2tn Grk “were attested,” “received commendation”; and Heb 11:4-6 shows this to be from God.

3tn Grk “ages.” The temporal (ages) came to be used of the spatial (what exists in those time periods). See Heb 1:2 for same usage.

4tn Grk “by God’s word.”

5sn The Greek phrasing emphasizes this point by negating the opposite: “so that what is seen did not come into being from things that are visible.”

6tn Or “through his sacrifice”; Grk “through which.”

7tn Or “through his sacrifice”; Grk “through it.”

8tn Cf. BDAG 407 s.v. εὐλαβέομαι 2, “out of reverent regard (for God’s command).”

9tn Or “settled as a resident alien.”

10tn Or “heirs with him.”

11tn Grk “that has foundations.”

12tn Grk “past the time of maturity.”

13tn Grk “power to deposit seed.” Though it is not as likely, some construe this phrase to mean “power to conceive seed,” making the whole verse about Sarah: “by faith, even though Sarah herself was barren and too old, she received ability to conceive, because she regarded the one who had given the promise to be trustworthy.”

14tn Grk “these”; in the translation the referent (children) has been specified for clarity.

15tn Grk a collective “the sand.”

16sn An allusion to Gen 22:17 (which itself goes back to Gen 15:5).

17tn Grk “the promises,” referring to the things God promised, not to the pledges themselves.

18tn Or “sojourners.”

19tn Grk “now.”

20tn Here “received the promises” refers to the pledges themselves, not to the things God promised.

21tn Grk “he was offering up.” The tense of this verb indicates the attempt or readiness to sacrifice Isaac without the actual completion of the deed.

22tn Grk “in Isaac seed will be named for you.”

sn A quotation from Gen 21:12.

23tn Grk “having reasoned,” continuing the ideas of v. 17.

24tn Grk “in/by a symbol.”

25tn Grk “worshiped on the top of his staff,” a quotation from Gen 47:31 (LXX).

26tn Grk “coming to an end,” “dying.”

27sn Joseph’s prophecy about the exodus of the sons of Israel is found in Gen 50:24.

28tn Grk “about his bones,” which refers by metonymy to the disposition of his bones, i.e., his burial.

sn The instructions about his burial are recorded in Gen 50:25.

29tn Grk “Moses, when he was born, was hidden by his parents.”

30tn Grk “the abuse [or ‘reproach’] of Christ.”

31tn Grk “he was looking away to.”

32tn Grk “the pouring out of the blood.”

sn The sprinkling of the blood refers here to the application of the blood to the doorways of the Israelite houses (cf. Exod 12:7, 13).

33map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.

34tn Grk “after they had been encircled.”

35tn Grk “did not perish together with.”

36tn This probably refers to the righteous rule of David and others. But it could be more general and mean “did what was righteous.”

37tn Grk “obtained promises,” referring to the things God promised, not to the pledges themselves.

sn Gained what was promised. They saw some of God’s promises fulfilled, even though the central promise remained unfulfilled until Christ came (cf. vv. 39-40).

38tn Grk “quenched the power of fire.”

39tn Or “recovered from sickness.”

40tn Grk “received back their dead from resurrection.”

41tn Grk “to obtain a better resurrection.”

42tc The reading ἐπρίσθησαν (ejprisqhsan, “they were sawed apart”) is found in some important witnesses (Ì⁴⁶ [D* twice reads ἐπίρσθησαν, “they were burned”?] pc sy^p sa Or^pt Eus). Other mss have ἐπειράσθησαν (ejpeirasqhsan, “they were tempted”), either before “sawed apart” ([א] L P [048] 33 81 326 1505 pc sy^h), after “sawed apart” (Ì^13vid A D¹ Ψ 1739 1881 Ï lat bo Or^pt), or altogether in place of “sawed apart” (0150 vg^mss Cl). Since the two words ἐπρίσθησαν and ἐπειράσθησαν are so much alike in sight and sound, and since the position of “they were tempted” varies in the mss, it seems best to say that ἐπειράσθησαν is an accidental corruption of ἐπρίσθησαν or an intentional change to a more common word (the root of ἐπρίσθησαν [πρίζω, prizw] occurs only here in the NT, while the root of ἐπειράσθησαν [πειράζω, peirazw] occurs 38 times). The best reading here seems to be “sawed apart” without any addition before or after. (See TCGNT 603-4, for a discussion of emendations that scholars have proposed for this difficult problem.)

43sn The expression these all were commended forms an inclusio with Heb 11:2: The chapter begins and ends with references to commendation for faith.

44tn Grk “the promise,” referring to the thing God promised, not to the pledge itself.

45tn The Greek phrasing emphasizes this point by negating the opposite: “so that they would not be made perfect without us.”