. Whatever they are, everything is doubtless to be ascribed to the faith of Abraham and Sarah. It hence follows, that they cannot retain and defend the position they have acquired in any other way than by faith.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(12) The stars of the sky.—Better, the stars of the heaven. (See Gen_15:5; Gen_22:17.)

And as the sand.—“And as the sand by the seashore, which is innumerable” (Gen_22:17). With the first words of the verse compare Rom_4:19.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. as the stars … as the sand] Gen_22:17; Deu_1:10.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

These all died in faith,.... Not all the seed of Abraham, but all the believers in the preceding verses, excepting Enoch, particularly the three patriarchs, with Sarah; these died a corporeal death, which is common to all, to the righteous, and to the wicked; and yet saints die not as other men; they die in faith, having the grace itself, which being once implanted, can never be lost; and sometimes in the exercise of it, as these believers did: they died in the faith of their posterity inheriting the land of Canaan, and in the faith of the promised Messiah, and in the believing views of the heavenly glory; and so to die is comfortable to themselves, and a confirmation of the truth of religion to others, and is very precious, desirable, and gainful. It may be rendered, "according to faith"; they died according to the life of faith they lived, and the doctrine of faith they professed, being the Lord's both living and dying.

Not having received the promises; the things promised, the land of Canaan, the Messiah, and the blessings of the Gospel dispensation; they had the promises of these things, and though they were not fulfilled in their days, they believed they would be fulfilled, and died in the faith of them:

having seen them afar off; the things themselves in the promise; as Abraham saw the going forth of his posterity out of Egypt, after they had been afflicted four hundred years, and saw the day of Christ at a greater distance still, Gen 15:13.

And were persuaded of them, and embraced them; they had a full assurance of faith, that what was promised would be fulfilled; and they took a kind of possession of them before hand, as Abraham did of the land of Canaan, by sojourning in it; as did also Isaac and Jacob; and all of them by faith embraced the Messiah, and dealt with, and laid hold upon his blood, righteousness, sacrifice, and grace, by which they were saved, as New Testament saints are.

And confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth; for they sojourned in the land of Canaan, as in a strange land, as the saints do in this world; see Heb 11:9. And they were pilgrims, travelling through this world to the heavenly country, and they confessed themselves to be such, Gen 47:9 nor are believers ashamed to own and confess their mean estate in this world; for it is only with respect to earth, and earthly things, that they are strangers and pilgrims, and only while they are on earth; and it is therefore but for a little time that they are so, ere long they will be at home, and know as they are known.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.

Ver. 12. As the stars, &c.] The seed of Abraham (saith one) are of two sorts. Some are visible members of a Church, yet have earthly hearts, dry and barren as the sand. Others as the stars of heaven, of spiritual hearts, minding things above.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore sprang there even of one - From a single individual. What is observed here by the apostle as worthy of remark, is, that the whole Jewish people sprang from one man, and that, as the reward of his strong faith he was made the father and founder of a nation.

And him as good as dead - So far as the subject under discussion is concerned, To human appearance there was no more probability, that he would have a son at that period of life, than that the dead would have.

So many as the stars in the sky ... - An innumerable multitude. This was agreeable to the promise; Gen 15:5; Gen 22:17. The phrases used here are often employed to denote a vast multitude, as nothing appears more numerous than the stars of heaven, or than the sands that lie on the shores of the ocean. The strength of faith in this case was, that there was simple confidence in God in the fulfillment of a promise where all human probabilities were against it. This is, therefore, an illustration of the nature of faith. It does not depend on human reasoning; on analogy; on philosophical probabilities; on the foreseen operation of natural laws; but on the mere assurance of God - no matter what may be the difficulties to human view, or the improbabilities against it.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Hid as dead: dead in a manner in that respect, and incapable of having children by Sara [Sarah]. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Et hoc emortuo: the ordinary Greek copies have, Greek: kai tauta nenek romenou; i.e. secundum hæc, or in this respect dead, being incapable of having children by Sara.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Because of this faith of Abraham and Sarah, and the fruit of it in conceiving and bringing forth Isaac, was laid the foundation of a numerous seed by God’s promise; from Abraham, a hundred, and Sarah, ninety years old, and barren, and both dead as to procreation, Rom 4:19, there were begotten a vast and unbounded seed, as the stars in the firmament, or the sand on the sea shore; and amongst them the teeming blessing, the one eminent Seed of Abraham, the Messiah, in whom all nations were to be blessed. Within four hundred years from the birth of Isaac, this seed increased to above six hundred thousand fighting men, besides women and children, and after increased to a stupendous greatness, according to the promise, Gen 13:16; 15:5; Exo 12:47; 1Ch 21:5,6.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. Therefore sprang there—And now comes the point that renders these events and characters most illustrious to every Hebrew memory. From this miraculous point sprang his chosen race. The Messianic race, like the Messiah himself, had a supernatural birth. Abraham was that Christ might be; and Sarah was the ancestress of the blessed mother of Jesus.

Even of one—From one fountain head, Abraham, all the diverging streams of the tribes sprang.

Dead—And so from a divinely energized source. Israel was miracle-born. Every Hebrew read in the narrative proof that he was a son of God. The human race was born from Adam; again from Noah; the Jewish race from energized Abraham.

Multitude—Forming the twelve tribes, and even now spread through all the earth.

Stars… sand—The most natural images in primitive times of a number beyond enumeration.

So in old Herodotus, the oracle is made to say, “I know the number of the sand and the measures of the sea.” And so God said to Abraham, (Gen_22:17,) “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As it were dead - Till his strength was supernaturally restored, which continued for many years after.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

These words acquaint us with that gratuitous remuneration and gracious reward which God gave Abraham and Sarah, as the fruit of the faith, namely, the blessing of a numerous posterity; there sprang of them, and both of them, as good as dead, with reference to the procreation of children, a numerous issue like the stars of heaven, and the sands of the sea.

Hence learn, That the God of nature, at his own pleasure, works things above the power of nature in its ordinary efficacy and operations; by weak and dead means he often produces mighty effects.

Learn, 2. That whatever difficulties and oppositions lie in the way of the accomplishing of God’s promises, they shall have an assured accomplishment on God’s part, if faith be kept up in lively exercise on our part.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead. From an old man, a hundred years old, whose reproductive powers were dead, a people. As the stars of the sky in multitude. See Deut. 1:10. These figures are used to express a vast multitude.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

12. τὰ ἄστρα κ.τ.λ. Gen 22:17; Deu 1:10.

τὸ χεῖλος. Comp. “labrum fossae” Liv. XXXVII. 37.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12.] Wonderful result of this faith of Abraham and Sarah. Wherefore also (διὸ καί, which occurs again ch. 13:12, is frequent in St. Luke and St. Paul, see reff.) from one sprung there (the reading is doubtful, but ἐγεν. ἀπό seems to suit better the father, whereas ἐγενν. ἀπό, ‘these were born from,’ would almost necessarily be said of the mother) and that (there is no foundation for Lünemann’s notion, that the plur. ταῦτα has reference to the two circumstances, the deadness of Abraham and the unbelief of Sarah: ταῦτα in such sentences is perpetually the collective plural, = τοῦτο. Cf. Kühner, Gram. § 667 c, who gives as examples, Plato, Rep. iii. p. 404 b, Ὅμηρος … ἐν ταῖς τῶν ἡρώων ἑστιάσεσιν οὔτε ἰχθύσιν αὐτοὺς ἑστιᾷ, καὶ ταῦτα ἐπὶ θαλάττῃ τῇ Ἑλλησπόντῳ ὄντας: Demosth. c. Phorm. Extr., θανάτῳ ζημιώσαντες εἰσαγγελθέντα ἐν τῷ δήμῳ, καὶ ταῦτα πολίτην ὑμέτερον ὄντα, “quamvis civis vester esset”) (from one) deadened (past that vital power which nature requires: see ref. Rom.) even as (it may be asked what is the subject to ἐγενήθησαν? Some supply τέκνα or ἔκγονοι, see Winer, § 64. 3: but it is better to make the whole, καθώς to the end, the virtual subject, latent in καθώς = ὡμοιωμένοι τοῖς ἄστρ. κ.τ.λ.) the stars of the heaven in multitude, and as the sand which is by the lip (margin, cf. παρὰ χεῖλος ἑκατέρου τοῦ ποταμοῦ in ref. Herod. and Polyb. v. 14. 6; iii. 43. 8 al. fr. in index) of the sea which is innumerable (so ran the promises to Abraham, Gen 13:16, καὶ ποιήσω τὸ σπέρμα σου ὡς τὴν ἄμμον τῆς γῆς: Gen 15:5, ἀνάβλεψον δὴ εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, καὶ ἀρίθμησον τοὺς ἀστέρας, εἰ δυνήσῃ ἐξαριθμῆσαι αὐτούς· καὶ εἶπεν, Οὕτως ἔσται τὸ σπέρμασου: and more fully Gen 22:17, πληθύνων πληθυνῶ τὸ σπέρμα σου ὡς τοὺς ἀστέρας τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ ὡς τὴν ἄμμον τὴν παρὰ τὸ χεῖλος τῆς θαλάσσης. The comparison with the sand as indicating great number is frequently found in the O. T., e. g. Gen 41:49: Jos 11:4: 1Sa 13:5: 2Sa 17:11: 1Ki 4:29: Isa 10:22. Cf. also Herod. i. 48, οἶδα δʼ ἐγὼ ψάμμου τʼ ἀριθμόν, καὶ μέτρα θαλάσσης, and Pind. Olymp. ii. in fine, ἐπεὶ ψάμμος ἀριθμὸν περιπέφευγεν).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As good as dead [νενεκρωμενου] . Comp. Rom 4:19. As good as is an addition of A. V. The Greek reads and that a dead man. Comp. nekrwsin deadness applied to Sarah, Rom 4:19.

Stars - sand. See Gen 22:17; Gen 32:12.

By the seashore [παρα το χειλος της θαλασσης] . Lit. by the lip of the sea. The phrase N. T. o. Very often in LXX, as Gen 22:17; Exo 14:30 : lip of a river, Gen 41:17; Exo 7:15 : of a brook, Deu 2:36; Deu 3:12 : of Jordan, 2Ki 2:13. So in Class. The vigor thus supernaturally imparted to Abraham does not appear to have exhausted itself in the generation of Isaac; since, according to Gen 25:2, Abraham became by Keturah the father of six sons after the death of Sarah.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12, διὸ καὶ ἀφ᾽ évos] Wherefore also children tere born through her JSrom one, and that from one as good as dead... Though Sarah is lost, so to speak, in Abraham with whom she was united (ἀφ᾽ ἐνός), yet her act of Faith completing his Faith is made the reason of the fulfilment of the promise (διό).

29; (xifi. 35;) xxiv. 26; Rom. iv. 227; xv. 22; 2 Cor. &£ 20; iv. 13; v. 93 Phil. ii. 9.

Ad' ἐνὸς τοῦ ᾿Αβραάμ. εἰ δὲ καὶ ἀμφοτέρονε ἕνα νοήσαιμεν οὐχ

σόμεθα' ἔσονται αἱ γάρ, Gnoly, ol δύο els σάρκα μίαν (Theodt).

Tho classical phrase καὶ ταῦτα is found here only in N. T.; καὶ τοῦτο occurs Rom. xiii. 11; 1 Cor. vi. 6, 8; 3 John 5. For νενεκρωμένου compare Rom. iv. 19.

xxxii.12. At first the promise is of an hoir, and then of a countloss progeny. Comp. vi. 13 note.

The references in the O. T. to Abraham as ‘the one’ are significant : Mal. ii. 15; In li. 1 ἢ; Ezek. xxxiii. 24.

. (8) Characteristics of the patriarchal life of faith (13—16).

The life of the patriarchs was a life of faith to the last, supported by trust in the invisible which they had realised, resting on completesurrender, directed beyond earth (13). They shewed that the true satisfaction of human powers, tho ‘city’ which answers to man’s social instincts, must be ‘heavenly’ (14—16).

'3 These ali died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and grested them afar, and having confessed that they are strangers and sqjourners on the earth. “For they that say such things make ἐξ plain that they are seeking after a JSatherland (a country of their own). And if indeed they had thought of that from which they went out, they twoould have had opportunity to return. **But now they desire a better, that isa heavenly fatherland ; whereSore God is not ashamed of them, not ashamed to be called their God ;

Abraham (Gen. xxiii. 4 Lxx.; comp. Gen. xlvii. 9; xxiv. 37; xxviii. 4) is used as expressing the view which the patriarchs took of their life. Compare Ps. xxxix. (xxxviii.) 12; cxix. (oxviii.) 19, 54.

Philo places a similar intorprotation on tho ‘sojourning’ of the fathors: de conf. ling. § 17, i. p. 416 M. Not only was the ‘land’ of Palestine ‘strange’ to them (σ. 9), but the ‘earth’ iteelf.

11 (Gon. xxiii. 4); Ps. xxxix. (xxxviii.) 12 (Lxx.); Lev. xxv. 23. Comp. Addit. Note on v. 10.

For the thought compare a striking passage of the Letter to Diognetus,c. 5.

14—16, These verses develop the last clause of v. 13, and defino the grounds of the statement which has been made that the patriarchs ‘died in Faith. Their languago shewed that they continued to the last to look for that which they had not attainod. As ‘strangers’ they acknowledgod that thoy woro in a forcign land: as ‘sojourners’ that they had no permanent possession, no rights of citizonship. At tho same time thoy kept their trust in God. Their natural fatherland had lost its hold upon them. They waited for a ‘city’ of God’s preparing.

Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901), The Epistle to the Hebrews (1889) and The Epistles of St John (1883) — public domain (pre-1929). Text recovered from Internet Archive / Google Books OCR scans. Westcott’s Gospel of John commentary is not included (its OCR lost the chapter running-heads required for reliable verse-keying). Some Greek quoted in the Hebrews volume is imperfectly rendered by the OCR.