Hebrews 11:33-37

11:33 Through faith they conquered kingdoms, administered justice, ¹  gained what was promised, ²  shut the mouths of lions, 11:34 quenched raging fire, ³  escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, ⁴  became mighty in battle, put foreign armies to flight, 11:35 and women received back their dead raised to life. ⁵  But others were tortured, not accepting release, to obtain resurrection to a better life. ⁶  11:36 And others experienced mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 11:37 They were stoned, sawed apart, ⁷  murdered with the sword; they went about in sheepskins and goatskins; they were destitute, afflicted, ill-treated

---

¹ tn This probably refers to the righteous rule of David and others. But it could be more general and mean “did what was righteous.”

² tn Grk “obtained promises,” referring to the things God promised, not to the pledges themselves.

sn Gained what was promised. They saw some of God’s promises fulfilled, even though the central promise remained unfulfilled until Christ came (cf. vv. 39-40).

³ tn Grk “quenched the power of fire.”

⁴ tn Or “recovered from sickness.”

⁵ tn Grk “received back their dead from resurrection.”

⁶ tn Grk “to obtain a better resurrection.”

⁷ tc The reading ἐπρίσθησαν (ejprisqhsan, “they were sawed apart”) is found in some important witnesses (Ì⁴⁶ [D* twice reads ἐπίρσθησαν, “they were burned”?] pc sy^p sa Or^pt Eus). Other mss have ἐπειράσθησαν (ejpeirasqhsan, “they were tempted”), either before “sawed apart” ([א] L P [048] 33 81 326 1505 pc sy^h), after “sawed apart” (Ì^13vid A D¹ Ψ 1739 1881 Ï lat bo Or^pt), or altogether in place of “sawed apart” (0150 vg^mss Cl). Since the two words ἐπρίσθησαν and ἐπειράσθησαν are so much alike in sight and sound, and since the position of “they were tempted” varies in the mss, it seems best to say that ἐπειράσθησαν is an accidental corruption of ἐπρίσθησαν or an intentional change to a more common word (the root of ἐπρίσθησαν [πρίζω, prizw] occurs only here in the NT, while the root of ἐπειράσθησαν [πειράζω, peirazw] occurs 38 times). The best reading here seems to be “sawed apart” without any addition before or after. (See TCGNT 603-4, for a discussion of emendations that scholars have proposed for this difficult problem.)