2. Faith through Suffering (Heb 2.13)

In Heb 2.13, Jesus speaks the words of Isa 8.17: ‘I will put my trust in him (ἐγὼ ἔσομαι πεποιθὼς ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ).’Footnote ¹⁴ DeSilva suggests that Jesus in 2.13 confesses trust not in God, but in human beings, his brothers and sisters.Footnote ¹⁵ However, in 2.13 Jesus confesses trust in a singular αὐτῷ. Throughout the context in Heb 2.10–18, the author of Hebrews speaks of human beings in the plural (πολλοὺς υἱούς in 2.10; οἱ ἁγιαζόμενοι and ἀδελφούς in 2.11; ἀδελφοῖς in 2.12; παιδία in 2.14; τούτους in 2.15; ἀδελφοῖς in 2.17; and τοῖς πειραζομένοις in 2.18). God is the only singular figure in the context (αὐτῷ in 2.10; ὅ … ἁγιάζων in 2.11; and σε in 2.12). Therefore, when Jesus confesses trust ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ in 2.13, this refers to God.

Jesus trusts God, I suggest, because he believes that God can raise him from the dead. Jesus’ confession of trust in Heb 2.13 is one of trust through suffering. Jesus, who for a short time was made lower than the angels, received the crown of glory and honour on account of his suffering of death (2.9). God made Jesus perfect through sufferings (2.10). Jesus became like his human siblings in every way so that ‘through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death’ (2.14), and free humanity from slavery to the fear of death (2.15). Jesus made atonement for the sins of the people (2.17), which clearly implies his death (9.12–15; 10.10, 19; 13.12). Jesus’ trust in 2.13, therefore, is a trust in God in the midst of suffering.

It is within this context of death that the author puts the words of Ps 21.23 LXX on the lips of Jesus: ‘I will announce your name among my brothers and sisters; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you’ (Heb 2.12). Psalm 21 LXX is a plea for help in suffering, in anticipation of deliverance.Footnote ¹⁶ The psalmist experiences abandonment (21.2–3) and ill treatment from others (21.7–19). In motifs repeated in the passion traditions in the Gospels, he feels forsaken (Ps 21.2; Matt 27.46; Mark 15.34) as he is poured out like water (Ps 21.15; John 19.34), experiences extreme thirst (Ps 21.16; John 19.28), and others cast lots for his clothing (Ps 21.19; Matt 27.35; Mark 15.24; Luke 23.34; John 19.24). In Ps 21.21–2 (the verses immediately prior to the verse quoted in Hebrews), he begs for deliverance from death: ‘Deliver my soul from the sword, and my only life from the dog's hand. Save me from the lion's mouth, and my humiliation from the unicorns’ horns.’ The psalmist moves from lament to jubilant confidence, with the promise to ‘tell of your name to my kindred’ (21.23) and the exhortation to praise the Lord because he has heard the petition of the poor (21.24–7). As Lane notes, this latter half of the psalm ‘is appropriate to an experience of vindication and exaltation after suffering and affliction’.Footnote ¹⁷ Having endured suffering (as noted in the contexts of both Hebrews 2 and Psalm 21, quoted in Heb 2.12), Jesus now rejoices in vindication.Footnote ¹⁸ Peter C. Craigie's messianic reading of the ending of Psalm 21 would apply here:

Jesus’ confession of trust in Heb 2.13, therefore, is a faith in the face of suffering that realises reward following the suffering. God, the object of this trust (πεποιθὼς ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ), is the one with this resurrecting power. By placing his faith in God in the midst of his suffering of death, Jesus demonstrates a trust in the only one who can deliver him, even if he dies.

3. Faith to Enter God's Rest (Hebrews 3.12, 19; 4.2–3)

God is clearly the object of faith in Hebrews 3–4. He is the one whose voice we are to hear (3.7, 15) and into whose rest we are to enter (4.1; 9–11). The need to trust God is evident in light of the Kadesh narrative undergirding these verses (see Ps 95.7–11 quoted in Heb 3.7–11, which refers to Num 14), where the wilderness generation had to trust God to bring them into the Promised Land and so move forward into ‘the rest’. Against this backdrop, when the author warns against an ‘evil, unbelieving heart’ (3.12), this is likely a heart that does not trust God (cf. Num 14.11). Similarly, the wilderness generation failed to enter the rest ‘because of unbelief (δι᾿ ἀπιστίαν)’ (3.19). They were not ‘united in faith (συγκεκερασμένους τῇ πίστει)’ (4.2), but ‘the ones who have trusted (οἱ πιστεύσαντες) enter the rest’ (4.3). They refused to enter the Promised Land because they did not trust God to bring them safely into the land (cf. Num 14.8). In Hebrews 3–4, therefore, God is the object of faith.

Hebrews 3–4 does not directly connect trust in God with God's power to resurrect. However, I suggest that resurrection is prerequisite to entering the rest. If I am correct that this rest can be inhabited only by resurrected humans, and trust in God is a requirement for entering it (4.2–3), then it possible that God's resurrecting power is the basis on which the author of Hebrews urges his hearers to trust God.

The rest is one of many images in Hebrews referring to the eschatological hope. Along with salvation (1.14; 2.10; 5.7, 9; 6.9; 7.25; 9.28), promise (4.1; 9.15; 10.36; 11.13, 39), reward (10.35; 11.6, 26), promised eternal inheritance (9.15) and an enduring homeland to come (2.5; 10.34; 11.10, 14, 16; 12.22, 28; 13.14), it depicts an eschatological hope in the heavenly realm that is reserved for resurrected human beings.

That the rest is in the heavenly realm is indicated by two observations. First, the author exhorts his hearers to enter rest (3.11, 18, 19; 4.1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 11). The metaphor of movement elsewhere in Hebrews is often associated with the divine realm.Footnote ²⁰ Second, the rest is consistently described as God's rest. When Psalm 95 is quoted in Hebrews, the rest is τὴν κατάπαυσίν μου (3.11; 4.3, 5), and elsewhere the rest is τὴν κατάπαυσιν αὐτοῦ (3.18; 4.1, 10). Κατάπαυσις appears without a possessive pronoun twice. In 4.3a, τὴν κατάπαυσιν is clearly the same as τὴν κατάπαυσίν μου in 4.3b. In 4.11, the rest is ἐκείνην τὴν κατάπαυσιν, and ἐκείνην τὴν κατάπαυσιν in 4.11 is pointing back to τὴν κατάπαυσιν αὐτοῦ in 4.10. Israel's eventual entrance into the Promised Land under Joshua was not a full realisation of the rest (4.8) precisely because the land was on earth, and not God's rest in the heavenly presence of God.Footnote ²¹ The rest, then, is the heavenly presence of God.

This rest in the heavenly realm can be inhabited only by human beings who have received an enduring life by resurrection. God did not subject the coming world (οἰκουμένην τὴν μέλλουσαν) to angels, but to humanity (2.5). He intends for humanity to be crowned with glory and honour (2.7), with all things in subjection to them (2.8). Even though angels appear in the heavenly Jerusalem (12.22), the author makes clear elsewhere that they exercise no dominion (1.13; 2.5) but worship the Son (1.6) and serve the Son and humanity (1.7, 14). The οἰκουμένη in 1.6 is likely the heavenly realm that Jesus entered upon his exaltation. Moffitt has argued convincingly that Jesus must be an embodied human being in order to enter this heavenly realm.Footnote ²² As Moffitt shows, this is made evident in Heb 1.7–9, which contrasts the angels’ spiritual nature with Jesus’ exaltation to the right hand of God. The angels are πνεύματα, God's ministers who are flames of fire (1.7), but the Son possesses God's throne and exercises dominion (1.8). Curiously, the author of Hebrews sees the angels’ spiritual nature (πνεύματα; πυρὸς φλόγα) as a condition excluding them from sitting at the right hand of God. He does not root Jesus’ right to exercise royal dominion in his eternal nature (as described in 1.2–3). Instead, he says that Jesus was anointed beyond his companions (1.9), which suggests that he was one of a number in his human peer-group who could have received such dominion.Footnote ²³ God intended glory, honour and dominion for human beings (2.5–9), and from among these companions Jesus was invited to sit at God's right hand. Jesus’ embodied humanity, therefore, qualifies him to enter the heavenly realm.Footnote ²⁴ Since embodied humanity is the necessary qualification to enter the heavenly realm (God's rest), and since embodied humans die, resurrection is a necessary condition for enjoyment of the eschatological hope.

As the author makes clear in Heb 4.3, a person can enter God's rest only by faith in God. God is the one with the power to bring people into God's rest, and therefore the one with the power of resurrection. Therefore, when the author of Hebrews encourages his hearers to trust God in order to enter the rest, he is encouraging them to trust in the one who holds the power of resurrection.

4. Faith in the One Able to Save Out of Death (Heb 5.7–9)

In Heb 5.7–9, Jesus is offering prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to τὸν δυνάμενον σῴζειν αὐτὸν ἐκ θανάτου, clearly a reference to God. Although the author does not use a πιστ- word to describe Jesus in 5.7–9, he depicts him exercising faith in God even in the face of death. Patrick Gray has argued at length for reading εὐλάβεια as ‘godly fear’ (5.7).Footnote ²⁵ Cries or tears in the LXX are often used of prayers for deliverance in times of crisis (as in Exod 3.7, 9; 2 Sam 22.7; 2 Kings 20.5; Neh 9.9; Ps 18.6; Isa 30.19; 38.5; Jonah 2.2; 2 Macc 11.6; 3 Macc 1.16; 5.7, 25).Footnote ²⁶ The author of Hebrews depicts Jesus in the vein of a righteous sufferer who in a time of distress directs fervent prayers to the God who can deliver.

More particularly, the author may intend to place Jesus in the context of Psalm 21 LXX.Footnote ²⁷ That he has Psalm 21 in mind is substantiated by three observations. First, the author of Hebrews refers to the passage elsewhere, which shows that he is familiar with the psalm. As already noted, the author quotes part of Psalm 21 in Hebrews 2. In addition, Heb 4.16, in which the author encourages his hearers to approach the throne of grace so that they might receive help (βοήθειαν), may parallel Ps 21.12, where the psalmist asks God to stay near to him because there is no one to help (βοηθῶν). Later, the psalmist repeats his request and this time speaks of God as his help (βοήθειαν, 21.20).Footnote ²⁸ Second, Heb 5.8 notes that Jesus learned obedience, ‘although he was a son’. The author also adopts familial language from Psalm 21 in Heb 2.12 (‘I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters’), and the mention of Jesus’ sonship in Heb 5.8 may echo this earlier quotation from Psalm 21. Third, Heb 5.7–9 and Psalm 21 feature a number of similar words. In Ps 21.25, the psalmist rejoices that God ‘did not despise nor abhor the prayer (τῇ δεήσει) of the poor, nor did he turn away his face from me, but when I cried (κεκραγέναι) to him he heard (εἰσήκουσεν) me’. Jesus in Heb 5.7 offers prayers (δεήσεις) with cries (κραυγῆς) and he too is heard (εἰσακουσθείς).Footnote ²⁹ Jesus, therefore, stands firmly in the tradition of a faithful righteous sufferer who turns to God in faith in hope of deliverance.

The author does not make it clear as to what Jesus was praying for, but I suggest that Jesus is trusting God to raise him from the dead. Four observations show that Jesus prayed for deliverance out of death, and was heard by being raised.

1. (1) Τhe author describes God as ‘the one able to save him out of death (ἐκ θανάτου)’ (5.7).Footnote ³⁰ Ἐκ θανάτου could be translated ‘from death’ as in being saved from the experience of death, but this reading falters for three reasons. First, Jesus praying for deliverance from the experience of death makes little sense given that the author and hearers of Hebrews knew that he had in fact died. If Jesus were praying for salvation from the experience of death, then he was in fact not heard. Second, as Ellingworth rightly notes, ‘[t]he author of Hebrews insists so strongly on the positive results of Christ's suffering and death (2:9, 14; 9:15) that it is antecedently improbable that he would speak here of Christ's attempting to avoid them’.Footnote ³¹ The author of Hebrews depicts Jesus in 12.2 as intentionally enduring the cross ‘for the joy that was set before him’. Jesus knew of the rewards following death, and it is therefore unlikely that he is praying for deliverance from the experience of death in 5.7. Finally, the author of Hebrews consistently upholds Jesus’ suffering as a salvific act that he undertakes voluntarily (2.13; 9.26; 10.7, 9; 12.2), and so it is unlikely that he would depict Jesus as praying to avoid such suffering.Footnote ³² Jesus, therefore, prayed for deliverance despite his death. God heard Jesus’ prayers, and answered him in resurrection. If in calling God τὸν δυνάμενον σῴζειν αὐτὸν ἐκ θανάτου the author wishes to describe God as someone able to do what Jesus needed at the present time, then Jesus’ prayer as a prayer for deliverance via resurrection is more clearly in view.

2. (2) Τhe author of Hebrews emphasises Jesus’ endurance of suffering (5.8) and his subsequent perfection (5.9). Jesus’ suffering is elsewhere associated with eschatological reward (glory and honour in 2.9; perfection in 2.10; session at the right hand of God in 12.2). So also Jesus’ suffering in 5.7–9 is probably a precursor to his enjoyment of life beyond death.

3. (3) Τhe author says that Jesus was made perfect (τελειωθείς) after learning obedience through suffering (5.8–9). While ‘perfection’ is not a technical term for resurrection in every instance in Hebrews (as in 5.14; 6.1; 9.9; 10.1, 14), resurrection is in view each time Jesus is said to have been perfect (2.10; 5.9; 7.28). In Heb 2.9, the author introduces Jesus as one who was crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death (διὰ τὸ πάθημα τοῦ θανάτου). This is paralleled in 2.10, where Jesus’ perfection comes through suffering (διὰ παθημάτων). Furthermore, the author finds it fitting that God would bring many sons and daughters to glory by making the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. In the next verse, Jesus is named a brother with these sons and daughters, which suggests that he too was being brought to glory. The glory is equivalent to the perfection which Jesus experienced through suffering.Footnote ³³ Therefore, perfection, glory and honour probably point to the same general idea. Further, this perfection (as well as glory and honour) comes through suffering. That this suffering is a suffering in death is clear in context.Footnote ³⁴ Although it is not immediately clear that Jesus’ perfection comes after suffering rather than along with suffering, it is likely that his perfection follows his death. As noted above, Jesus in 2.9 is crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death (διὰ τὸ πάθημα τοῦ θανάτου).Footnote ³⁵ Jesus’ glory and honour are the result of his suffering of death. Given the close similarity between glory, honour and perfection in Heb 2.9–10, we see that Jesus was made perfect after his death.Footnote ³⁶ Outside 5.7–9, the other reference to Jesus’ perfection appears in Heb 7.28, where the author argues that Jesus’ high priesthood is contingent upon his enduring life after death.Footnote ³⁷

   Two further points indicate that Jesus’ perfection is closely associated with resurrection in Heb 5.7–9. First, his perfection is contrasted with ‘the days of his flesh’, during which he learned through suffering.Footnote ³⁸ ‘The days of his flesh’ clearly refers to Jesus’ days on earth, and so his perfection must relate to a time following his earthly life. Second, Jesus’ perfection through suffering in 5.9 deals with eternal salvation: ‘having been made perfect, (Jesus) became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him’. If perfection is something that humanity hopes to share in (as 11.40 suggests), then this perfection is associated with the eternal salvation that Jesus secures. Jesus as the source of eternal salvation in 5.9 recalls Jesus as the ἀρχηγός of salvation in 2.10, where he is the one through whom God is bringing many children to glory. Perfection, then, is closely associated with the eternal salvation that Jesus secures, as God is bringing many children to glory.Footnote ³⁹

4. (4) Τhat Jesus is trusting God in hope of resurrection is intimated by references to Jesus being a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek in the context (5.6, 10). Hebrews 7 discusses the enigmatic figure of Melchizedek and attributes Jesus’ priesthood qualifications to his being after the order of Melchizedek. Jesus is descended from Judah (not Levi), and so is disqualified from being a priest on earth (7.14). Jesus’ priesthood is not ratified on the basis of his genealogical lineage, but on the basis of his ‘indestructible life (ζωῆς ἀκαταλύτου)’ (7.16). The author explains what he means by ‘indestructible life’ with a quotation from Ps 110.4: ‘You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek’ (7.17). Melchizedek, who appears years before Levi or Aaron, is a priest of the Most High God (7.1) on the basis of his unending life (7.3). Unlike the earthly priests, whose ministries are cut short by their deaths, Jesus’ priesthood continues because he lives forever. However, the author of Hebrews is clear elsewhere that Jesus did in fact die, and so an implicit step for Jesus’ enduring life is his resurrection.Footnote ⁴⁰ If Jesus’ eternal priesthood after the order of Melchizedek is possible only if he is raised, then Heb 5.7–9 fits perfectly within the cultic context of 4.14–5.10. Christ's appointment to the high priesthood is only possible by means of his resurrected life, so the author introduces Jesus’ resurrection into this discussion of Jesus’ priesthood.

Therefore, in Heb 5.7–9 we see Jesus trusting God through suffering, in hope of resurrection. This ‘one able to save him out of death’ heard Jesus’ prayers, and answered him in resurrection. Once again God is object of faith, and this faith in God is motivated by Jesus’ confidence in God as the one able to raise him from the dead.

5. Foundational Faith in God (Heb 6.1)

In Heb 6.1, the author intends to press on to maturity while not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and πίστεως ἐπὶ θεόν. This is the only place in Hebrews where the noun πίστις has an explicit object (θεόν). Πίστεως ἐπὶ θεόν, a unique formulation in the New Testament, is probably more than belief in God's existence (given the absence of the abstract ἔστιν as in 11.6). Instead, it is ‘trust in and fidelity to God’.Footnote ⁴¹

The author lists ‘the resurrection of the dead’ (ἀναστάσεώς τε νεκρῶν) as an elementary doctrine (6.2). The doctrines in 6.1–2 are grouped into three pairs: (1) repentance from dead works and faith towards God; (2) washings and the laying on of hands; and (3) resurrection of the dead and eternal judgement.Footnote ⁴² Given that resurrection of the dead is paired with eternal judgement (κρίματος αἰωνίου), it is likely that both refer to an eschatological experience.Footnote ⁴³ As such, this resurrection is more than a resuscitation of a life that will once again end in death; it is rather a rising to an eternal life that cannot be ended. While it is not as clear here that the hope of resurrection is the motivation for faith in God, it is apparent that faith in God is associated with the hope of resurrection.

6. Faith in the God who Rewards (Heb 11.6)

At first glance, the faith expressed in Heb 11.6 is not as much faith in God as object as it is faith in attributes of God. The faith in view in 11.6 is (1) belief in God's existence,Footnote ⁴⁴ and (2) trust in God's faithfulness to reward those who seek him: πιστεῦσαι γὰρ δεῖ τὸν προσερχόμενον τῷ θεῷ ὅτι (1) ἔστιν καὶ (2) τοῖς ἐκζητοῦσιν αὐτὸν μισθαποδότης γίνεται. To be sure, ‘trust’ and ‘belief’ are not mutually exclusive. ‘Trusting’ entails a ‘belief’ in the existence of the object of trust. Outside Heb 11.6, the first aspect of faith (‘belief in (the existence of God/something)’) is not a significant concept in Hebrews. On the other hand, as we have seen, faith in God as a rewarder (as in aspect 2 above) is a significant concept. Although God as object of faith is not as clear in 11.6 as elsewhere, the fact that faith is placed in God as the ‘rewarder of those who seek him’ makes it appropriate to discuss this passage here.

This second aspect of faith in 11.6 (trusting God rewards those who seek him) connects faith in God with the hope of resurrection. As noted earlier, ‘reward’ elsewhere in Hebrews refers to the eschatological hope. In this way, the description of God as one who rewards those who seek him harks back to Heb 5.7, where Jesus shows faith in ‘the one able to save him out of death’. By describing God as the ‘rewarder’, the author wishes his hearers to think of the hope of resurrection.

That Heb 11.6 refers to the hope of resurrection is further strengthened by taking into account the context of the rest of the chapter. Throughout Hebrews 11 the author presents heroes from Israel's story who exemplified faith in the context of death while looking forward to enduring life in a heavenly homeland.Footnote ⁴⁵ Furthermore, the whole of Hebrews 11 is framed by associations of faith with life. In 10.39, the author reflects back on the quotation from Hab 2.3–4 and suggests confidently: ‘we are not of timidity unto destruction, but of faith unto the preservation of the soul’.Footnote ⁴⁶ Likewise, in 12.2 he recalls the story of Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, whose endurance of the cross ended in glorification at the right hand of God.Footnote ⁴⁷ The heroes’ stories in Hebrews 11 demonstrate a triumph of life despite death. Some exhibit faith by accepting death (11.36–7), others by faith avoid death in the face of dangerous threats (11.7, 17–19, 23, 28, 29, 31, 33–5), and still others in faith look beyond their own deaths to offer hope to the living (11.20, 21, 22). The heroes of Hebrews 11 who exemplify faith in the context of death look to the eschatological hope beyond death. The sojourning patriarchs looked forward to a God-built heavenly homeland with foundations (11.10, 14–16) and those enduring torture hoped for a ‘better resurrection’ (11.35).Footnote ⁴⁸ Within this context, the description of God as ‘the one who rewards (μισθαποδότης) those who seek him’ (11.6) probably alludes to this eschatological hope as well.

Heb 11.6, therefore, is another association of faith in God and the hope of resurrection. Those wishing to draw near to God need to believe that God exists, and trust that God will reward with resurrection those who seek him.

7. Abraham's Faith in God (Heb 11.11–12, 17–19)

Since Heb 11.11–12 and 11.17–19 both involve Abraham and share other similar themes, I address these passages together. In Heb 11.11–12, Abraham, along with Sarah,Footnote ⁴⁹ received the power to procreate, and considered God who promised faithful. While the author does not use a πιστ- word, Abraham's ‘considering the one who promised faithful’ (11.11) is rightly understood as Abraham's faith in God. Similarly, that Abraham ‘considered that God was able even to raise the dead’ (11.19) also refers to Abraham's faith in God.

In both 11.11–12 and 11.17–19, Abraham's faith in God is based on his hope in God's ability to resurrect. In the first case, Abraham hopes for a figurative resurrection, a resurrection of his ‘dead’ body (ἀφ᾽ ἑνὸς … νενεκρωμένου), so that he might father children with Sarah.Footnote ⁵⁰ In 11.17–19, the author credits Abraham's offering of Isaac to Abraham's consideration that ‘God was even able to raise someone from the dead’ (11.19). This probably refers not to Abraham's hope of an eschatological resurrection, but to an immediate resuscitation to life. The implication here seems to be that Abraham expected that if he did have to kill his promised son, then God could bring him back to life again, as God did do ‘in parable (ἐν παραβολῇ)’ (11.19).Footnote ⁵¹ Even so, Abraham shows a faith in God motivated by his trust in God's ability to raise the dead.

Abraham's faith in 11.17–19 reflects Jesus’ faith in 5.7–9. In both cases, we see the pattern of faith in God connected with the hope of resurrection.Footnote ⁵² Most significantly, God's power to save people out of death ‘appears to be the primary element of faith being emphasized in both passages’.Footnote ⁵³ Abraham, by willingly offering his son as a sacrifice, trusts God to fulfil his promise, even if Isaac died on the altar.Footnote ⁵⁴ Therefore, in both Heb 11.11–12 and 11.17–19 we see Abraham's trust in God connected with his hope of resurrection, either figuratively (11.11–12) or literally (11.17–19).