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From: Hebrews 11:1-7
The good example of the Patriarchs
[4] By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through
which he received approval as righteousness, God bearing witness by accepting
his gifts; he died, but through his faith he is still speaking. [5] By faith Enoch was
taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God
had taken him. Now before he was taken he was attested as having pleased God.
[6] And without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near
to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. [7]
By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, took heed
and constructed an ark for the saving of his household; by this he condemned the
world and became an heir of the righteousness which comes by faith.
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Commentary:
1. Although the text does not aim to provide a precise definition of faith, it does
in fact very clearly describe the essence of that virtue, linking it to hope in future
things and to certainty concerning supernatural truths. By means of faith, the be-
liever acquires certainty concerning God’s promises to man, and a firm conviction
that he will obtain access to heaven. The Latin translates as “substantia” the
word the RSV translates as “assurance”; substantia, which literally means “that
which underlies”, here refers to the solid basis provided by hope.
This verse indicates that faith, which is a type of knowledge, is different from
other types of human knowledge. Thus, man can know things by direct evidence,
by reasoned proof or by someone else’s testimony. As regards knowledge based
on information provided by someone else, that is, knowledge based on faith, we
can distinguish two types-—human faith, when it is another human being whose
word one relies on (as in the case of pupil/teacher, child/parent), and supernatu-
ral faith (when the testimony comes from God himself, who is Supreme Truth).
In this latter case the knowledge provided is most certain.
However, the object of supernatural faith, that is, what one believes in (God and
the unchanging decrees of his will), is not something that is self-evident to man,
nor is it something that can be attained by the use of unaided reason. That is
why it is necessary for God himself to bear witness to what he reveals. Faith,
then, is certain knowledge, but it is knowledge of things which are not self-evi-
dent, things which one does not see but which one can hope for.
The verse also says that faith is “conviction” concerning things not seen. It is
therefore different from opinion, suspicion or doubt (none of which implies certain-
ty). By saying that it has to do with things unseen, it is distinguishing faith from
knowledge and intuitive cognition (cf. “Summa theologiae”, II-Il, q. 4, a. 1).
Summing up, we can say that “when God makes a revelation, we are obliged to
render by faith a full submission of intellect and will. The faith, however which is
the beginning of human salvation, the Catholic Church asserts to be a supernatu-
ral virtue whereby, with the inspiration and help of God’s grace, we believe that
what he has revealed is true—not because its intrinsic truth is seen by the natu-
ral light of reason, but because of the authority of God who reveals it, of God
who can neither deceive nor be deceived” (Vatican I, “Dei Filius”, chap. 3).
It is, therefore, a feature of faith that it makes us certain about things which are
not self-evident. That is why in order to believe one must want to believe, why
the act of believing is always free and meritorious. However, faith can, with God’s
help, reach a certainty greater than any proof can provide. “This faith”, St John
of Avila comments, “is not based on reasons [. . .]; for when a person believes
on the basis of reasons, he is not believing in such a way that he is totally con-
vinced, without any doubt or scruple whatever. But the faith which God infuses is
grounded on divine Truth, and it causes one to believe more firmly than if one saw
it with one’s own eyes, and touched it with one’s hands—and to believe more cer-
tainly than he who believes that four is greater than three, the sort of thing that is
so obvious that the mind never hesitates a moment, nor can it even if it wants to”
(”Audi, Filia”, chap. 43).
The faith which God gives a person — supernatural faith — is necessarily the point
of departure for hope and charity: it is what is usually called “living faith”. When
one lives with this kind of faith it is easy to see that the three “theological” virtues
(faith, hope and charity) are bound up with one another. Faith and hope lead a per-
son to unite himself to God as the source from which all good things flow; charity
unites us to God directly, by loving affection, because God is the supreme Good.
Faith is as it were the first step: it means accepting what God says as true. We
then unite ourselves to him through hope, insofar as we rely on God’s help to at-
tain beatitude. The goal of this process is charity, the fulness of which is eternal
possession of God, the Supreme Good. “Let us grow in hope, thereby streng-
thening our faith which is truly ‘the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction
of things not seen’ (Heb 11:1). Let us grow in this virtue, let us beg our Lord to
increase his charity in us; after all, one can only really trust what one loves with
all one’s might. And it is certainly worthwhile to love our Lord” (St. J. Escrivá,
“Friends of God”, 220).
If hope in general is the conviction of being able to obtain something worthwhile in
the future, something difficult to obtain, theological hope is the conviction of being
able, with the help of God, to attain heaven. And faith is precisely what provides
certain knowledge of those two truths—that heaven is our goal and that God wants
to help us to get there (cf. “Summa theologiae”, II-II, q.17, a. 5 and 7). Therefore,
nothing should dishearten us on this road to our ultimate goal because we put our
trust in “three truths: God is all-powerful, God has a boundless love for me, God
is faithful to his promises. And it is he, the God of mercies, who enkindles this
trust within me, so that I never feel lonely or useless or abandoned but, rather, in-
volved in a plan of salvation which will one day reach its goal in Paradise” (John
Paul I, “Address”, 20 September 1978).
3. The creation of the world from nothing is one of the first articles of faith. The
text is reminiscent in a way of v. 1, in that faith gives conviction about things we
cannot see; that is how we know the origin of all created things and discover
God from things we can see.
Essentially the text is emphasizing the importance of belief in God as Creator
and in Creation as coming from nothing. This is a truth found in all the creeds
and it has been often defined by the Church Magisterium (cf., for example, Late-
ran IV and Vatican I). “We believe in one God, the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit, Creator of what is visible—such as this world where we live out our lives
and of the invisible — such as the pure spirits which are also called angels”
(Paul VI, “Creed of the People of God”, 8).
4. The Book of Genesis (4:3-5) tells of the offerings made to Yahweh by Cain
and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve. God was pleased with Abel’s offering but
not with Cain’s. God said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your coun-
tenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do
well, sin is couching at the door ready to waylay you” (Gen 4:6-7). Many Jewish
commentators saw this as meaning that Cain’s sin may have been one of mean-
ness because he did not offer the best of his crop. Additionally there would have
been a sin of envy towards Abel (Wisdom 10:3 speaks of Cain’s evil and his fra-
tricidal hatred). In contrast to Cain, the prototype of the envious, selfish, violent
and fratricidal man, Jewish literature extolled Abel as an example of generosity,
uprightness and piety.
Against this background of Jewish religious thought come the words of Jesus
(Mt 23:25) and St John (1 Jn 3:12) who describe Abel as “righteous”, that is holy
and devout. The Hebrews text stresses that what made Abel’s offering the better
one was his faith, commitment to God and generosity. That was why God bore
witness to his righteousness by accepting the victims he offered and perhaps —
according to an ancient oral Jewish tradition—sending fire down upon them to
burn them. For God “looked more to the offerer than to what he offered, because
the acceptability of an oblation is determined by the righteousness of the offerer,
in cases other than of a sacrament,” as St Thomas Aquinas says (Commentary
on Heb, ad loc.). The text says literally that “God himself bore witness to his of-
ferings”, as if to imply that he “came down” or that he “sent down fire” to con-
sume them (cf. the famous oblation of Elijah in 1 Kings 18:38; that of Moses
and Aaron in Leviticus 9:24; and that of Gideon in Judges 6:21).
“He died, but through his faith he is still speaking”: this is reminiscent of the pas-
sage in Genesis where God tells Cain that “the voice of your brother’s blood is
crying to me from the ground” (Gen 4:10). Abel is God’s witness, his “martyr”,
because he confesses God’s greatness by his faith, sacrifice and generosity.
“By leading others towards virtue, Abel proves to be an eloquent speaker. Any
words must be less effective than (the example of) this martyrdom. So, just as
heaven speaks to us by simply revealing itself to us, this great saint exhorts us
simply by impinging on our memory” (Hom. on Heb, 22).
It is comforting to know that the first example of faith in God was given by the
son of Adam and Eve, and that it took the form of a sacrifice. It is understanda-
ble therefore that Fathers have, in fact, seen Abel as a figure of Christ: he was
a shepherd, he offered an oblation pleasing to God, he shed his blood, and was
therefore a “martyr for the faith”.
When renewing Christ’s sacrifice, the Liturgy asks God to look with favour on the
offerings and accept them as once he accepted the gifts of his “servant Abel” (cf.
Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer I).
5. There was also quite an amount of Jewish tradition about Enoch, one of the
Patriarchs from the pre-Flood period; this stemmed from the fact that the Book
of Genesis, instead of rounding off mention of him with the usual words “and he
died” (as is the case with the other patriarchs), says that he “walked with Elohim,
and he was not, for God took him” (cf. Gen 5:21-24). This led people to think that
Enoch did not die and that therefore he was in the presence of God preparing the
way for the Messiah who would set man free: that is, he must be one of the Mes-
siah’s precursors, like Elijah, of whose death also there is no mention. The Greek
translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) elaborates a little on the He-
brew text of Genesis 5:23: it says, “Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for
the Lord took him”, and the RSV Genesis passage reflects this. It might also be
pointed out that the Book of Sirach mentions Enoch with great respect, proposing
him as an example to all generations; it says that “Enoch pleased the Lord, and
was taken up” (Sir 44:16), and elsewhere it adds that “no one like Enoch has
been created on earth” (Sir 49:14). In apocryphal Jewish writing Enoch came to
assume great importance: he was attributed great power as an astrologer and
described as engaging in a series of fantastic exploits to prepare the way for the
Messiah. It therefore became widely believed that Enoch would return to the
world prior to the coming of the Anointed.
The Epistle to the Hebrews uses the Sirach texts and the Greek version of Gene-
sis as its ground for stating that Enoch “was attested as having pleased God”,
and therefore it proposes Enoch as an example of faith.
The sentence “Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death” is not just
referring to his being an upright man: it connects him with the coming of the Mes-
siah and with the end of the world. The text is not saying or denying that Enoch
died, but simply that he was ‘taken up”. In view of the fact that it is decreed that
all men should die (cf. Heb 9:27), for death is a consequence of original sin (cf.
Rom 5:12), most probably the words “was taken up” should be seen as a refe-
rence to death, and the following words, “so that he should not see death,”
should he taken either in a moral sense —that is, “not experience the spiritual
death of sin” — or else as meaning that he arose immediately after our Lord’s
death, as happened in the case of some saints (cf. Mt 27:52-53).
6. Faith is a virtue which is necessary for salvation, but faith alone is insufficient;
it must be “faith working through love” (Gal 5:6). However, faith is of decisive im-
portance because it is “the beginning of man’s salvation” (St Fulgentius, “De fide
ad Petrum”, 1) and because it is “the foundation and source of all justification”
(Council of Trent, “De iustificatione, chap. 8); we are referring not only to faith in
the sense of a personal act — the act of faith — but also to faith in the sense of
a body of truths which one holds as certain. Thus, theology says that two things
are necessary — the faith by which one believes (the attitude of the believer) and
the truths of faith which have to he believed (articles of faith). The verse speaks
of both, but it dwells mainly on the second-—the content or “object” of faith –
whereas earlier (11:1) it looked more at the importance of the act as such. No
one can please God unless he draws near him; but it is not possible to do that
without faith; therefore no one can please God unless he has faith. God himself
moves us and helps us to approach him, but man needs to respond freely to
God’s action; it is by the act of faith that he does so: faith is that disposition of
soul “by which we yield our unhesitating assent to whatever the authority of our
holy Mother the Church teaches us has been revealed by God; for the faithful
cannot doubt those things of which God, who is truth itself, is the author” (St
Pius V Catechism, I, 1, 1).
That is why, among truths of faith, we distinguish those which are accessible to
human reason and those which man could never come to know on his own: the
latter are called “mysteries”. The former can be reduced to three — the existence
of God, the immortality of the soul, and the existence of a moral order estab-
lished by God.
It is clear that if one does not believe in the existence of God and in the moral or-
der established by him there is no possibility of salvation. What does the passage
mean when it says that “whoever would draw near to God must believe that he ex-
ists and that he rewards those who seek him”? We might reply, with St Thomas,
that, after original sin, no one can be saved unless he have faith in the promised
mediator (Gen 3:15). For pagans, who have received no revelation, it was and is
sufficient to believe that God rewards good and punishes evil (cf. “Commentary on
Heb”, ad loc.).
The words of the sacred writer also pose another problem: how can those be
saved who do not know Christ? The first thing to bear in mind is the absolute ne-
cessity of true and upright faith. Man has an obligation to seek truth, particularly
religious truth, and he must not content himself with just any religion, as if all re-
ligions were more or less equal (cf. Pius IX, “Syllabus of Errors”, 15 and 16). That
is why adult pagans who request Baptism when they are in danger of death or in
a situation of dire need must be given before Baptism a short instruction (adapted
to the situation and to their intellectual capacity) on the main mysteries of faith —
the Trinity and the Incarnation (cf. “Reply of the Holy Office”, 26 January 1703).
All this, however, does not mean that people who are not Christians cannot be
saved. What it means, Vatican II teaches, is that “they could not be saved who,
knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through
Christ, would refuse either to enter it, or to remain in it” (”Lumen Gentium”, 14).
“Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or
his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by
grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of
their conscience—those too may achieve eternal salvation. Nor shall divine provi-
dence deny the assistance necessary for salvation to those who, without any
fault of theirs, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God, and who, not
without grace, strive to lead a good life” (”Lumen gentium”, 16).
Therefore, when in its apostolic and missionary work, the catholic Church en-
counters other religions, it “rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these reli-
gions. It has a high regard for the manner of life and conduct, the precepts and
doctrines which, although differing in many ways from its own teaching neverthe-
less often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men. Yet it proclaims,
and is in duty bound to proclaim without fail, Christ who is the way, the truth and
the life (Jn 14:6). In him, in whom God reconciled all things to himself (cf. 2 Cor
5:18-19), men find the fulness of their religious life” (Vatican II, “Nostra aetate”,
2). In the last analysis, “although in many ways known to himself God can lead
those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel to that faith
without which it is impossible to please him (Heb 11:6), the Church, nevertheless,
still has the obligation (cf. 1 Cor 9:16) and also the sacred right to evangelize.
And so, today as always, missionary activity retains its full force and necessity”
(Vatican II, “Ad gentes”, 7).
Similarly every Christian should always desire to seek God and have others seek
him also. “If there is someone who is going to reward us, let us do everything pos-
sible not to lose the reward that is given to virtue [. . .]. But, how can one find the
Lord? Think of how gold is found—by much effort and trouble [. . .]. So, we must
seek God in the same way as we look for something we have lost. Is it not true
that we rack our brains? Don’t we look everywhere? Don’t we look in out of the
way places? Don’t we spend money searching? If, for example, we have lost a
child, what will we not do? What regions, what seas, will we not cross? How
much more in the case of God, given that those who seek him have such need
of him!” (St John Chrysostom, “Hom. on Heb”, 22).
7. When Noah received God’s order to build the ark (cf. Gen 6-9; Mt 24:17-39; 1
Pet 3:20; 2 Pet 2:5), there was as yet no sign of a flood: in other words, he had
to rely totally on God’s word. He took heed, he acted “reveritus”, with religious
fear, that is, with a deeply religious attachment to God, an attitude which led him
to obey very exactly what God told him to do.
Noah’s faith “condemned the world” because the worldly and unbelieving men of
his time jeered at him when he was making the ark. “What do these words mean
— ‘by this he condemned the world’? They mean that he showed up the world as
deserving of punishment, because even though they saw him building (the ark)
they did not mend their ways or repent” (”Hom. on Heb”, 23, 1). By acting in line
with his faith Noah condemns, in spite of himself, the incredulity of his contem-
poraries. Today also the life of a person of faith can be a reproach to those
around him, but that should not lead him to act any differently.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.