Hebrews 11:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

It is known, he says, that God made being from nonbeing, the visible from the invisible, the existing from the nonexistent. But how is it known that He did this "by the word"? Reason suggests nothing of the sort. On the contrary, it says that what is visible comes from what is visible. Philosophers especially assert that nothing comes from nothing, since they are natural men and concede nothing to faith. Yet they expose themselves when, speaking of something great and exalted, they leave it to faith. For example, they say that God is without beginning and unborn, though reason does not suggest this either, but the contrary. And look at their great folly. They say that God is without beginning, yet this is far more wondrous than the origin of being from nonbeing.

"By faith we understand that the ages were framed by the word of God, so that what is seen came from what is not visible." Since faith is reviled by those who do not understand its power. And who say that it is an unproved matter and plainly a deception, he shows that the greatest things are accomplished by faith, not by reasonings. For what proof do we have that God created by His word the things that exist from the things that do not exist? None at all, but faith alone. Thus "by faith we understand that the ages were framed by the word of God," that is, that the ages were completed by the word of God. Why by faith? Because what is visible came from what is invisible, and this requires faith.

If none of the creatures has pre-eternal being, and if by the divine Word, that is, by God the Word and Son, even the ages themselves, as we believe, were framed, then it is necessary to confess that He exists before the ages. For, abiding in being and existing, on kai hyparchon, before them, He brings into being the ages that once did not exist. How, then, will the Creator be among created things? Again, how will the Maker of times be among those subject to time, He Who bears the eternal being proper to God the Father alone?

Thus the Apostle began to speak not only about that faith which flourished successively among the former fathers and was rejected by the Hebrews. He also spoke about the faith which has existed from the beginning of the world until the present, and has reached the Hebrews themselves. Why, he says, do you depart from this faith? Without it, as you know, even the world would never have existed. It was not created before your eyes. Rather, by faith in the words of Moses, or by the tradition of those before Moses, you understand that God created the world by His word. Thus all this visible world came from that invisible one. That is, it was either created from nothing, or all this visible world was made by the invisible God.

For the bodily eye did not see how God, the Creator of all, fashioned the universe. But faith has taught us that the ever-existing God created what did not exist. There is no example of this among men. Yet, though nature teaches us nothing similar, we have faith as our teacher in what is extraordinary. Men build from what already exists, but the God of all brought what exists from nonexistence.

"By faith we understand that the ages were framed by the word of God." Since the souls of these faithful Hebrews, to whom the Apostle writes his epistle, had grown weak under the weight of temptations and sufferings, and could thereby lose faith, the Apostle persuades them not to turn away from faith in the promises. He uses the same method he had already adopted. First he gives a simple conception of faith: "Faith," he says, "is the assurance of things hoped for." Then he gives the example of the most ancient men of the Old Testament, who pleased God by faith.

Nothing comes to be by itself. Every city is built not by itself, but by another. Every house is constructed not by itself, but by another. Every letter is written not by itself, but by another. Every book is composed not by itself, but by another. In a word, every thing is made not by itself, but by another. So too this world was not made by itself, but was created by its Creator. "He spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created" (Ps 148:5). This Creator is our God, believed, confessed, and worshiped in one nature but in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The world was not created by the Creator as men create. Men make one thing from another, that is, they make a work from some matter, and even this with labor.

"By faith we understand that the ages were framed." Faith makes comprehensible for us what is said about the creation of the world by the word of God. The Apostle first led his readers to faith, and then depicts the feats of faith in others. Since the history of creation precedes the history of the patriarchs, the Apostle begins with it.

What does the creation of the world contain that is incomprehensible to reason, and what in it is comprehensible only to faith? It is precisely this: the world came from nothing, and not by some fatal necessity, but by the free will, or word, of God. Therefore it also began to exist from a definite moment in time. Reason is more inclined to admit the eternity of matter, and to think that from its own properties and laws it developed all the variety of visible being through an endless series of ages. Why does the Apostle call the creation or completion of the world the completion of the ages? He does so to express the thought that the world is not eternal. He also shows that time itself, and the very reckoning of ages, began precisely when visible created being appeared. We understand all this only by faith.

In order to confirm the truth of his last words, the Apostle next reminds his readers of historical facts. From them one can clearly conclude what high praise those who had such faith received from God. The Apostle begins listing these facts with the creation of the world. In doing so, he should have begun with Adam and Eve. But he did not wish to set before his readers as examples of faith the authors of our fall. Therefore, in their place he sets all their descendants, the Christians. This was convenient because there is one point concerning which our faith is the same as the faith of our first parents. This point is the creation of the world.