Hebrews 11:7 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Hebrews 11:7
By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
to cause to be ("gen"-erate) · verb — second aorist middle deponent indicative, 3rd person singular
heir
κληρονόμος.¶klēronomos
G2818
a sharer by lot · noun — nominative singular masculine
righteousness
δικαιοσύνηςdikaiosunēs
G1343
equity (of character or act) · noun — genitive singular feminine
by
κατὰkata
G2596
(prepositionally) down (in place or time) · preposition
faith
πίστινpistin
G4102
persuasion · noun — accusative singular feminine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 6:13-7:1 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will dest…
1 Peter 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few,…
Ezekiel 14:14 Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GO…
Luke 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
Romans 4:13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness…
Galatians 5:5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
Genesis 7:23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl…
Ezekiel 14:20 Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Hebrews 11:4-31
The apostle, having given us a more general account of the grace of faith, now proceeds to set before us some illustrious examples of it in the Old Testament times, and these may be divided into two classes: - 1. Those whose names are mentioned, and the particular exercise and actings of whose faith are specified. 2. Those whose names are barely mentioned, and an account given in general of the exploits of their faith, which it is left to the reader to accommodate, and apply to the particular persons from what he gathers up in the sacred story. We have here those whose names are not only mentioned, but the particular trials and actings of their faith are subjoined.
I. The leading instance an…
warned of God--The same Greek, Heb 8:5, "admonished of God."
moved with fear--not mere slavish fear, but as in Heb 5:7; see on Heb 5:7; Greek, "reverential fear": opposed to the world's sneering disbelief of the revelation, and self-deceiving security. Join "by faith" with "prepared an ark" (Pe1 3:20).
by the which--faith.
condemned the world--For since he believed and was saved, so might they have believed and been saved, so that their condemnation by God is by his case shown to be just.
righteousness which is by faith--Greek, "according to faith." A Pauline thought. Noah is first called "righteous" in Gen 6:9. Christ calls Abel so, Mat 23:35. Compare as to Noah's righteousness, Eze…
By faith Noah - See the whole of this history, Gen 6:13.
Warned of God - Χρηματισθεις. As we know from the history in Genesis that God did warn Noah, we see from this the real import of the verb χρηματιζω, as used in various parts of the New Testament; it signifies to utter oracles, to give Divine warning.
Moved with fear - Ευλαβηθεις· Influenced by religious fear or reverence towards God. This is mentioned to show that he acted not from a fear of losing his life, but from the fear of God; and hence that fear is here properly attributed to faith.
He condemned the world - He credited God, they did not; he walked in the way God had commanded, they did not; he repeatedly admonished them, Pe1 3:…
The Church Fathers
"By faith Noah was warned by God concerning events as yet unseen," that is, about things which would have happened 120 years after he had received the warning, and [he] "took heed" of those distant threats of punishment [and] "constructed an ark" with great toil "for the saving of his household." By that same faith the world which did not believe was condemned, and that same faith made Noah the heir of the promise.
For what wonder if He extends a discipline who institutes it? if He advances who begins? In short, before the Law of Moses, written in stone-tables, I contend that there was a law unwritten, which was habitually understood naturally, and by the fathers was habitually kept. For whence was Noah "found righteous," if in his case the righteousness of a natural law had not preceded? Whence was Abraham accounted "a friend of God," if not on the ground of equity and righteousness, (in the observance) of a natural law? Whence was Melchizedek named "priest of the most high God," if, before the priesthood of the Levitical law, there were not levites who were wont to offer sacrifices to God? For thus, after the above-mentioned patriarchs, was the Law given to Moses, at that (well-known) time after their exode from Egypt, after the interval and spaces of four hundred years.
"By faith, Noah, having been warned." Connect the "by faith" with "being cautious," so that it reads: "having been warned by faith, Noah prepared an ark concerning things not yet seen, being cautious and fearful." For it was by faith that he heard what would be the flood, to be cautious and terrified. "having been warned." Having heard from God. Elsewhere it is said, "He was warned by the Spirit." (Luke 2:26) Do you see equality? Just as the Father calls, so also does the Holy Spirit. "of things not yet seen." He speaks of the flood. "By which he condemned the world." He showed them to be worthy of punishment, that even when seeing the ark being constructed, they did not believe that there would be a flood. "of the righteousness which is according to faith." What is established through faith. For that faith justified him by which he believed in God.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Heir — Under the patriarchs the property of a father was divided among the sons of his legitimate wives (Gen. 21:10; 24:36; 25:5), the eldest son getting a larger portion than the rest. The Mosaic law made…
Antediluvians · Noah preaches to — Noah preaches to
Ark · .Noah and family preserved in — .Noah and family preserved in
Decision · .NOAH — .NOAH
Deluge, The · Noah forewarned of — Noah forewarned of
Noah · .Builds an ark (ship) and saves his family from the great flood — .Builds an ark (ship) and saves his family from the great flood
Reverence · .Noah, in preparing the ark — .Noah, in preparing the ark
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
By faith Noah, being warned of God,.... In the Greek text, Noah is called "Noe", and so the Septuagint interpreters of the Old Testament call him; but Josephus calls him "Noeos": or "having received an oracle from God"; in which he was admonished, how to make an ark, as Moses was, in like manner, how to make a tabernacle, Hebrews 8:5. This oracle or warning is extant, in Genesis 6:13 and it was
of things not seen as yet; as the universal deluge; the building of an ark or ship, which was the first that ever was in the world; the entrance of all creatures into it; their preservation in it, and the destruction of all without it: and this divine warning, or oracle, concerning things of such a n…
Hebrews 11:7
7. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
7. Fide Noe, divinitus admonitus de iis quae nondum videbantur, veritus apparavit arcam in salutem domus suae; per quam condemnavit mundum, et ejus (quae secundum fidem est) justitiae factus est haeres.
7. By faith Noah, etc. It was a wonderful example of magnanimity, that when the whole world were promising themselves impunity, and securely and unrestrainedly indulging themselves in sinful pleasures, Noah alone paid regard to Gods vengeance though deferred for…
The story of Noah (see Gen 6:1–9:17) further demonstrates that faith involves obedience in the face of the unseen. • things that had never happened before: Namely, the flood. Noah’s faith condemned the rest of the world by bearing witness to God’s reality and his desire for holiness.
