Hebrews 11:36-38 – The World Was Not Worthy

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 20 Oct. 2019

Omitting greyed-out text should bring presentation time down around 45 minutes.

Intro

v.36 and others experienced a trial of mockings and of whip­pings, and even of chains and prison.

v.37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tried, they died by the sword in slaughter, they went around in sheepskins, in goat skins, deprived, pressured, abused –

v.38 according to whom the world was not worthy, so they wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and in the openings of the earth.



APPENDIX: Greek Text & English Versions of Hebrews 11:35-38A

Greek NT

NAW

KJV

35 ἔλαβον γυναῖ­καςB ἐξ ἀναστάσ­εως τοὺς νεκροὺς αὐ­τῶν· ἄλλοι δὲ ἐτυμπανίσθησανC, οὐ προσδεξάμενοι τὴν ἀπολύτρωσινD, ἵνα κρείττονος ἀνα-στάσεως τύχωσιν·

35 They took wives by means of a rais­ing-up-effort [in con­se­quence] of the dead among themE. On the other hand, others were beat up after not accepting the [terms of] red­em­ption, in or­der that they might ob­tain the better resurrection,

35 Women re­ceived X their dead X raised [to life again]: and others were tortured, not accepting X deliver­ance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

36 ἕτεροι δὲ ἐμπαιγμῶν καὶ μαστίγων πεῖραν ἔλαβον, ἔτι δὲ δεσμῶν καὶ φυλακῆς·

36 and others experienced a trial of mockings and of whippings, and, even of chains and prison.

36 And others had trial of cruel mock­ings and scourg­ings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:

37 ἐλιθάσθησαν, ἐπρίσθησανF, ἐπειράσθησανG, ἐν φόνῳ μαχαίραςH ἀπέθανονI, περι­ῆλθονJ ἐν μηλω­ταῖς, ἐν αἰγείοιςK δέρμασιν, ὑστερούμενοι, θλιβόμενοι, κακουχούμενοιL,

37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tried, they died by the sword in slaughter, they went around in sheep­skins, in goat skins, deprived, pressured, abused -

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

38 ὧν οὐκ ἦν ἄξιος ὁ κόσμος, ἐπιM ἐρημίαις πλανώ­μενοι καὶ ὄρεσι καὶ σπηλαίοις καὶ ταῖς ὀπαῖς τῆς γῆς.

38 according to whom the world was not worthy, so they wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and in the openings of the earth.

38 (Of whom the world was not wor­thy:) they wan­dered in des­erts, and in moun­tains, and in dens and caves of the earth.


1 From “Kicked Out” by Andrew Shaughnessey, published in the Fall/Winter 2019 issue of Network.

2John Brown added Micaiah and Jeremiah to this list.

3“'bonds, imprisonments, scourges, stonings,' allude to the case of Stephen, also to that of Zacharias" ~Chrysostom P.E. Hughes cited the following sources for the tradition that Jeremiah was stoned to death by Jews in Egypt: Tertullian, Scorpiace 8; Hippolytus, De Christo et Antichristo 31; and Jerome, Adversus Jovinianum ii.37.

4P.E. Hughes cited: Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 120, Tertullian, De Patientia 14 & Scorpiace 8; Origen, Epistola ad Africanum 9; Hippolytus, De Christo et Antichristo 30; Jerome, In Isaiam xv.57, and in the Talmud: Yebamoth 49b, and Sanhedrin 103b, and in the Jewish pseudepigrapha, The Martyrdom Of Isaiah.

5Despite Erasmus’ & Calvin’s assertions to the contrary, John Brown wrote, “the best critics keep the word in the text.” If it be argued that Brown could not have known of P46, my rebuttal is that contemporary critics should know better since P13, A, א, and D unanimously concur with the Byzantine majority.

6cf. John Ownen’s note in his translation of John Calvin’s commentary: “the offer of life and of favors on recantation… seems to have been the special temptation here intended”

7Matt. 4:1, 3; 16:1; 19:3; 22:18, 35; Mk. 1:13; 8:11; 10:2; 12:15; Lk. 4:2; 11:16; 20:23; Jn. 8:4-6; Acts 5:9; 15:10.

81 Ki. 19:13, 19; 2 Ki. 2:8, 13-14

9Excepting the unbelieving Edomites in Obadiah 1:3

10The interpretation depends on who it is that is making the estimation of worthiness. For Calvin it’s God, and for Chrysostom it’s the martyrs. The indicative nature of this statement as true seems to rule out Brown’s interpretation that it is the world that wrongly judged the martyrs unworthy of remaining in the world.

AThe Greek is the Majority text, edited by myself to follow the majority of the earliest-known manuscripts only when the early manuscript evidence is practically unanimous. My original document includes notes on the NKJV, NASB, NIV, & ESV English translations, but since they are all copyrighted, I cannot include them in my online document. Underlined words in English versions indicate a standalone difference from all other English translations of a certain word. Strikeout usually indicates that the English translation is, in my opinion, too far outside the range of meaning of the original Greek word. The addition of an X indicates a Greek word left untranslated – or a plural Greek word translated as an English singular. [Brackets] indicate words added in English not in the Greek. Key words are colored consistently across the chart to show correlations.

BCuriously, all four known 1st millennium manuscripts place “women” in the accusative case, matching the LXX of Judges 21:23 “They received women/wives...” but practically every manuscript and edition from the 9th century places “women” in the nominative case “Women received...” The placement of the noun after the verb even in the traditional text could support the word originally being the object rather than the subject.

COnly here and 1 Sam 21:14, which uses it in the context of David “beating” on a city gate.

DThis word is not found in the Greek O.T., and everywhere else it is used in the NT, it refers to Christ’s redemption of sinners by paying His blood on the cross.

EThe traditional reading with the change of a single vowel would be, “Women received their dead ones due to a resurrection...”

FOnly here, Amos 1:3; and the apocryphal account of Daniel threatening punishment from angels against false witnesses in Susanna 1:59/Daniel 13:59

GThis is the reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts and of the traditional editions of the Greek New Testament (the renaissance-era Textus Receptus and the contemporary editions put out by the Greek Orthodox church) as well as the ancient Latin versions and lectionaries, but it’s not in the contemporary critical editions by Westcott-Hort, Nestle-Aland, and the UBS because the oldest-known manuscript (the Chester-Beatty Papyrus) omits the word “tempted.” The problem is that only one other Greek manuscript in the history of the world supports that omission, while all four of the other Greek manuscripts copied within the first 600 years of the original include an abbreviated form of the word “tempted” (I actually looked up images of the Alexandrinus, Sinaiticus, and Claramontanus to confirm this. Unfortunately the Vaticanus is illegible at this verse.) The only thing which clouds the issue is that, around the 9th Century, a spelling change was introduced in the first vowel from a simple iota to the dipthong epsilon-iota, and became universally accepted. I believe this was simply a change in spelling conventions over time and not a change in meaning (witness other vowel variants such as the word later in this verse aigeiois P46, egeiois P13, aigiois א, A, D – all of which everyone agrees mean “goat”), so I support the KJV and NASB (and John Owen) in following the traditional Greek text, reading “they were tempted/put on trial” not the NIV and ESV which (together with Erasmus & Calvin) omit the word.

HContemporary critical editions of the Greek New Testament vary from the traditional Greek text by changing the final vowel from an alpha to an eta because all five of the oldest-known Greek manuscripts (plus half a dozen others) spell it that way. It makes no difference in meaning; it’s just a spelling variation probably due to changes in spelling conventions over a thousand years. For instance, the English word “traveled” used to be spelled with a double “l” - and still is in some parts of the world.

IThis is the active spelling “died” not the passive “put to death.” Although all the standard English versions translated this word in the passive voice, they translate it in the active voice everywhere else it occurs in the New Testament (Matt. 8:32; Lk. 20:31; Jn. 6:49, 58; 8:53; Rom. 5:15; 7:10; 2 Cor. 5:14; Gal. 2:19; Heb. 11:13; Rev. 8:11).

J“itinerated”? cf. the Jewish exorcists in Acts 19:13.

K“Goats” only appears in Exod. 25:4; 35:6, 26, and Num. 31:20, and those all in reference to wool, not skins. (See footnote above for instances of “sheepskins.”)

LHapex Legomenon

MThe four oldest-known Greek manuscripts followed by a half-dozen later manuscripts read επι (literally “on”) while the majority of Greek manuscripts (dating as far back as the 6th Century Claramontanus) read εν (literally “in”). Traditional Greek N.T.’s opt for the latter while contemporary critical editions go with the former. There is no difference in meaning. It might be akin to a similar change in convention in English where people lived “on” the prairie or “in” the prairie. The former is perhaps more literally true but sounds more old-fashioned and quaint to contemporary English speakers. I suspect that the original Greek was epi, but that editors changed the preposition to en so that it would sound natural to readers hundreds of years later and mean what was originally intended with epi.

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