Hebrews 11:37

Heb_11:37-38

They were stoned

Martyrdom:

The word martyr properly means a witness, but is used to denote exclusively one who has suffered death for the Christian faith.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the chief and most glorious of Martyrs, as having before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession (1Ti_6:13); but we do not call Him a martyr, as being much more than a martyr. He was not only a martyr; He was an atoning sacrifice. He is the supreme object of our love, gratitude, and reverence. Next to Him we honour the noble army of martyrs; not indeed comparing them with Him, who is above all, God blessed for ever, or as if they in suffering had any part in the work of reconciliation, but because they have approached most closely to His pattern of all His servants. Now it may be said that many men suffer pain, as great as martyrdom, from disease, and in other ways: again, that it does not follow that those who happened to be martyred were always the most useful and active defenders of the faith; and therefore that in honouring the martyrs we are honouring with especial honour those to whom indeed we may be peculiarly indebted (as in the case of apostles), but nevertheless who may have been but ordinary men, who happened to stand in the most exposed place, in the way of persecution, and were slain as if by chance, because the sword met them first. But this, it is plain, would be a strange way of reasoning in any parallel case. We are grateful to those who have done us favours, rather than to those who might or would, if it had so happened. But in truth, if we could view the matter considerately, we shall find that (as far as human judgment can decide on such a point), the martyrs of the primitive times were, as such, men of a very elevated faith; not only our benefactors, but far our superiors. For let us consider what it was then to be a martyr.

1. It was to be a voluntary sufferer. Men, perhaps, suffer in various diseases more than the martyrs did, but they cannot help themselves. Again, it has frequently happened that men have been persecuted for their religion without having expected it, or being able to avert it. These in one sense indeed are martyrs; and we naturally think affectionately of those who have suffered in our cause, whether voluntarily or not. But this was not the ease with the primitive martyrs. They knew beforehand clearly enough the consequences of preaching the gospel; they had frequent warnings brought home to them of the sufferings in store for them if they persevered in their labours of brotherly love. Death, their final suffering, was but the concummation of a life of anticipated death. Consider how distressing anxiety is; how irritating and wearing it is to be in constant excitement, with the duty of maintaining calmness and steadiness in the midst of it; and how especially inviting any prospect of tranquillity would appear in such circumstances; and then we shall have some notion of a

Christians condition under a persecuting heathen government. I put aside for the present the peculiar reproach and contempt which was the lot of the primitive Church, and their actual privations. Let us merely consider them as harassed, shaken as wheat in a sieve. Under such circumstances the stoutest hearts are in danger of failing. Thus the Church is sifted, the cowardly falling off, the faithful continuing firm, though in dejection and perplexity. Among these latter are the martyrs; not accidental victims, taken at random, but the picked and choice ones, the elect remnant, a sacrifice well pleasing to God, because a costly gift, the finest wheat flour of the Chinch: men who have been warned what to expect from their profession, and have had many opportunities of relinquishing it, but have borne and had patience, and for Christs name sake have laboured and have not fainted.

2. But, in the next place, the suffering itself of martyrdom was in some respects peculiar. It was a death, cruel in itself, publicly inflicted, and heightened by the fierce exultation of a malevolent populace. The unseen God alone was their Comforter, and this invests the scene of their suffering with supernatural majesty, and awes us when we think of them. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me (Psa_23:4). A martyrdom is a season of Gods especial power in the eye of faith, as great as if a miracle were visibly wrought. It is a fellowship of Christs sufferings, a commemoration of His death, a representation filling up in figure, that which is behind of His afflictions, for His Bodys sake, which is the Church (Col_1:24). And thus, being an august solemnity in itself, and a kind of sacrament, a baptism of blood, it worthily finishes that long searching trial which I have already described as being its usual forerunner in primitive times. To conclude. It is useful to reflect on subjects such as that I have now laid before you, in order to humble ourselves. What are our petty sufferings, which we make so much of, to their pains and sorrows, who lost their friends, and then their own lives for Christs sake; who were assaulted by all kinds of temptations, the sophistry of Antichrist, the blandishments of the world, the terrors of the sword, the weariness of suspense, and yet fainted not? How far above ours are both their afflictions, and their consolations under them! (J. H. Newman, D. D.)

Gods martyrs

I. SEVERAL WAYS THEY WERE PUT TO DEATH.

1. Some were stoned. This was a punishment determined by God in the Judicial Laws of Moses, to be executed upon several transgressors. Yet no judge had warrant from God to condemn any innocent person to this kind of death; yet Zacharias, for charging the Jews with their sins, and denouncing Gods judgments against them, was stoned to death.

2. Some were sawn asunder: thus some say Isaiah was slain by Manasses. This was a cruel kind of execution.

3. Some were tempted by some cruel kind of death to forsake their God, yet they did net.

4. Some were slain by the sword, which is used as well by the magistrate against offending subjects as by the soldier against enemies. Martyrs might be thus slain, either judicially or extrajudicially, without any formal process of judgment; for many times they laid heinous crimes to their charge. Sometimes they made justice injustice, obedience to God disobedience to man, and virtuous acts heinous crimes; and so-called good, evil; and light, darkness. The whole signifies that the lives of the saints and prophets were taken away cruelly and most unjustly by several kinds of tormenting deaths.

II. Some were not slain, BUT LIVED A MISERABLE LIFE. For

1. They wandered. They might be wanderers, either by constraint or voluntarily: by constraint, as when they were banished, or forcibly dispossessed of their houses; voluntarily, as when for fear of death, or to enjoy the quiet of conscience, they fled out of their country, or from the places of their habitation, so that they have no certain safe place of rest--they were continually flitting and removing, as not having where to lay their heads.

2. In this wandering condition they were destitute of raiment and clothes, whereby they might cover their shame, and defend their bodies from the injuries of heaven. They wanted stuff, or, if they had stuff, they could not have made them; and in this case they used sheep-skins and goat-skins. Which expression implies that their clothing was very mean and coarse; yea, not so much as shapen, sewed up, and fitted for their bodies, but only wrapped about some principal parts, leaving others naked. These did not deserve the name of garments, but were nothing else but skin upon skin, the skin of beasts upon the skin of man.

3. They were destitute, that is, in great want of other necessaries, and, as the word doth signify, very poor and indigent; for they had left all their substance, or it was taken from them, or they could have no use of it in their necessity. And if they wandered amongst strangers, little was to be expected from them; for strangers are many times used strangely, and few are sensible of their miseries. Some think the word may be turned (descerti)--deserted and forsaken; for in such a case few dare own their own flesh and blood and nearest relations. Yet the former sense seems to be more genuine, for their very habit did signify that their penury was very great.

4. They were afflicted; for in such a case their straits must be many, and the pressures and perplexities of body and mind very great, and such as none, but some who have been in their case, can truly apprehend.

5. They were tormented. The word may signify they were ill-handeled, sorely vexed, oppressed, and brought very low. (G. Lawson.)

Sawn asunder

Of sawing professors asunder:

We do not read in sacred Scriptures of any that were sawn asunder. But the Jews, among their other traditions, have this, that the Prophet Isaiah was sawn asunder with a wooden saw, in the time of King Manasses. Epiphanius, in setting out Isaiahs life, noteth as much, so doth Hierom in the last close of the fifteenth book of his Comment on Isaiah, p. 57. Whether that be true of Isaiah or not, most sure it is that some have after such a manner been martyred, either by sawing them asunder, or by pulling the members of their body asunder. This testimony of the apostle is sufficient to assure us of the truth thereof, and it giveth an instance of the cruelty of persecutors which showeth itself even in the death of martyrs. The ground of all was their extreme hatred of truth, and malice against maintainers thereof, which made them cast out all bowels of pity; yea, it made them take a devilish delight in cruelty. Herein lieth a difference betwixt cruelty that tends to death and that which is in death. The former may be to make men yield, but this is on malice and a mere devilish disposition.

1. This giveth instance of the depth of mans corruption, which makes him as a devil incarnate, worse than the most savage beasts. Some tyrants have so far exceeded in cruelty as they have hired men to invent instruments for cruel kinds of death. Phalaris among the heathen is famous, or rather infamous, for this. Perillus, at his motion, made a bull of brass, hollow within, which with fire might be heated red hot, and men put thereinto, their crying out for that torture seemed to be as the lowing of a bull, and thereupon no pity taken of them. Other like things are noted of Dionysius, Rouseris, and other tyrants.

2. These tortures do give demonstration of the inconceivable supportance and comfort of the Divine Spirit, whereby martyrs have been enabled with patience to endure what cruelties could be inflicted on them, and in the midst of torments meekly and sweetly to commend their spirits into Gods hands, to the worlds astonishment.

3. How should this stir us up patiently to bear smaller trials? Yea, not to be afrighted or discouraged with anything that man can do, but to rest upon this, that that God who hath enabled His servants in former times to endure such exquisite tortures unto death, will enable us to endure what He shall bring us unto. Pertinent to this purpose is the advice of Christ (Luk_14:4-5). (W. Gouge.)

Tempted

They were tempted

I. THE UNIVERSAL TRUTH OF THE STATEMENT. It is not true that all the saints were scourged, nor all imprisoned, neither were all stoned, nor all slain with the sword, but it is true that they were all tempted. The word tempted bears two meanings; first of all, that of being tried or afflicted; and secondly, that of being enticed to sin. In the first aspect of it God did tempt Abraham, that is, He tried him; and this He does with all His people. God had one Son without sin, but He never had a son without trial. Count it not therefore a strange thing that you should have a cross to carry. As for the other sense of the word tempt, the bad and hard one, in that sense also the statement is universally true. All the people of God have been tempted to sin. Satan no sooner perceives a child of God renewed in heart than he endeavours to mar the work of the Holy Spirit, to ruin the happiness of the believer, and to weaken his usefulness by leading him into sin. The world is always tempting Gods people, and there is no position in life which is free from peril. Whether our path be rough or smooth we are liable to be tripped up unless a hand unseen shall hold us up. This is true of all who have gone before us … they were tempted. At times Providence permits those who are in authority to exercise great power of temptation.

So it was with the saints of old: those who were in power accounted them as sheep for the slaughter. But if there were no devil and no wicked world it would still be true that the saints were tempted, for every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed; and there is that within the best of men which might make them into the worst of men if the grace of God did not prevent. This fact that all the saints have been tempted should put an end to all murmuring upon that score. Somebody says, Mine is a hard lot; I have to follow Christ under great disadvantages. My foes are those of my own household. Yes, your lot may be hard, but if you could just peep within the pearly gates and see that brilliant company, who are the peers of the realm of heaven, you would see none but those who once were tempted. Dare you demand a better lot than theirs?

II. THE UNLIMITED BREADTH OF THE STATEMENT. They were tempted: it does not say how. If one form of temptation had been mentioned, we should have surmised that they did not suffer in other ways, but when the statement is, they were tempted, we shall not be wrong in concluding that they were tried in any and every form. Whatever form temptation may take, in some or in all the saints, that temptation has been endured. We may say of Christs mystical body as we may say of Christs self--tempted in all points like as we are. The saints who are in heaven were tempted in all ways. They were tempted by threats, but they were equally tempted by promises. They were equally deaf to either form of solicitation: they could not be driven, and they could not be drawn; however the net might be spread they could not be taken in it. They have been tempted in subtlest fashion: reason and rhetoric, threat and scorn, bribe and blandishment, have all been used, and used in vain. They were tempted both with trials peculiar to themselves, and with trials common to us all.

III. THE SPECIAL POINT OF THE TRIAL. All these temptations, according to the connection of our text, were aimed at the faith of these holy men. Let us see to it that we become strong in faith, for that is true strength. Feed your faith well. Know the truth, and know it thoroughly. Read the Scriptures, and understand them. Make sure of the eternal verities. Live much upon the promises of future bliss. The sorrows of the way will grow light as the eternal weight of glory is revealed.

IV. THE INTENSITY OF THIS TRIAL. That I gather from the position of our text, which is very strange. The more we think of it the more we shall see that being tempted is worthy to be put side by side with being sawn asunder, and being slain with the sword; for many of those who are daily tormented with temptations will tell you that it is as painful to bear as any form of death. I want to answer the question which naturally arises--Why then does God permit His people to encounter so much temptation? Why is the road to heaven so beset with foes? The Lord answers many designs at one and the same time.

1. Persecution and temptation are a sort of sieve, to sift the Church of God. There must be these fiery persecutions, that the drossy hypocrites may be purged out.

2. Trial and temptation also discover the reality of conversion. Now the fact that he can stand against temptation is one of the very best evidences that he is born again and made a new creature in Christ Jesus; and those who see such a change confess that this is the finger of God.

3. Again, it is by this that men are left without excuse, inasmuch as they refuse the light. I sometimes wonder why ungodly men cannot let Christian people alone. But no; the moment a Christian appears among working men they are all upon him as though they were so many dogs worrying a hare. What does this show but that they know the truth and hate it? They know the light, but would fain quench it, and therefore they put from them the candle which God sends to them. This leaves the ungodly altogether without excuse; it is Gods purpose that it should do so. Meanwhile it does saints good; for painful as it is to them, it drives them to prayer. Many a man lives near to God in prayer who would not have done so if he had enjoyed an easier position. His prayerfulness strengthens him; trial makes him grow in faith and in every grace, and he becomes a better Christian. I believe that persecution is overruled by God for displaying the work of the Divine Spirit. Men see in Christian patience, in Christian courage, and in Christian zeal what the Holy Ghost can work even in such poor raw material as our human nature is. God is magnified by the successful struggling of His people out of love to His name. Moreover the life of the Church is the life of Christ extended and drawn out in His people. It seems to me the trials and the temptations of this life are all making us fit for the life to come--building up a character for eternity. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Wandered about

Believers may be wanderers

The grounds hereof are these

1. The envy and hatred of the world against them, which will not suffer them to sit safely and securely on their own nests. The men of this world are to believers as fowlers to fowls, and hunters to beasts. So was Saul to 1Sa_24:11; 1Sa_24:14; 1Sa_26:20). Hereunto does the prophet allude (Jer_16:16; Mic_7:2; Lam_4:18).

2. Saints high esteem of the truth of God, and of the peace and quiet of their own conscience, which they prefer before house and home, kindred and country. They had rather wander with a quiet conscience, holding the truth, than sit at ease in their own house under their own vines and fig-trees with a torturing conscience upon denying the truth.

3. Gods wise providence, who opens a way for them to escape death; yet so as their faith is proved to be sound by this kind of trial, which is a great one, and in the consequence thereof may prove worse than a present death. Yea, further, God hereby keepeth the light of His truth from being put out, and causeth it to shine up and down in more places (Act_8:1; Act_8:5). This being the condition whereunto believers may be brought, they who have settled places of abode ought to succour such wanderers (Heb_13:2). This, then, must needs be a strong motive to endure this trial, because it is no other than what is common to all saints.

That we may the better observe this take notice of these rules

1. Be well instructed in the nature of this world and vanity of all things under heaven; how nothing is certain and sure. Why, then, should men seek a certain abiding in so uncertain a place?

2. Get assurance of that house, city, and country which is to come. Assurance thereof will make us more content to be without house, city, and country here in this world.

3. In thy best security and most settled estate be a pilgrim in thy mind and disposition, as Abraham and other patriarchs were (verse 13). Herewith the apostle supports Christians (1Co_10:13). (W. Gouge.)

Of the extreme want whereunto confessors may be brought:

Saints may be brought to extreme exigencies. So was David (1Sa_21:3); and Elijah (1Ki_17:6), had not a raven brought him provision, he might have starved; and so again, had not an angel provided for him (1Ki_19:7-8). So Lazarus (Luk_16:21), and many others in all ages.

1. God suffers this that His children might be the rather moved to look up unto Him, and wholly and only to depend upon Him. External means are many times an occasion of drawing the hearts even of saints from God Psa_30:6). The wise man saith, that the rich mans wealth is his strong city (Pro_10:15).

2. God suffers this that His succouring of them might be the more manifested and magnified. (W. Gouge. )

Of whom the world was not worthy

An epic of failure:

This chapter is the most audacious of all poems--it is the epic of failure. Other poets have recited the conquests of their legendary heroes; it was reserved for the poet of faith to recite an ode not less magnificent in honour of heroes all foiled and fallen. That is the way of the Bible. That is why the Bible is the comforter of the weary, the inspiration of all hope-blasted and heart-broken victims of lifes illusions. No good man has wholly prospered in his aims; the best men mourn the failure of all that they best conceived. No true heart in this house of God is satisfied with itself. In proportion to its truth and nobleness it mourns the failure of its highest aims. All this, at least--in part. Enough to inspire thoughts of sadness. Let us listen to this voice which comes to us across the rolling waves of all the centuries, chanting the higher victories and the diviner gains of the heroes of faith. So shall we be comforted under every failure and re-inspired after every defeat. All these died in faith, not having received the promises--disappointed, cheated of the lower, the temporal, the material, yet receiving a spiritual, a higher and eternal fulfilment. An epic of failure! We have learned that the throne of highest glory is the cross of the worlds rejection. At the feet of that colossal Failure who was gibbeted on Calvary we lose our carnal ideals and learn to read the divinest and most lasting triumphs in the defeats which seemed most shameful. Need I waste any word in explanation? The Failure I join with the poet of faith to celebrate is not that which springs from cowardice, from sloth, or from incapacity. Surely not! There are men who fail for no other reason than thai they are invertebrate sluggards, or waste their energies on aims that are unworthy and perishable. These I sing not; they are better forgotten. The charity of God has ordained that they pass quickly out of human memory. Before you sneer at any man as a failure be sure you inquire whether the conditions of success were not then absent, or worse, whether the world, snarling at all noble enterprise, was not too strong for him. Fools sneer when wise men err! Before you scornfully label any man failure, call to mind some of historys divinest defeats--Socrates, hemlock-cup in hand; Paul of Tarsus in Neros dungeon; Jesus Christ on the Cross! Nothing is more tragic than the way society sometimes arrays its forces against daring and aspiring youth. It is an envious world. And not unseldom death overtakes a brave young soul before he has fought his way to victory. So it was with that Italian painter who, reduced to painting shop-signs for a livelihood, died by the roadside of starvation and a broken heart. After his death men woke up to find that an artist had been amongst them. That his soul was great can save no hero of faith from neglect and oblivion, if he have not built some brazen monument solid on the brute earth. That he left his generation richer in faith, in hope, in aspiration, is nothing. That he preserved it from brutishness, from moral stagnation, is nothing. How can these trifling divinities atone for his failure to run a successful church, or make a pile, or initiate a spirited foreign policy? These be thy gods, O Israel! But, Vivas to those noble failures I we exclaim. Vivas to the young men and maidens, over whose unfulfilled plans an early grave closed! Vivas to all thinkers who died with their theories un-demonstrated! Vivas to all statesmen hustled from power by a recreant and godless people, to die amid the shattered fragments of a just and righteous policy! Vivas to the merchant who, rather than riot in plundered thousands, died an honest bankrupt! Vivas to the incorruptible pauper, who might have exchanged the poorhouse for a palace, could he but have smiled and been a villain! Virus to the shackled and branded criminal, doomed to perpetual prison and disgrace by the lie of perjured witnesses! Vivas to all true souls who have perished in just causes amid rabble execrations! Vivas to all who have attempted great things for humanity and God, and--failed! Spanning my native Tay, a strong and stately viaduct successfally defies all pressure of wind and wave, bearing mighty engines with living freights from shore to shore in all weathers. Yet it is built upon a past failure! a few years ago another structure stood in its place, it was at once a thing of beauty to the eye and of profit to the shareholder. The engineer was honest and capable, and was knighted for his pains. But it fell before the strong winds of a night, and with it fell, not only four-score human beings, but the reputation, and, alas! the reason, of its constructor. Shall we upbraid him? Say, rather, shall we not praise him who, first of the whole race of men, attempted a design so vast, and built the longest bridge in the world! Other engineers came after him. They improved upon his ideas. They learned from his mistakes. The result is a bridge which seems good for the service of many generations. Vivas to those who have failed I I say that the Tay Bridge was built not alone by the successful men who reaped the subsequent rewards, it is built also upon the souls of the nameless workmen who perished in its construction, and upon the soul and mind of poor, demented Sir Thomas Bouch. No need to pile up illustrations. It is plain that humanity might have prospered fairly well without its successes, but could have progressed no jot or tittle without its defeats. Having regard to the conditions of human life, it is plain that defeat is not less essential than victory; misdirection and error prepare the way for solid and enduring good. If I may choose, I will have for my portion the failures of mankind; he may have the successes who will. Vivas to those who have failed! Of whom the Mammon-worshipping world was not worthy. Failure? Let us not breathe the word in connection with any honest effort. Let us not so insult the memory of the baffled brave. No true ideal is finally dishonoured; no true effort is wasted; no true worker wholly perishes. From his loss humanity achieves a greater gain. Our future is built upon his past. He himself may perish, Moses-like, upon some lonely Nebo, but we pass over into the promised land! (W. Walsh.)

Gods esteem of His people

I. LET THE WORLD THINK AS WELL, AS HIGHLY, AS PROUDLY OF ITSELF AS IT PLEASETH, WHEN IT PERSECUTES IT IS BASE AND UNWORTHY OF THE SOCIETY OF TRUE BELIEVERS, AND OF THE MERCIES WHEREWITH IT IS ACCOMPANIED.

II. GODS ESTEEM OF HIS PEOPLE IS NEVER THE LESS FOR THEIR OUTWARD SUFFERINGS AND CALAMITIES, WHATEVER THE WORLD JUDGETH OF THEM. They cannot think otherwise of them in their sufferings, than they thought of Christ in His. They did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted (Isa_53:4); as one rejected of God and man. Such is their judgment of all His suffering followers; nor will they entertain any other thought of them. But God is of another mind.

III. OFTTIMES IT IS BETTER, AND MORE SAFE, FOR THE SAINTS OF GOD TO BE IN THE WILDERNESS AMONG THE BEASTS OF THE FIELD, THAN IN A SAVAGE WORLD, INFLAMED BY THE DEVIL INTO RAGE AND PERSECUTION.

IV. Though the world may prevail to drive the Church into the wilderness, to the ruin of all public profession in their own apprehension, YET IT SHALL BE THERE PRESERVED UNTO THE APPOINTED SEASON OF ITS DELIVERANCE--the world shall never have the victory over it.

V. IT BECOMES US TO BE FILLED WITH THOUGHTS OF, AND AFFECTIONS UNTO, SPIRITUAL THINGS, TO LABOUR FOR AN ANTICIPATION OF GLORY, THAT WE FAINT NOT IN THE CONSIDERATION OF THE EVILS THAT MAY BEFAL US ON THE ACCOUNT OF THE GOSPEL. (John Owen, D. D.)

The worlds unworthiness a cause of saints wandering:

The first thing expressed in this reason of confessors wandering is, the worlds vileness. The world is not worthy of them. This consequence is confirmed by this direction which Christ giveth to His disciples (Mat_10:11; Mat_10:13). They who preferred the things of this world before communion with the great King were counted not worthy of that favour to sit at His table Mat_22:4-5). This should dissuade confessors of the truth to take heed of complying too much with the men of this world. This had almost cost Jehosaphat his life (2Ch_18:31). He was sharply reproved for it by a prophet (2Ch_19:2). Saints do herein undervalue themselves, and give occasion to be trampled under foot, yea, and torn to pieces. The world may take great advantage hereby, but saints may be sure to get no good. Should saints comply with them whom God thinks to be unworthy of them? This is the second thing expressed; for this phrase, was not worthy, is here set down as a judgment, which followed upon saints wandering from them. So as the worlds unworthiness deprived them of the society of saints, and might be very beneficial unto them. On this ground Christ saith to the Jews, The kingdom of God shall be taken from Mat_21:43). And it is expressly noted that Christ returned back again from the unworthy Gadarenes, where they besought Him to depart from them (Luk_8:37). This departing from the men of the world is sometimes done by the worlds forcing them (Act_8:1; Mat_10:23). Thus God in His wise providence maketh persecutors spoilers of themselves. Potiphar spoiled himself of a very faithful and profitable servant by casting Joseph into prison (Gen_39:20), so the Jews spoiled themselves of Christ (Joh_7:33-34). And of the apostles, who carried the light of the gospel from the Jews to the Gentiles (Act_13:46-47).

1. Here we have one special reason of saints suffering what they do by the world. It is not Gods displeasure against them; for in love to them, and for their present and future glory are they here persecuted. It is for the punishment of the world to deprive it of those that would be their greatest honour, comfort, and profit, if they were well entertained among them.

2. Herein appeareth the worlds sottishness in punishing themselves by their attempts to punish saints. They may spoil saints of earthly habitations and revenues, they may put them to bodily pains and deprive them of life, but they spoil themselves of the means of spiritual grace, of peace of conscience, and comfort of soul. Yea, and of eternal life, and implunge themselves into easeless torments.

3. This showeth whose case is the worst, whether theirs that are persecuted, or theirs who do persecute. Surely if all things be duly weighed, we shall easily discern that the persecutors case is the worst. The persecuted therefore may say, Weep not for us, but weep for yourselves Luk_23:28).

4. This giveth occasion to such as are deprived of faithful ministers and godly neighbours to examine themselves, and consider whether their unworthiness hath not been the cause thereof.

5. This exhorteth us to esteem ministers, saints, Divine ordinances, and other holy things appertaining to the kingdom of God, so as God may account us worthy to enjoy them; and not take them away by reason of our unworthiness. (W. Gouge.)

The worlds treatment of great men:

The words occur parenthetically. Sufferings precede, and sufferings follow. It seems as if the writer, glowing with devout thankfulness over the worthy deeds of these martyrs of faith, was struck suddenly with scornful indignation at the thought that all their sufferings were inflicted upon them by a world that was all unworthy of them, a world for which they were far too good, a world which affected to despise and presumed to torture them, while in reality it was in comparison with this pure gold of humanity, thus tried in the furnace of persecution, mere contemptible dross. These heroes of all time, these the salt of the world, who saved it from utter corruption, and by the very blood which their persecutors poured out sowed the seed which was to renew the face of the earth; these representatives of what man can be when he allows God to work in him mightily, were men who in their lifetime were despised as unworthy of the world, and who loved the world which was indeed unworthy of them. There is something very awful, something which brings the blush of shame and indignation to our cheeks, in the thought that the world thus spills the blood, and tries to stifle the enthusiasm, of its best and noblest children; that their best acts are often misconstrued; that the finest and purest elements in their characters are often just those which during their lives are least appreciated. There seems to be an enormous waste of human goodness, while we have at the same time so little of it that we cannot afford, if we only knew our true interests, to lose a single lifeful. But the important point for each of us to consider, is to which of the two classes he himself practically belongs; whether in the sight of God, from whom no secrets are hid, he is one of those whom God calls the world, or one of those of whom the world is not worthy. I know no more simple or practical way of setting this question before ourselves, than by asking what is our own estimate of those whom we believe to be trying to serve God. When you see anything, any person, superior to yourselves, does the sight give you pleasure? Do you feel proud of him? Do you try to aid him? If you ever hear of some daring act being done, do you feel disposed to give it its right name; or do you prefer to single out any ludicrous incidents in it, to extract from it and deliberately disparage all its nobleness, and make it as unlikely as you can that there should be any repetition of such a manifestation of enthusiasm. So far as you can judge, does your personal influence tend to increase or to diminish the chance of any marked display of goodness or courage being exhibited in your own society? It was said of a great English statesman--the Earl of Chatham--that no man ever left his cabinet without feeling himself a braver man than he was when he entered … To know how to do justice to all persons; to admire what really deserves admiration in the characters of those with whom we have to do; to detect through the coverings of awkwardness, or shyness, or reserve, or even much more serious defects, the true solid metal which lies beneath--is a duty which is not learned in a day. But we have advanced far in the right direction when we have satisfied ourselves that it is a duty to do this; that we have no right to be blind to latent good in others; that God wishes us to find it out, and then to pay honour to it for His sake; and that for all hasty judgments, and for all blind judgments, and for all uncharitable judgments, and above all for all judgments which wish to find evil rather than to find good, we shall most certainly have to give account … It would be well if you could commence life with an instinctive hatred of all persecution, and especially of all religious persecution. There always is and always will be a world--it may be a literary world, or a fashionable world, or a religious world--but there always will be some dominant body in every society which passes judgment without having the earnestness to care to know the merits of the case on which judgment is to be passed. This world always dislikes and is suspicious of everything new, everything which calls upon it to reconsider its principles, and, in short, to examine itself whether it be in the faith; whether its customs also, as well as its opinions, will bear testing. And the world finds means for making its dislike and suspicion felt, and it taxes to the uttermost the patience and courage of those who by honest and painful, if often misguided, efforts are striving to serve it. Among the chief benefactors, not of England only, but of the human race, stands William Tyndal, the man who almost alone gave us the substance of our wonderful translation of the Bible. He was a thorough student, not, so far as we know, a man of vehement action, like Luther. But he admired Luther, when to do so was dangerous. He expressed his opinion openly, and he fell into disgrace. He escaped into a foreign country. He translated part of the Bible. It was seized and destroyed by an English bishop. He continued his work. He was constantly under the shadow of martyrdom. But the student worked on; and his work was done. The Bible was given as a heritage to Englishmen; but scarcely was the long toil of life complected, when the workman was called into a higher Presence. By the treachery of an English spy he was placed in the hands of the English authorities, and as has been said, passed away in smoke and flame to his rest. (H. M. Butler, D. D.)

The worlds estimates

How different are the estimates of earth and heaven! How different is mans standard of judgment from that which Scripture calls the shekel of the sanctuary! The world drives its saints into deserts and caves of the earth. The world says of each, what it once said of one, Away with such a fellow from the earth--it is not fit that he should live. God looks down from heaven upon the children of men, sees their rash judgments, hears their hard sentences, one upon another, and says, just of those whom the world counts wanting in every attribute of sociability and citizenship--of whom, on the contrary, the world was not worthy. Let us try to estimate aright this parenthetical comment. The world. This cosmos of sense and matter, with its pleasures and its ambitions, its lustings and strivings and warrings, its vanities, its falsehoods, and--its children. Yes, there are those who live for it and for it only, and who count any other life an enthusiasm, a fanaticism, or a hypocrisy. And the world is very real--who shall speak to the contrary? Very substantial, very powerful in its edicts, its threatenings, and its punishments. This is its day, and it makes the most of it. The world knows that it has but a short time--and there is a misgiving, too, under its vauntings, which make them more arrogant and imperious. Such reflections are necessary to the understanding of the text. And they enable us to go forward, and show why men of faith are so repulsive to the world; why, in days of violence, they are persecuted; why, in days of tranquillity, they are courteously, but effectually, ostracised. There is a natural hostility between faith and the world. The one lives for the future: the other lives for the present. The one sees the Invisible: the other places Him at an immeasurable distance. Nowhere is the world really stronger than in Christendom. To profess faith--to fight for the faith--is the worlds masterpiece of self-tranquillising. Are we not all of one speech? Why be more scrupulous, more sensitive, more religious, than your neighbour? The world worshipping is twice the world. It has made its covenant with death--with hell it is at agreement. And that which might seem to be faithsremedy is forbidden her. Wilt Thou that we go and gather them up? Wilt Thou that we discern for ourselves between the false and the true, between the nominal believer and the real believer, within the professing Church, and within the visible communion? Not so. Lest, while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. At all risks, the world and the Church must be mingled together in the present; if so be the influences of grace may yet touch the worldly, and bring them into the fold of the real and of the true. Thus we are taught to look more at principles than at persons. We must not, we cannot, go apart by ourselves, and leave the Church-world to its own ways and its own devices. If it excommunicates, if it drives into the desert, it must have its way: and it will set its mark, if not publicly yet in secret, upon all who refuse to speak its thought and to do its bidding. The man of faith, the consistent Christian, may be in the world, of it he cannot be--and the world knows it. The world of the home, the world of the school, the world of the shop and the counting-house, the world of fashion and of society, feels and resents the reproving speech, and yet more the reproving silence, of the man who quietly and consistently lives for the unseen, and turns all his thoughts and actions that way. And this is the closing lesson of the chapter of faith. We are reminded that there is a world present and active in the heart of Christian England, and that there is also, side by side with it, not only a visible professing community, which, for us, is almost coextensive with it, but also a secret society, knit together in a bond of spiritual sympathy, not only by the possession of common ordinances of worship and rules of living, but by the actual presence, within each member, of the Holy Spirit of God quickening, guiding, enabling, sanctifying--drawing their desires heavenward, and making that world, the world of heaven and of God, more real and more present and more persuasive to them than all the pleasures and all the interests of things seen and temporal. We are reminded also that in this realisation of the invisible God lies a power, and a dignity, and a patent of nobility, altogether different, in kind as well as in degree, from all the greatness and all the honour which can be conferred by rank or wealth, by genius or intellect, by the admiration of senates or the favour of kings. Of whom the world was not worthy is Gods description of the very men whom the world casts out as fools or madmen. Live now, at all costs, for that world, whether this world shall curse or bless. In pureness, in meekness, in diligence, in love unfeigned--with the Holy Spirit within you--so pass the time of your sojourning, and look for your rest and your home in the one city which hath the foundations, the city of the everlasting glory, whose light is the crucified and risen One, whose Architect and Artificer is God. (Dean Vaughan.)

Great men

I. THE WORLD AND THE CHURCH FORM A VERY DIFFERENT ESTIMATE OF GREATNESS. Look at history. What names are those that fill its pages? Kings, counsellors, and chieftains--men who have lived only to subdue and govern their fellow-men. History is so occupied with their deeds, that it finds no place to record manifestations of moral principle, and works of true greatness. There is no record in it of those men, who through a strength and purity of soul obtained a sway over the minds of their fellow-men; who, rising above their times, assailed all forms of error, rescued great truths from the corruption of ages, and by their characters, deeds, sufferings, and writings, proved themselves the benefactors of their race. The world does not know them; but their names are repeated with veneration by thousands. These are our great men; and the day is coming when their greatness shall be acknowledged. The Church esteems moral greatness as the highest kind of greatness; and whatever qualities a man may have apart from this, she refuses to admit his pretensions, and casts out his name. There is too much of lowliness and simplicity in true moral greatness to charm and attract the world. Intellectual greatness is far inferior to moral greatness. A man may be intellectually great, and yet morally mean. He may be like Bacon, the greatest and the meanest of men. The philosopher and the poet are inferior to the Christian. The Church knows nothing of the greatness of men as kings, as warriors, or as statesmen. In her estimation the Christian is the highest style of man. It is necessary to moral greatness, that there should be an acquaintance with the truth--with Gods truth; that truth which illuminates and saves the soul; that truth which sustains a man amidst the scoffings and revilings of an age; that truth which teaches a man how to live and how to die. To be a great man, therefore, a man must recognise the superiority of his nature. He must act as a man, knowing and feeling that he has a soul. He must not be imposed upon by the pageants of the world; he must not be allured by the charms of the things that are passing away; he must confess himself to be a stranger and a sojourner here, as all his fathers were. A great man must be a bold man--one who will act out his convictions, defying all peril, and hearing in his own conscience a voice louder than the threatenings of the world. He must be a man who will dare to be singular; who will hew out his own pathway; who will even look death in the face rather than give up his principles, and leave guilt upon his conscience. He must be an active man--a man making his existence necessary to the world, and who will not let the world do without him; yea, the world cannot, the world shall not do without him. It retains the impression of his deeds. His influence shall outlive himself, and shall never die.

II. THERE HAVE BEEN GREAT MEN IN THIS WORLD OF OURS--men of whom the world was not worthy. There have been some who were men above their age--men standing out from their fellows, men who have lived alone in their generation, and have been like stars in the expanse of heaven. Among the great men who have lived since the days of the apostles I may single out the monk of Germany. Among the most memorable scenes that have occurred in European history is, undoubtedly, that scene in which that great man stood before the worlds authorities friendless and alone and when the question was proposed to him--Will you recant? he answered By Gods grace, never. By that one act and deed of his he deserves to be enrolled among the list of those men of whom the world was not worthy.

III. GREAT MEN ARE MADE SO BY THE GRACE OF GOD. They were born not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Their lives were a copy of the holiness of truth, an illustration of the beauty of truth, and a manifestation of the power of truth.

IV. GREAT MEN HAVE, GENERALLY SPEAKING, GIVEN AN IMPULSE TO THE AGE IN WHICH THEY LIVED. It was impossible for them to think and speak and act in such a world as this, without producing undying impressions; it was impossible for them to suffer and to die, without leaving memorials of their names, their deeds, and their sufferings, in the sympathies and in the hearts of men. They laid the foundation of that vast structure of civil and religious liberty in which we meet and bow down and worship to-day.

V. THE WORLD HAS ALWAYS BEEN IGNORANT OF ITS GREAT MEN. There was One, of whom it becomes us to speak with the greatest reverence. He came into this world; and though He had made the world, yet it knew Him not, and cried out--Away with Him! away with Him! crucify Him! crucify Him! And if the world know not the Master, is it likely that it will recognise His disciples? The world has never known these great men. It has always treated them with contempt. They have been afflicted, forsaken, tormented; they have wandered about in goatskins and in sheepskins; and yet these very men have been among our true nobility and spiritual aristocracy; of whom the world was not worthy. And yet, for them the world forged its fetters, opened the doors of its dungeons, and lit up its fires, that their spirits might ascend to liberty and to God. (H. J. Bevis.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb 11:37-38. They were stoned — As Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, 2Ch 24:21. See also Mat 23:31; they were sawn asunder — As, according to the tradition of the Jews, Isaiah was by Manasseh; were tempted — With offers of deliverance; but remaining steadfast, were then slain with the sword — As also were the eighty-five priests slain by Doeg, 1Sa 22:18; and the prophets, of whose slaughter by the sword Elijah complains, 1Ki 19:10. Or, as επειρασθησαν may be rendered, they were tried, and that in every possible way; by threatenings, reproaches, tortures, the variety of which cannot be expressed: and again by promises and allurements. They wandered about in sheepskins and goat-skins — Their outward condition was poor, mean, and contemptible; their clothing being no better than the unwrought skins of sheep and goats. Nothing is here intimated of their choosing mean clothing, as a testimony of mortification, but they were compelled by necessity to use such as they could find or obtain. Thus have the saints of God, in sundry seasons, been reduced to the utmost extremities of poverty and want. But there is such a satisfaction in the exercise of faith and obedience, and such internal consolation attending a state of suffering for the sake of truth and godliness, as quite overbalance all the outward evils that can be undergone for the profession of them: and there is a future state of eternal rewards and punishments, which will set all things right, to the glory of divine justice, and the everlasting honour of the sufferers. Being destitute — That is, as Dr. Owen interprets it, of friends, and of all means of relief from them; afflicted — Various ways; the former word declares what was absent, what they had not as to outward supplies and comforts; this declares what was present with them, the various evils and positive sufferings inflicted on them; tormented — Κακουχουμενοι, malè habiti, or malè vexati, badly treated; that is, in their wandering condition they met with bad treatment continually, all sorts of persons taking occasion to vex and press them with various evils. Of whom — Of whose society, example, prayers, instructions; the world was not worthy — It did not deserve so great a blessing. The world thinks them not worthy of it, to live in it, or at least to enjoy any name or place among the men of it; but whatever they think, we know that this testimony of the apostle is true, and the world will one day confess it to be so. The design of the apostle is to obviate an objection, that these persons were justly cast out, as not worthy of the society of mankind, and this he does by a contrary assertion, that the world was not worthy of them; not worthy to have converse with them, or of those mercies and blessings which accompany this sort of persons, where they have a quiet habitation. They wandered in deserts, &c. — Being driven from cities, towns, and villages, and all inhabited places, partly by law, and partly by force, these servants of the living God were compelled to wander in such as were solitary, wild, and desert, and to take up with dens and caves for their shelter. And instances of the same kind have been multiplied in the pagan and antichristian persecutions of the churches of the New Testament; but that no countenance is here given to an hermetical life, voluntarily chosen, much less to the horrible abuse of it under the papacy, is too evident to need being here insisted on.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11:37 According to tradition, the prophet Jeremiah died by stoning and the prophet Isaiah was sawed in half.

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

Heb 11:37. Ἐπρίσθησαν) The Jews have an unquestioned tradition, that Isaiah was sawn asunder, by command of Manasseh, with a wooden saw; whence the most of our Christian writers apply the phrase, were sawn asunder, which is used in the Epistle to the Hebrews concerning the sufferings of the saints, to the suffering of Isaiah; Jerome, lib. 15, comm. on Isaiah. If the story told of Isaiah be fabulous, as Tostatus and others think, it really happened to other persons.—ἐπειράσθησαν, they were tempted) The passage has four parts: the first is various, of mockings, etc.; the second various, they were stoned, they were sawn asunder; the third simple, they were tempted; the fourth simple, they were slain by the sword. The third corresponds to the first (πεῖραν, ἐπειράσθησαν, trial or temptation, they were tempted), the fourth to the second, and the murders are alternately mixed with tortures: they were tempted, in every way (the same word occurs, Heb 11:17, ch. Heb 2:18), with threatenings, reproaches, tortures, of which the variety and novelty exceeds our vocabulary; again, with caresses (1Th 3:3, note), which are often not less harassing (disturbing to faith), and by promises and benefits; comp. once more 2Ma 6:21-22; 2Ma 7:24.—ἐν φόνῳ μαχαίρας ἀπέθανον, they were slain with the sword) לפי הרב, which the LXX. not in one place alone translate, ἐν φόνῳ μαχαίρας. The sword is the last of the punishments mentioned by Paul, Rom 8:35, note.—ἐν μηλωταῖς, in sheeps’ skins) as Elijah, LXX., 1Ki 19:13. Nevertheless, false prophets imitated Elijah in his external dress; Zec 13:4.

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

Heb_11:37. Ἐλιθάσθησαν] They were stoned. To be referred to Zechariah, son of Jehoiada (2Ch_24:20-22; comp. Mat_23:35; Luk_11:51), and probably also to Jeremiah, of whom at least later tradition reports death by stoning. Comp. Tertull. Scorpiac. 8; Hieronym. adv. Jovinian. 2:37; Pseudo-Epiphan. (Opp. ii. p. 239), al. Less suitably do Oecumenius, Theophylact, Jac. Cappellus, Grotius, and others think also of Naboth, 1 Kings 21

ἐπρίσθησαν] were sawn asunder. Death by sawing asunder (comp. 2Sa_12:31; 1Ch_20:3) was, according to early tradition, that suffered by Isaiah at the hands of Manasseh, king of Judah. See Ascens. Jes. vat. v. 1114; Justin Martyr, Dial. c. Tryph. 120; Tertull. de Patient. 14, Scorpiac. 8; Origen, Epist. ad African.; Lactant. Institt. iv. 11, al.; Tr. Jevamoth, f. 49. 2; Sanhedrin, f. 103. 2.

ἐπειράσθησαν] were tempted. This general statement has about it something strange and inconvenient, inasmuch as it occurs in the midst of the mention of different kinds of violent death. Some, therefore, have been in favour of entirely deleting ἐπειράσθησαν (Erasmus, Calvin, Beza, Marloratus, Grotius, Hammond, Whitby, Calmet, Storr, Valckenaer, Schulz, Böhme, Kuinoel, Klee, Delitzsch, Maier, al.), in doing which, however, we are not justified by external evidence;[111] while others have thought that ἘΠΕΙΡΆΣΘΗΣΑΝ is a corruption, in itself early, of the original text, which latter must be restored by conjecture. It has been conjectured by Beza, edd. 3, 4, 5, that we have to read ἘΠΥΡΏΘΗΣΑΝ; Gataker, Miscell. 44, Colomesius, Observ. 5, Moll, and Hofmann: ἐπρήσθησαν; Fr. Junius, Parall. lib. 3., and Piscator: ἐπυράσθησαν; Sykes and Ebrard: ἘΠΥΡΊΣΘΗΣΑΝ, they were burned.[112] Further, Luther (transl.), Beza, edd. 1 and 2, Knatchbull, Fischer, Proluss. de vitiis Lexic. N. T. p. 538; Ewald, p. 171, read ἐπάρθησαν (?), from ΠΕΊΡΩ, they were pierced, transfixed; Wakefield, Silv. crit. 2:62: ἐπειράθησαν, from ΠΕΡΆΩ (?), they were spitted, impaled; Tanaq. Faber, Epp. crit., Heb_2:14, and J. M. Gesner in Carpzov: ἐπηρώθησαν, they were mutilated; Alberti: ἐσπειράσθησαν or ἘΣΠΕΙΡΆΘΗΣΑΝ, from ΣΠΕῖΡΑ (?), they were broken on the wheel; Steph. le Moyne in Gronov. Ant. Gr. vii. p. 301: ἐπράθησαν, they were sold. Others yet other conjectures; see Wetstein, Griesbach, and Scholz ad loc. Bleek, too, assumes an error in the text, in that he holds a word which signifies to be consumed, to perish by fire, as ἐπρήσθησαν, which is found with Cyrill. Hieros., and in Codd. 110, 111 for ἘΠΡΊΣΘΗΣΑΝ, or ἘΠΥΡΊΣΘΗΣΑΝ, or even one of the forms more commonly employed for the expressing of this idea,

ἘΝΕΠΡΉΣΘΗΣΑΝ and ἘΝΕΠΥΡΊΣΘΗΣΑΝ,to be the original reading, and then supposes the author perhaps to have thought once more of martyrs under the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes, 2Ma_6:11; 2Ma_7:4 f.; Dan_11:33, al. Comp. also Philo, ad Flacc. p. 990 A (with Mangey, II. p. 542): κατελύθησάν τινες (sc. Alexandrine Jews, by Flaccus) καὶ ζῶντες οἱ μὲν ἐνεπρήσθησαν οἱ δὲ διὰ μέσης κατεσύρησαν ἀγορᾶς, ἕως ὅλα τὰ σώματα αὐτῶν ἐδαπανήθη. Similarly Reiche, Commentar. Crit. p. 111 sqq., who leaves open the choice between ἐπρήσθησαν and ἘΠΥΡΏΘΗΣΑΝ.

If ἘΠΕΙΡΆΣΘΗΣΑΝ is genuine, it must have been added by the author for the sake of the paronomasia with ἘΠΡΊΣΘΗΣΑΝ, and be referred to the enticements and temptations to escape a violent death by means of apostasy (comp. e.g. 2Ma_7:24).

ἐν φόνῳ μαχαίρας ἀπέθανον] died by slaughter of the sword. Comp. 1Ki_19:10 : τοὺς προφήτας σου ἀπέκτειναν ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ; Jer_26:23 : ΚΑῚ ἘΠΆΤΑΞΕΝ ΑὐΤῸΝ ἘΝ ΜΑΧΑΊΡᾼ (namely, the prophet Urijah). For the expression ἘΝ ΦΌΝῼ ΜΑΧΑΊΡΑς, comp. LXX. Exo_17:13; Num_21:24; Deu_13:15; Deu_20:13.

ΠΕΡΙῆΛΘΟΝ … Τῆς Γῆς, Heb_11:38, now further emphasizes the fact that the whole life of the last-named class of the heroes of faith was one of want and distress.

περιῆλθον ἐν μηλωταῖς, ἐν αἰγείοις δέρμασιν] refers specially to single prophets. Comp. Zec_13:4, also Clemens Romanus, ad Corinth. 17: μιμηταὶ γενώμεθα κἀκείνων, οἵτινες ἐν δέρμασιν αἰγείοις καὶ μηλωταῖς περιεπάτησαν, κηρύσσοντες τὴς ἔλευσιν τοῦ Χριστοῦ· λέγομεν δὲ Ἠλίαν καὶ Ἐλισσαῖον, ἔτι δὲ καὶ Ἰεζεκιὴλ τοὺς προφήτας

περιῆλθον] they went hither and thither, without being in possession of a fixed dwelling-place. Theophylact: τὸ δὲ περιῆλθον τὸ διώκεσθαι αὐτοὺς δηλοῖ καὶ ἀστατεῖν.

ἐν] in, i.e. clothed with.

ἐν μηλωταῖς, ἐν αἰγείοις δέρμασιν] in sheep-skins, in goat fells. The latter, as designation of a yet rougher clothing, is an ascent from the former, and on that account placed last. μηλωτή, the hide of smaller cattle in general, and specially of sheep. A ΜΗΛΩΤΉ is mentioned as the garment of Elijah, which, on his being caught up to heaven, he left behind to Elisha, 1Ki_19:13; 1Ki_19:19; 2Ki_8:13-14.

ὙΣΤΕΡΟΎΜΕΝΟΙ, ΘΛΙΒΌΜΕΝΟΙ, ΚΑΚΟΥΧΟΎΜΕΝΟΙ] in want (sc. of that which is necessary for the sustenance of life), affliction, evil-treatment (comp. Heb_11:25).

[111] It is wanting only in some cursives, in the Peshito,whose daughter, the Arabian version in Erpen., also omits it,in the Aethiopic version, which also omits ἐπρίσθησαν, with Origen (once, as compared with four times), Euseb. and Theophyl.

[112] Reuss, too, regards ἐπυρίσθησαν [as does Conybeare ἐπυράσθησαν] as the most likely conjecture, but regards it, likewise, as possible: que le ἐπειράσθησαν dans le texte vulgaire ne fût quune conjecture très-superflue, destinée à remplacer le mot ἐπρίσθησαν (ils furent sciés), parce que lAncien Testament ne fournit pas dexemple de ce dernier supplice.

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.

In vile and rough clothing, so were the saints brought to extreme poverty, and constrained to live like beasts in wildernesses.

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

stoned--as Zechariah, son of Jehoiada (Ch2 24:20-22; Mat 23:35).

sawn asunder--as Isaiah was said to have been by Manasseh; but see my Introduction to Isaiah.

tempted--by their foes, in the midst of their tortures, to renounce their faith; the most bitter aggravation of them. Or else, by those of their own household, as Job was [ESTIUS]; or by the fiery darts of Satan, as Jesus was in His last trials [GLASSIUS]. Probably it included all three; they were tempted in every possible way, by friends and foes, by human and satanic agents, by caresses and afflictions, by words and deeds, to forsake God, but in vain, through the power of faith.

sword--literally, "they died in the murder of the sword." In Heb 11:34 the contrary is given as an effect of faith, "they escaped the edge of the sword." Both alike are marvellous effects of faith. In both accomplishes great things and suffers great things, without counting it suffering [CHRYSOSTOM]. Urijah was so slain by Jehoiakim (Jer 26:23); and the prophets in Israel (Kg1 19:10).

in sheepskins--as Elijah (Kg1 19:13, Septuagint). They were white; as the "goat-skins" were black (compare Zac 13:4).

tormented--Greek, "in evil state."

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 37. They were stoned] As Zechariah, the son of Barachiah or Jehoida, was, between the altar and the temple; see the account, 2Ch 24:21; and See the notes on "Mt 23:35". And as Naboth the Jezreelite, who, on refusing to give up his father's inheritance to a covetous king, because it had respect to the promise of God, was falsely accused and stoned to death; 1Kg 21:1-14.

They were sawn asunder] There is a tradition that the Prophet Isaiah was thus martyred. In Yevamoth, fol. 49, 2, it is thus written: "Manasseh slew Isaiah; for he commanded that he should be slain with a wooden saw. They then brought the saw, and cut him in two; and when the saw reached his mouth, his soul fled forth." St. Jerome and others mention the same thing; and among the Jews the tradition is indubitable.

Were tempted] επειρασθησαν. I believe this word has vexed the critics more than any other in the New Testament. How being tempted can be ranked among the heavy sufferings of the primitive martyrs and confessors is not easy to discern, because to be tempted is the common lot of every godly man. This difficulty has induced learned men to mend the text by conjecture: Beza proposes επυρωθησαν, they were branded. Junius, Piscator, and others, propose επυρασθησαν, they were burnt alive. Gataker thinks επρησθησαν, a word of the same import, should be preferred. Tanaquil Faber gives the preference to επηρωθησαν, they were mutilated - had different parts of their bodies lopped off. Sir Norton Knatchbull contends for επαρτησαν, they were transfixed, or pierced through. Alberti thinks the original reading was εσπειρασθησαν, they were strangled. About as many more differences have been proposed by learned men, all hearing a very clear resemblance to the words now found in the Greek text. By three MSS. the word is entirely omitted; as also by the Syriac, Arabic of Erpen, the AEthiopic, and by Eusebius and Theophylact. Of all the conjectures, that of Knatchbull appears to me to be the most probable: they were transfixed or impaled; and even the present reading might be construed in this sense.

Were slain with the sword] As in the case of the eighty-five priests slain by Doeg, see 1Sa 22:18; and the prophets, of whose slaughter by the sword Elijah complains, 1Kg 19:10. Probably the word means being beheaded, which was formerly done with a sword, and not with an axe; and in the east is done by the sword to the present day.

They wandered about in sheepskins] μηλωταις Sheepskins dressed with the wool on. This was probably the sort of mantle that Elijah wore, and which was afterwards used by Elisha; for the Septuagint, in 2Kg 2:8-13, expressly say: Και ελαβεν Ἡλιας την μηλωτην αὑτου· and Elijah took his SHEEPSKIN (mantle.) Και ὑψωσε την μηλωτην Ἡλιου, ἡ επεσεν επανωθεν αὑτου· And he (Elisha) took the SHEEPSKIN of Elijah which had fallen from off him. It was most probably on this account, as Dr. Macknight conjectures, that Elijah was called a hairy man, 2Kg 1:8; and not on account of having a preposterously long beard, as those marrers of all the unities of time, place, circumstances, and common sense, the painters, represent him. And it is likely that the prophets themselves wore such garments, and that the false prophets imitated them in this, in order that they might gain the greater credit. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision-neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive, Zec 13:4; δερριντριχινην, a hairy skin, SEPT., probably the goatskins mentioned above. In general, this was an upper garment; but, in the cases to which the apostle alludes, the sheepskin and goatskin seem to have been the only covering.

Being destitute] υστερουμενοι. In want of all the comforts and conveniences of life, and often of its necessaries.

Afflicted] In consequence of enduring such privations.

Tormented] κακουχουμενοι. Maltreated, harassed, variously persecuted by those to whom they brought the message of salvation.

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

(37) They were stoned.—As Zechariah (2Ch_24:20-22), and—according to a Jewish tradition mentioned by Tertullian and others—Jeremiah. (See Mat_23:35; Mat_23:37.)

They were sawn asunder.—An ancient tradition, mentioned both by Jewish and by early Christian writers, relates that Isaiah was thus put to death by order of Manasseh. The following words, “they were tempted,” are very remarkable in such a position; and many conjectures have been hazarded on the supposition that a mistake of transcription has occurred. If the text is correct, the writer is speaking of the promises and allurements by which the persecutors sought to overcome the constancy of God’s servants.

Slain with the sword.—See 1Ki_19:1; 1Ki_19:10; Jer_26:23.

They wandered about.—Rather, they went about, as outcasts; compelled to live the life of wanderers and exiles.

Tormented.—Rather, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and the holes of the earth. Once more the Maccabæan persecutions seem to be chiefly in view. (See 1Ma_2:28-29; 2Ma_5:27; 2Ma_6:11. Comp. also 1Sa_22:1; 1Ki_18:4.)

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

37. they were stoned] Zechariah (2Ch_24:20-21). Jewish tradition said that Jeremiah was stoned. See Mat_23:35-37; Luk_11:51.

were sawn asunder] This was the traditional mode of Isaiah’s martyrdom. Hamburger Talm. Wörterb. s. v. Jesaia. Comp. Mat_24:51. The punishment was well-known in ancient days (2Sa_12:31).

were tempted] This would not seem an anticlimax to a pious reader, for the intense violence of temptation, and the horrible dread lest the weakness of human nature should succumb to it, was one of the most awful forms of trial which persecutors could inflict (see Act_26:11), especially if the tempted person yielded to the temptation, as in 1Ki_13:7; 1Ki_13:19-26. There is no variation in the mss. but some have conjectured eprçsthçsan “they were burned” for epeirasthçsan. In a recent outbreak at Alexandria some Jews had been burnt alive (Philo in Flacc. 20) and burnings are mentioned in 2Ma_6:11. The reason for the position of the word, as a sort of climax, perhaps lies in the strong effort to tempt the last and youngest of the seven brother-martyrs to apostatise in 2 Maccabees 7.

were slain with the sword] “They have slain thy prophets with the sword” (1Ki_19:10). Jehoiakim “slew Urijah with the sword” (Jer_26:23). The Jews suffered themselves to be massacred on the Sabbath in the war against Antiochus (1Ma_2:38; 2Ma_5:26).

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.

And these all having obtained a good report through faith,.... This may either be limited to the sufferers in the preceding verses, who were martyred, or suffered martyrdom for the faith, as the words may be rendered; and who are called martyrs or witnesses, in Heb 12:1 and so the Ethiopic version renders the clause, "and all these were witnesses concerning the faith": or it may be extended to all the instances of faith throughout the chapter; and so the apostle reasserts what he had said, Heb 11:2, having proved it by a variety of examples; See Gill on Heb 11:2.

received not the promise; not that they did not receive the promise of the land of Canaan, for so did Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, &c. nor that they did not receive the promise of deliverance and victory, for so did Joshua, the Judges, and others; or that they did not receive the promise of eternal life, for that they all did; but the promise of the Messiah, that is, the Messiah promised: for they had the promise, but not the thing; who is called "the Promise", emphatically, because he is the first and grand promise; and because in him all the promises centre, and are yea, and amen: him the Old Testament saints received not; they, greatly desired to see him in the flesh; they saw him by faith; they believed in him, and rejoiced in the expectation of his coming; but he was not exhibited to them incarnate. Now since these saints so strongly believed, and so cheerfully suffered before Christ came; the apostle's argument is, that much more should the saints now, since Christ is come, and the promises received, go on believing in him, and readily suffering for his sake; see Heb 12:1.

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

37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;

Ver. 37. Were tempted] επειρασθησαν, or (as others read the words) They were burned. One saith that it was almost as great a miracle that Joseph did not burn when his mistress tempted him, as it was for the three children not to burn in the Babylonish fire. Luther was oft tempted to be quiet, with great sums of money and highest preferments. Julian by this means drew many from the faith.

In sheep skins and goat skins] That might have rustled in silks and velvets, if they would have yielded. Saepe sub attrita latitat sapientia vesta .

Afflicted, tormented] None out of hell were ever more afflicted than the saints, to the wonder and astonishment of the beholders.

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.

They were stoned - A common method of punishment among the Jews; see the notes on Mat 21:35, Mat 21:44. Thus, Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, was stoned; see 2Ch 24:21; compare 1Ki 21:1-14. It is not improbable that this was often resorted to in times of popular tumult, as in the case of Stephen; Act 7:59; compare Joh 10:31; Act 14:5. In the time of the terrible persecutions under Antiochus Epiphanes, and under Manasseh, such instances also probably occurred.

They were sawn asunder - It is commonly supposed that Isaiah was put to death in this manner. For the evidence of this, see introduction to Isaiah, 2. It is known that this mode of punishment, though not common, did exist in ancient times. Among the Romans, the laws of the twelve tables affixed this as the punishment of certain crimes, but this mode of execution was very rare, since Aulius Gellius says that in his time no one remembered to have seen it practiced. It appears, however, from Suetonius that the emperor Caligula often condemned persons of rank to be sawn through the middle. Calmet, writing above a hundred years ago, says, “I am assured that the punishment of the saw is still in use among the Switzers, and that they put it in practice not many years ago upon one of their countrymen, guilty of a great crime, in the plain of Grenelles, near Paris. They put him into a kind of coffin, and sawed him lengthwise, beginning at the head, as a piece of wood is sawn; “Pict. Bib.” It was not an unusual mode of punishment to cut a person asunder, and to suspend the different parts of the body to walls and towers, as a warning to the living; see 1Sa 31:10, and Morier’s Second Journey to Persia, p. 96.

Were tempted - On this expression, which has given much perplexity in critics, see the notes of Prof. Stuart, Bloomfield, and Kuinoel. There is a great variety of reading in the mss. and editions of the New Testament, and many have regarded it as an interpolation. The difficulty which has been felt in reference to it has been, that it is a much milder word than those just used, and that it is hardly probable that the apostle would enumerate this among those which he had just specified, as if to be tempted deserved to be mentioned among sufferings of so severe a nature. But it seems to me there need be no real difficulty in the case. The apostle here, among other sufferings which they were called to endure, may have referred to the temptations which were presented to the martyrs when about to die to abandon their religion and live. It is very possible to conceive that this might have been among the highest aggravations of their sufferings. We know that in later times it was a common practice to offer life to those who were doomed to a horrid death on condition that they would throw incense on the altars of a pagan god, and we may easily suppose that a temptation of that kind, artfully presented in the midst of keen tortures, would greatly aggravate their sufferings. Or suppose when a father was about to be put to death for his religion, his wife and children were placed before him and should plead with him to save his life by abandoning his religion, we can easily imagine that no pain of the rack would cause so keen torture to the soul as their cries and tears would. Amidst the sorrows of martyrs, therefore, it was not improper to say that they were tempted, and to place this among their most aggravated woes. For instances of this nature. see 2 Macc. 6:21, 22; 7:17, 24.

Were slain with the sword - As in the case of the eighty-five priests slain by Doeg 1Sa 22:18; and the prophets. of whose slaughter by the sword Elijah complains; 1Ki 19:10.

They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins - Driven away from their homes, and compelled to clothe themselves in this rude and uncomfortable manner. A dress of this kind, or a dress made of hair, was not uncommon with the prophets, and seems indeed to have been regarded as an appropriate badge of their office; see 2Ki 1:8; Zec 13:4.

Being destitute, afflicted, tormented - The word “tormented” here means tortured. The apostle expresses here in general what in the previous verses he had specified in detail.

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

Greek: Melon signifies a sheep; Greek: melote signifies a sheep skin, with the wool on it. This, or a goat skin, was the usual covering of poor people, and as such was adopted by the ancient prophets, mortified to all the luxuries of life. Thus Elias [Elijah] is called vir pillosus, a hairy man, not for his beard or hair, but for his shaggy or hairy covering.

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).

They were stoned; by the same faith were several of the prophets and believing worthies of old carried through cruel deaths, the just punishment of malefactors, but the wicked tortures of these innocent saints, some being stoned to death, as Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, 2Ch 24:21, and others, Mat 21:35; 23:37; Luk 13:34.

The were sawn asunder; as Isaiah was, which is a known tradition among the Hebrews, a punishment common among the bordering nations of them, 2Sa 12:31; Amo 1:3, and exercised on these innocents, to which Christ himself alludeth, Mat 24:51.

Were tempted: whether επειρασθησαν should not be επυρασθησαν, is much doubted, temptation being no manner of death; and the Spirit had instanced in it before, Heb 11:35. It may therefore be a slip of the transcriber, and that burning was the cruel death that should fill this place among the rest, a common punishment with them, Jer 29:22; 2Ma 7:5. Or, it may note a death with several trials of racks and torments gradually inflicted, with a design to tempt them by their pains to renounce their religion.

Were slain with the sword; others were killed by the sword, either by beheading, or cutting in pieces, Mar 6:16,17; a kind of death foretold to be attending the martyrs of Jesus Christ, Rev 20:4. All these sorts of death were most unjustly and cruelly inflicted on them by their persecutors, and as patiently received and cheerfully undergone by them.

They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins: as faith carried these believers through variety of deaths, so it managed others comfortably under their banishments and lingering sufferings, which were in proportion as cruel as death itself; they circuited up and down to preserve themselves from their destroyers, either voluntarily returning themselves into desolate places to keep a good conscience, or were unjustly and violently banished and forced away from their own habitations, to live as vagabonds, clothed only with goatskins and sheepskins, the common apparel of the prophets, as of Elijah, 2Ki 1:8; Zec 13:4, which they wore as they came from the beasts’ backs, without dressing. Being destitute, afflicted, tormented; wandering in this forlorn state, stripped of money and necessaries of life, and not supplied by others in their poverty, 1Ki 17:4, grievously pressed within, pained without, and afflicted beyond what can be sensed by any but in the like states, and evilly entreated by all; many miseries attending them by their pursuers, hardship in travels, and all sorts of evils, which multiplied their griefs: through all this faith carried them comfortably, and kept God with them.

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

37. Stoned—This punishment was Jewish. We have no instance of its use recorded in the Maccabean period. But the case of Stephen really brings us down to Christian times. In the Old Testament Zachariah, the son of Jehoiada, (commemorated by our Lord Mat_23:35; Luk_11:51,) was stoned; and tradition asserts the same of Jeremiah.

Sawn asunder—Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and others say, that Isaiah underwent this death by order of King Manasseh. Jerome says, this was a “most true tradition.”

Tempted—Commentators are puzzled to find so mild a word as tempted between so severe words as sawn asunder and slain. The text is not rendered questionable by any varied reading, although the word is omitted by the Syriac and some manuscripts. Scholars have variously proposed different Greek verbs resembling the Greek one in question to the amount of a dozen or so, most of them signifying were burned. Stuart suggests that the word designates the temptations so often offered in the midst of the tortures to induce them to recant. This Alford condemns, as not mitigating the difficulty. But why not? Between the severest inflictions was the very place to put the temptations that intervened. Though less severe to the flesh they were more trying to the spirit, and fraught with a more fearful danger. And this we hold to be the true solution. Finally, our author describes the martyrs as (not hermits abandoning society, but) exiles driven from among men by persecution.

Goatskins—The rougher, by climax, placed last. These garments were not assumed ascetically by them, but for want of better wardrobe.

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

They were sawn asunder - As, according to the tradition of the Jews, Isaiah was by Manasseh. Were tempted - Torments and death are mentioned alternately. Every way; by threatenings, reproaches, tortures, the variety of which cannot be expressed; and again by promises and allurements.

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

37. They were stoned. See 1 Kings 21:10–15; 2 Chron. 24:21. Sawn asunder. The Talmud says that this was Isaiah's fate.

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.

37. ἐπρίσθησαν, ἐπειράσθησαν. The MSS. vary in the order. See the note.

37. ἐλιθάσθησαν. Zechariah (2Ch 24:20-21). Jewish tradition said that Jeremiah was stoned. See Mat 23:35-37; Luk 11:51.

ἐπρίσθησαν. This was the traditional mode of Isaiah’s martyrdom. Hamburger, Talm. Wörterb. s.v. Jesaia. Comp. Mat 24:51. The punishment was well known in ancient days (2Sa 12:31).

ἐπειράσθησαν. This would not seem an anticlimax to a pious reader, for the intense violence of temptation, and the horrible dread lest the weakness of human nature should succumb to it, was one of the most awful forms of trial which persecutors could inflict (see Act 26:11), especially if the tempted person yielded to the temptation, as in 1Ki 13:7; 1Ki 13:19-26. There is no variation in the MSS., but some have conjectured ἐπρήσθησαν “they were burned.” In a recent outbreak at Alexandria some Jews had been burnt alive (Philo. in Flacc. 20), and burnings are mentioned in 2Ma 6:11. The reason for the position of the word, as a sort of climax, perhaps lies in the strong effort to tempt the last and youngest of the seven brother-martyrs to apostatise in 2 Maccabees 7.

ἐν φόνῳ μαχαίρης. “They have slain thy prophets with the sword” (1Ki 19:10). Jehoiakim “slew Urijah with the sword” (Jer 26:23). The Jews suffered themselves to be massacred on the Sabbath in the war against Antiochus (1Ma 2:38; 2Ma 5:26).

ἐν μηλωταῖς, ἐν αἰγείοις. Elijah (1Ki 19:13; 2Ki 1:8). A hairy garment seems subsequently to have been a common dress among prophets, and it was sometimes adopted for purposes of deception (Zec 13:4). Clement in his Ep. ad Rom. i. 17 says that Elisha and Ezekiel also wore hairy garments.

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.

37.] they were stoned (so Zechariah, son of Jehoiada, 2Ch 24:20-22, referred to by our Lord, Luk 11:51 and Mat 23:35: and thus Chrys. and Thdrt. There was a tradition, reported by Tertull. (Cont. Gnost. Scorpiac. 8, vol. ii. p. 137, “Hieremias lapidatur”), Ps.-Epiphanius (De Vit. et Obit. Prophet.), Jerome (Advers. Jovinian. lib. ii. 37, vol. ii. p. 381), al., that Jeremiah was stoned at Daphne in Egypt, by the people: and perhaps the Writer refers to this also. Carpzov fancies it to refer still to the Maccabæan times, which cannot be, seeing that stoning was not a Greek but purely Jewish punishment. Œc., Thl., Grot., al. refer to Naboth, 1Ki_21: but this is hardly probable), they were sawn asunder (the traditional death of Isaiah (found in Justin M., Trypho, § 120, p. 213: Tertull. as above, and De Patient. 14, vol. i. p. 1270: Origen, Ep. ad African. 9, vol. i. p. 19: Lactant. Instt. iv. 11, vol. i. p. 477: Aug. C. D. xviii. 24, vol. vii.: Jerome on Isa 57:1, vol. iv. p. 666 al.: see also Wetst. here, and Suicer ii. 831) at the hands of King Manasseh. There seems no reason to doubt, that this tradition was known in the apostolic times: Jerome calls it a “certissima traditio apud Judæos,” and says “unde et nostrorum plurimi illud quod de sanctorum passione ad Hebræos ponitur, ‘et serrati sunt,’ ad Esaiæ referunt passionem.” The account is given in the apocryphal Ascensio Isaiæ, which was written by a Christian author in Greek, probably in the second century: and the Ethiopic version of which was published by Abp. Laurence. The punishment was used sometimes in the case of captives in war: see 2Sa 12:31: 1Ch 20:3), were tempted (certainly it is surprising, to meet with so mild a word in the midst of torments and ways of dreadful death. Our surprise is not much mitigated by the sense given e. g. by Stuart, “temptations presented by persecutors to the victims of their torture, in order to induce them to forsake their religion, and worship the gods of the idolaters.” And this surprise having been all but universally felt, various have been the conjectures resorted to. 1. Some have been for leaving out the word altogether. Its very form, coming so soon after ἐπρίσθησαν, was suspicious. It might have been a mistake for it, and thus admitted by its side in some ms. which was made from copies containing both: it might have been a marginal gloss of some dull student: besides (see digest), authority is not altogether wanting for its omission. The Syr. omits it, which is of some weight. 2. It has seemed to many critics that some mention of fire might well be expected here: so they have conjectured ἐπρήσθησαν, ἐπυράσθησαν, ἐπυρώθησαν, ἐπυρίσθησαν, ἐνεπρήσθησαν, ἐνεπυρίσθησαν. Others, 3. have thought that mutilation was more probably intended, and have conjectured ἐπηρώθησαν. Many other conjectures may be seen in Bleek, Lünem., and Delitzsch: ἐπάρθησαν (from πείρω, Beza, edd. 1, 2 al., adopted by Luther in his version: but hardly a legitimate formation), ἐπεράθησαν (from περάω (?): Wakefield), ἐσπειράσθησαν or -άθησαν (from σπεῖρα = τροχός: so Alberti), ἐπράσθησαν (were sold: Le Moyne), ἐπηρειάσθησαν (Reiske as quoted in Wetst.), ἐπέρθησαν, ἐσφαιρίσθησαν, ἐταριχεύθησαν (but this last only ironically in Matthæi). If any conjecture is to be made, I would say that either the omission, or ἐπρήσθησαν, would appear to me the most probable. The former is advocated by Erasm., Calv., Beza, Grot., Hammond, Whitby, Calmet, Storr, Valcknaer, Schulz, Böhme, Kuinoel, Klee, Delitzsch: the latter by Junius and Piscator: and some word indicating death by fire, by Beza, edd. 3, 4, 5, Gataker, Colomesius, Sykes, De Wette, Ebrard, al. As it stands, I do not see how any appropriate meaning can be given to the mere enduring of temptation, placed as it is between being sawn asunder and dying by the sword), died in the murder of the sword (i. e. were slain by the sword: see reff. One Prophet only perished by the sword in the kingdom of Judah, viz. Urijah, Jer 26:23: but under Israel it is said, 1Ki 19:10, “they (the house of Omri) have slain thy Prophets with the sword.” Perhaps the Maccabæan persecutions may again be before the Writer’s mind: see 2 Macc. 7:4. Chrys. says beautifully, τί ἐστι τοῦτο; τί λέγεις; οἱ μὲν ἔφυγον στόματα μαχαίρας, οἱ δὲ ἐν φόνῳ μαχαίρας ἀπέθανον; τί ἐστι τοῦτο; ποῖον ἐπαινεῖς; ποῖον θαυμάζεις; τοῦτο ἢ ἐκεῖνο; ναί, φησί, καὶ τοῦτο κἀκεῖνο· δύο γάρ ἐστι τὰ θαύματα τῆς πίστεως, ὃτι καὶ ἀνύει μεγάλα, καὶ πάσχει μεγάλα καὶ οὐδὲν ἡγεῖται πάσχειν):

37 b,

37 b.] they wandered about (τὸ περιῆλθον διώκεσθαι αὐτοὺς δηλοῖ, ἢ ἀστατεῖν. Thl.) in sheepskins (μηλωτή, προβάτειος δορά, Etym. Mag. But also, as Hesych., πᾶσα βύρσα, ὅ ἐστι πᾶν δέρμα, μηλωτὴ λέγεται. μῆλον was the name for small kine, whether sheep or goats, and the μηλωτή was the skin of such kine with the hair on. The LXX (reff.) use the word for Elijah’s garment, to whom the allusion seems principally to be. Clem.-rom. ad Cor. 17, p. 241, says, μιμηταὶ γενώμεθα κἀκείνων, οἵτινες ἐν δέρμασιν αἰγείοις καὶ μηλωταῖς περιεπάτησαν, κηρύσσοντες τὴν ἔλευσιν τοῦ χριστοῦ, λέγομεν δὴ Ἡλίαν κ. Ἐλισσαῖον, ἔτι δὲ καὶ Ἰεζεκιήλ, τοὺς προφήτας. Clem.-alex. Strom. iv. 17, § 107, p. 610 P., citing this, inserts after μηλωταῖς,—καὶ τριχῶν καμηλεὶων πλέγμασιν. See more particulars in Suicer, sub voce: and cf. Mat 7:15) and goats’ skins (this, coming after μηλωταῖς, which may mean the same, has surprised some, and has seemed to them a mere gloss on that word. But it is quoted by Clem. and , besides being found in all mss. and vss. Delitzsch says that “it not only explains the former, but intensifies it: for the (commonly) black goat’s skin shewed, even more than the (commonly) white sheepskin, the deep earnestness of one thrust out from the world, and dead to it.” Perhaps: but it is more probable that the Writer regarded μηλωτή as merely the sheepskin, and mentioned the other because goats were as often kept and their skin as often worn), destitute (reff.), afflicted (reff.), in misery (cf. ver. 25);

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