Hebrews 11:8-19
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go.(A) 9 By faith he sojourned in the promised land as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise;(B) 10 for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and maker is God.(C) 11 By faith he received power to generate, even though he was past the normal age—and Sarah herself was sterile—for he thought that the one who had made the promise was trustworthy.(D) 12 So it was that there came forth from one man, himself as good as dead, descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sands on the seashore.(E)
13 All these died in faith. They did not receive what had been promised but saw it and greeted it from afar and acknowledged themselves to be strangers and aliens on earth,(F) 14 for those who speak thus show that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of the land from which they had come, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better homeland, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.(G)
17 By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer his only son,(H) 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac descendants shall bear your name.”(I) 19 [a]He reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead,(J) and he received Isaac back as a symbol.
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- 11:19 As a symbol: Isaac’s “return from death” is seen as a symbol of Christ’s resurrection. Others understand the words en parabolē to mean “in figure,” i.e., the word dead is used figuratively of Isaac, since he did not really die. But in the one other place that parabolē occurs in Hebrews, it means symbol (Hb 9:9).
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