Hebrews 11

How sure can we be?

• Strongly supported

  The Greek Septuagint (3rd–2nd century BC) translated Yam Suph as 'the Red Sea', and most English and Chinese Bibles follow it.

  The Septuagint's erythra thalassa ('Red Sea') covered the Red Sea and its gulfs; Acts 7:36 and Hebrews 11:29 use the same Greek name.

• Plausible

  Sarah, ages 65–90: Barren in the land of promise

  Sarah shares Abraham's twenty-five years, but from the harder side: taken into Pharaoh's house, trying to build a family through Hagar, then laughing in disbelief behind the tent door. Hebrews still names her faith: she counted him faithful who had promised.…

• Plausible

  Jacob, ages 130–147: Seventeen years in Goshen

  Jacob called his years "few and evil" before Pharaoh, then was given seventeen more with Joseph. He spends them blessing: Pharaoh, Joseph's sons, his own twelve. Hebrews pictures him worshipping, leaning on his staff. The grasping man ends his life with open…

• Plausible

  Joseph, ages 56–110: Seeing the third generation

  Joseph's last half-century is almost unrecorded: great-grandchildren on his knees, and a request about his bones. Hebrews picks that request as his act of faith. Having ruled Egypt, he wanted to be buried in the land of promise. His hope looked past his own s…

• Plausible

  Moses, ages 40–80: A stranger in Midian

  A third of his life he spent keeping another man's sheep in the desert, naming his son Gershom: "I have been a stranger in a strange land" (Exo 2:22). The prince became a shepherd, and the man "mighty in words" later says he is slow of speech. Hebrews says he…

• Speculative

  Noah, ages 500–600: Building for a flood no one had seen

  We do not know when the command came, only that Noah did all that God commanded (Gen 6:22). Hebrews calls it faith about "things not seen as yet". A calling can mean decades of work on something that makes no sense to the neighbours, carried by a word from Go…

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