Faith is not blind optimism—it's confident trust in God's unseen promises. This chapter defines faith as the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen, then parades before us a gallery of Old Testament heroes who lived by that faith. From Abel's acceptable sacrifice to Abraham's obedient journey to Moses' defiant stand against Pharaoh, each witness demonstrates that faith pleases God and sustains His people through trials. Their examples call us to run our own race with endurance, fixing our eyes on the ultimate reward.
Verse 1 is one of the most-quoted lines in the New Testament, and its precise grammatical shape matters. ἔστιν δὲ πίστις … ('now faith is …') is not a strict definition but a functional description—the author is not telling us what faith is abstractly but what faith does. The two predicate nouns ὑπόστασις and ἔλεγχος each take a genitive object: ἐλπιζομένων ('of things hoped for') and οὐ βλεπομένων πραγμάτων ('of unseen realities'). The chiastic word order in Greek is striking: noun-1 (ἐλπιζομένων) · noun-2 (ὑπόστασις) · noun-3 (πραγμάτων … οὐ βλεπομένων) · noun-4 (ἔλεγχος). This puts the hoped-for and unseen objects of faith in the outer positions, with the activity of faith (substance, conviction) at the center, framed by what it grasps.
The two key nouns are notoriously hard to translate because both have a subjective sense (assurance, conviction) and an objective sense (substance, proof). ὑπόστασις, used twice elsewhere in Hebrews (1:3 of Christ as the 'exact representation of His [the Father's] ὑπόστασις,' i.e., essential nature; 3:14 of holding fast 'the beginning of our ὑπόστασις'), can mean either the underlying reality of something or one's confident standing. The papyri attest the technical legal sense: a ὑπόστασις could be a property deed, the document that gave title to land. If that papyrological background is in view, faith functions as the deed that gives present possession of future inheritance—not belief that the inheritance exists, but holding the title to it. Similarly, ἔλεγχος (a NT hapax) has both subjective and objective force: subjectively, an inner conviction; objectively, the proof or evidence that produces conviction. Faith is both the conviction-of-the-believer and the evidence-by-which-she-is-convinced. LSB's 'assurance … conviction' captures the subjective force; older versions ('substance … evidence') captured the objective. Both are defensible, and the author probably intends both.
The genitive ἐλπιζομένων is no accident; it ties this opening definition back to the chapter immediately preceding (10:23, 'let us hold fast the confession of our hope') and to the τετελειωμένον who is 'the founder and perfecter of our faith' (12:2). Hope and faith are not interchangeable in Hebrews: hope reaches out toward unrealized future blessings, faith makes them present in the believer. Verse 2 then issues the keynote that will recur as a refrain throughout the chapter: ἐν ταύτῃ … ἐμαρτυρήθησαν οἱ πρεσβύτεροι ('by this the elders received their witness'). The dative ἐν ταύτῃ refers to πίστις—it was by faith, and only by faith, that the OT saints obtained their witness. The aorist passive ἐμαρτυρήθησαν is divine passive: God Himself bore witness to them. The verb will reappear in vv. 4, 5, 39 as the chapter's structuring refrain.
Verse 3 makes the boldest move of the tab. It claims that faith is required not merely for ethical obedience or eschatological hope but for cosmology: πίστει νοοῦμεν κατηρτίσθαι τοὺς αἰῶνας ῥήματι θεοῦ ('by faith we understand that the ages were created by the word of God'). The verb νοοῦμεν ('we understand, we apprehend with the mind') is significant—it is not blind belief but mental comprehension. Faith is a way of knowing. The perfect passive infinitive κατηρτίσθαι ('to have been prepared, to stand prepared') means more than 'created'; it suggests fitting-together-into-a-completed-whole. The plural τοὺς αἰῶνας ('the ages') was already used in 1:2 ('through whom He made the αἰῶνας') and probably encompasses both temporal and spatial dimensions—the whole created order, including its temporal succession. The instrument is ῥήματι θεοῦ ('by God's word'), echoing Genesis 1's repeated 'and God said.' The closing infinitive clause εἰς τὸ μὴ ἐκ φαινομένων τὸ βλεπόμενον γεγονέναι ('so that what is seen has not come into being out of what is visible') states the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo in negative form: the visible cosmos was not made out of visible material. The position of μή with the infinitive is grammatically striking; some commentators argue for a result clause ('with the result that …'), others for an explicative clause ('namely, that …'). Either way, the assertion is the same: visible reality has its origin in the invisible word of God, and this is itself a faith-claim, apprehended by νοοῦμεν.
Faith is not the leap one takes when evidence runs out; faith is the kind of evidence that perceives what sense-perception cannot reach. The cosmos itself, hanging on God's bare word, is the first object faith must apprehend—and once it has, every other invisible promise becomes credible by the same logic.
The anaphoric structure continues with relentless force: Πίστει (Pistei, 'By faith') opens verses 4, 5, and 7, hammering home the singular principle that governed these antediluvian saints. Each example builds on the previous, moving from individual sacrifice (Abel) to individual translation (Enoch) to household salvation (Noah). The author is not merely cataloging examples but constructing an argument: faith operated powerfully in the earliest generations of humanity, before law, before covenant ceremony, before temple—establishing it as the primordial mode of relationship with God. The comparative πλείονα (pleiona, 'better') in verse 4 sets the tone: faith discerns qualitative distinctions that mere religious activity misses.
Verse 6 interrupts the narrative flow with a categorical theological assertion, functioning as the hermeneutical key to the entire chapter. The structure is emphatic: χωρὶς δὲ πίστεως ἀδύνατον εὐαρεστῆσαι ('without faith impossible to please'). The author places 'without faith' first for emphasis, and the adjective ἀδύνατον ('impossible') admits no exceptions or qualifications. The explanatory γάρ ('for') introduces the twin requirements: belief that God exists (ὅτι ἔστιν) and that He rewards seekers (μισθαποδότης γίνεται). This is not bare theism but relational confidence—faith that God is both real and responsive. The present tense of γίνεται ('becomes, proves to be') suggests ongoing, reliable character rather than arbitrary action.
The Noah example in verse 7 displays remarkable compression, packing salvation history into a single sentence. The aorist passive participle χρηματισθείς ('having been warned') establishes divine initiative; the aorist participle εὐλαβηθείς ('having shown reverence') describes Noah's response; the aorist κατεσκεύασεν ('he prepared') records his obedient action. The purpose clause εἰς σωτηρίαν τοῦ οἴκου αὐτοῦ ('for the salvation of his household') reveals faith's protective power, while the relative clause δι' ἧς κατέκρινεν τὸν κόσμον ('through which he condemned the world') exposes its judicial function. Noah's obedience was simultaneously salvific and condemnatory—the same ark that saved eight souls pronounced judgment on the unbelieving world. The final clause identifies Noah as κληρονόμος ('heir') of righteousness κατὰ πίστιν ('according to faith'), linking him forward to Abraham and ultimately to Christ, the ultimate heir.
The martyrological theme emerges powerfully in verse 4: ἀποθανὼν ἔτι λαλεῖ ('though dead, he still speaks'). The present tense λαλεῖ is striking—Abel's testimony is not past but ongoing. His blood cried out in Genesis 4:10, and here his faith continues to testify. The author will return to Abel in 12:24, contrasting his blood with Christ's superior speaking. The chain of witness (μαρτυρέω) creates a permanent record: God testified to Abel's gifts, Abel obtained testimony of righteousness, and through faith he still testifies. This establishes a pattern the author will develop: faith creates enduring testimony that transcends death, anticipating the 'great cloud of witnesses' in 12:1.
Faith is not religious intuition but response to divine revelation about unseen realities—and such response always divides, saving some while condemning others by the very contrast of obedience.
The patriarchal section opens with a striking participial construction: καλούμενος Ἀβραὰμ ὑπήκουσεν ἐξελθεῖν ('Abraham, being called, obeyed by going out'). The present passive participle καλούμενος emphasizes the divine summons as the originating reality—Abraham did not seek God; God summoned Abraham. The aorist ὑπήκουσεν ('he obeyed') is then qualified by the devastating phrase μὴ ἐπιστάμενος ποῦ ἔρχεται ('not knowing where he is going'). The negated present middle participle ἐπιστάμενος denotes ongoing comprehension, and the indirect question ποῦ ἔρχεται uses the present indicative for vivid effect: even at the moment of departure, the destination remains opaque. Faith, in the author's grammar, is willingness to step into syntactic incompleteness—to obey a clause whose object remains hidden.
Verses 9-10 develop the spatial paradox of patriarchal life. The aorist παρῴκησεν ('he sojourned') and the participle κατοικήσας ('having dwelt') stand in deliberate tension: Abraham permanently inhabited what he only temporarily possessed. The phrase ἐν σκηναῖς ('in tents') is theologically loaded—tents are emblems of impermanence, and the author exploits this to reveal Abraham's eschatological horizon. The explanatory γάρ in verse 10 unveils the secret: Abraham was ἐξεδέχετο (imperfect, 'he kept waiting expectantly') for τὴν τοὺς θεμελίους ἔχουσαν πόλιν—'the city having the foundations.' The articular construction emphasizes definiteness: not just any city but the city, with foundations as opposed to tent-pegs. The double designation τεχνίτης καὶ δημιουργὸς ὁ θεός ('whose architect and builder is God') borrows Greco-Roman cosmological vocabulary—τεχνίτης for the artisan-designer and δημιουργός for the executing craftsman—to assert that the heavenly city is no Platonic abstraction but a divinely planned and divinely constructed reality.
Sarah's faith in verse 11 has provoked extensive textual and grammatical debate. Read straightforwardly, καὶ αὐτὴ Σάρρα δύναμιν εἰς καταβολὴν σπέρματος ἔλαβεν means 'even Sarah herself received power for the depositing of seed'—an idiom problematic if applied to a woman, since καταβολὴ σπέρματος normally describes the male role in conception. Some emend the subject to Abraham; the LSB rendering 'Sarah herself received power to conceive' captures the most natural reading and follows the consistent pre-modern interpretation. The causal clause ἐπεὶ πιστὸν ἡγήσατο τὸν ἐπαγγειλάμενον ('since she considered Him faithful who had promised') is the engine of the verse: Sarah's reasoning, not her physiology, became the conduit of divine power. The aorist participle ἐπαγγειλάμενον ('the one who promised') substantivizes God by his promise-making activity—he is, definitionally, the Promiser. Verse 12's νενεκρωμένου (perfect passive participle, 'as good as dead') emphasizes the antithesis: descendants τῷ πλήθει 'as the stars of heaven' from a body already in the perfect-tense state of being deadened. The author dramatizes resurrection power before Abraham's resurrection-faith of v. 19 is even named.
Verses 13-16 form the chapter's most explicit hermeneutical key. Κατὰ πίστιν ἀπέθανον οὗτοι πάντες ('according to faith all these died') reveals that faith governs even the manner of dying. The participial chain—μὴ λαβόντες ('not receiving'), ἰδόντες ('seeing'), ἀσπασάμενοι ('greeting'), ὁμολογήσαντες ('confessing')—paints a portrait of saints who saw promises only at a distance, like sailors who hail a far-off harbor with their voices before any oar can reach it. Their self-confession ξένοι καὶ παρεπίδημοι ('strangers and exiles') is paired with the narrator's gloss πατρίδα ἐπιζητοῦσιν ('they are seeking a homeland'). The conditional εἰ μὲν ἐκείνης ἐμνημόνευον... εἶχον ἂν καιρὸν ἀνακάμψαι ('if they had been remembering that one... they would have had opportunity to return') is a contrary-to-fact construction: their forward-leaning faith deliberately closed the door to retreat. The climactic νῦν δὲ κρείττονος ὀρέγονται ('but now they desire a better one') uses the present tense as if these saints, now beyond death, still actively long. The result clause οὐκ ἐπαισχύνεται... θεὸς ἐπικαλεῖσθαι αὐτῶν ('God is not ashamed to be called their God') alludes to Exodus 3:6 and seals the argument: the God who declares himself 'the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob' commits himself to a city he will deliver. The Akedah of v. 17 then completes the argument: Abraham's λογισάμενος ὅτι... ἐκ νεκρῶν ἐγείρειν δυνατὸς ὁ θεός ('reckoning that God is able to raise from the dead') makes him the first explicit resurrection-believer in Scripture. The phrase ἐν παραβολῇ ἐκομίσατο ('he received him back as a type') closes the loop: Isaac's near-death and return became a parable enacted in flesh, prefiguring the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection hope shared by all who descend from Abraham's faith.
The patriarchs lived in tents because they had glimpsed a city—and the dignity of their wandering lay precisely in their refusal to settle for less than what they had seen from afar.
The anaphoric repetition of Πίστει ('By faith') continues its drumbeat through this section, now focusing on Moses and the exodus generation. Verses 23-28 concentrate on Moses in five distinct faith-acts, creating a biographical arc from infancy to the Passover. The first act (v. 23) attributes faith to Moses' parents, not Moses himself—a reminder that faith often works through communities and families. The causal clause introduced by διότι ('because') explains their motivation: they 'saw' something in the child that emboldened them to civil disobedience. The verb εἶδον is not mere physical sight but perception of significance, echoed in the term ἀστεῖον ('beautiful'), which carries overtones of divine favor.
Verses 24-26 form the theological heart of the Moses narrative, presenting his great refusal and choice. The author structures these verses as a series of participles dependent on the main verb ἠρνήσατο ('he refused'): 'having become great, he refused... choosing rather... considering.' This participial cascade reveals the logic of faith: Moses weighed options and made a calculated decision. The comparative μᾶλλον ('rather') and the contrastive ἤ ('than') set up stark alternatives—co-suffering with God's people versus temporary enjoyment of sin. The phrase 'the reproach of Christ' (v. 26) is exegetically stunning: how could Moses in 1400 BC bear Messiah's reproach? The author sees redemptive history as unified; Moses' identification with despised Israel anticipated Christ's identification with sinful humanity. The explanatory γάρ ('for') in verse 26b grounds Moses' choice in eschatology: 'he was looking away toward the reward.' The imperfect ἀπέβλεπεν suggests continuous, habitual orientation toward future recompense.
Verses 27-28 narrate Moses' departure from Egypt and institution of the Passover, both framed as faith-acts. The phrase 'not fearing the wrath of the king' (v. 27) poses an interpretive challenge, since Exodus 2:14-15 says Moses fled 'because he was afraid.' The solution likely lies in distinguishing Moses' initial flight (Exodus 2) from his later departure at the exodus (Exodus 12-13). The latter fits better: Moses confronted Pharaoh repeatedly, undeterred by royal fury, because 'he endured as seeing the unseen one.' The paradox τὸν ἀόρατον ὡς ὁρῶν ('the invisible one as seeing') is the epistemology of faith—faith functions as a kind of perception that makes the invisible functionally visible. Verse 28 shifts to the Passover, using the perfect πεποίηκεν ('he has kept/instituted') to emphasize the enduring significance of that night. The purpose clause ἵνα μὴ... θίγῃ ('so that... would not touch') underscores that Moses trusted God's word: blood on the doorposts would avert judgment.
Verses 29-31 broaden the lens from Moses to the community and conclude with Rahab. The shift to plural 'they passed through' (v. 29) includes the entire exodus generation in the faith-narrative, though the author will later critique their unbelief (3:7-19). The contrast between Israel's safe passage and Egypt's destruction is stark: the same sea was salvation for one, judgment for the other. Verse 30 leaps forward to the conquest, compressing forty years into silence to focus on Jericho's fall—a victory won not by military might but by liturgical obedience (circling the city for seven days). The passive ἔπεσαν ('fell') implies divine agency; God toppled the walls. Verse 31 concludes with Rahab, whose inclusion is theologically rich: a Gentile prostitute in a catalog dominated by Israelite patriarchs. The participial phrase δεξαμένη τοὺς κατασκόπους μετ' εἰρήνης ('having welcomed the spies in peace') summarizes her faith-act. She aligned herself with Israel's God against her own people, a decision that saved her life and grafted her into the messianic line.
Faith sees what eyes cannot and chooses what reason scorns—Moses traded a throne for a wilderness, treasures for reproach, because he saw the invisible King and trusted His future reward more than Egypt's present glory.
The author breaks his anaphoric pattern with a rhetorical question: Καὶ τί ἔτι λέγω; ('And what more shall I say?'). The deliberative subjunctive question is a praeteritio—a rhetorical device of pretending to pass over what one then proceeds to mention. The future tense ἐπιλείψει ('time will fail') with its accusative subject construction (με... διηγούμενον ὁ χρόνος—'time will fail me, recounting') casts the catalog as a contest with the clock. The roll call that follows is grammatically jumbled on purpose: Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah are listed in non-chronological Judges order; David and Samuel are paired (David before Samuel, again non-chronological), and 'the prophets' close out the list. The author is not building a historical sequence but invoking a chorus.
Verses 33-34 contain nine aorist verbs strung in asyndeton (without connectives), creating a relentless cascade: κατηγωνίσαντο, εἰργάσαντο, ἐπέτυχον, ἔφραξαν, ἔσβεσαν, ἔφυγον, ἐδυναμώθησαν, ἐγενήθησαν, ἔκλιναν. The omission of conjunctions intensifies the rhetorical effect; the catalog rushes past, suggesting that faith's victories outpace the syntax that would describe them. The verbs trace a triadic structure: the first triad describes faith's positive achievements (conquering kingdoms, performing righteousness, obtaining promises), the second triad faith's preservations from disaster (lions' mouths, fire, sword), and the third triad faith's strength out of weakness (made strong, mighty in war, routing armies). The phrase ἀπὸ ἀσθενείας ('from weakness') is the hinge—divine power flows precisely through human inadequacy, a theme central to Pauline theology (2 Cor 12:9-10).
Verse 35 marks the chapter's structural turning point with the contrastive ἄλλοι δέ ('but others'). Up to this point faith has triumphed visibly; now it triumphs invisibly. Women receiving back their dead by ἀνάστασις (alluding to 1 Kings 17 and 2 Kings 4) is set against martyrs ἐτυμπανίσθησαν ('were tortured to death')—the verb evokes 2 Maccabees 6-7 and intertestamental martyrologies. The crucial phrase οὐ προσδεξάμενοι τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν ('not accepting their release') reveals faith's most paradoxical exercise: refusing rescue. The purpose clause ἵνα κρείττονος ἀναστάσεως τύχωσιν ('so that they might obtain a better resurrection') uses the same comparative κρείττων that has run through Hebrews like a refrain (1:4; 7:7, 19, 22; 8:6; 9:23; 10:34)—better than Sinai, better than Aaron, better than the blood of bulls and goats, and now better than the temporal resurrection of a son to his mother. The martyrs gambled present life on a future resurrection of a different order.
Verses 36-38 catalog suffering with similarly stark asyndeton: ἐλιθάσθησαν, ἐπρίσθησαν, ἐπειράσθησαν, ... ἀπέθανον. The traditional Jewish memory that Isaiah was 'sawn in two' under Manasseh (Martyrdom of Isaiah, b. Yebamot 49b) likely lies behind ἐπρίσθησαν. The variant ἐπειράσθησαν ('were tempted'), poorly fitting the catalog of physical violence, has provoked centuries of conjectural emendation (ἐπρήσθησαν, 'were burned'; ἐπειρώθησαν, 'were impaled'); the textual difficulty is well attested but not solved, and the LSB rightly retains 'they were tempted' from the majority text. The parenthetical ὧν οὐκ ἦν ἄξιος ὁ κόσμος ('of whom the world was not worthy') is the author's most devastating reversal: the world that exiles the saints is itself the one judged unworthy of them. The participles ὑστερούμενοι, θλιβόμενοι, κακουχούμενοι are present passive—the suffering is ongoing, characterizing not isolated incidents but a sustained mode of life.
The chapter's climax in vv. 39-40 turns on a triple contrast. μαρτυρηθέντες ('having been testified to') affirms divine commendation, but οὐκ ἐκομίσαντο τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν ('they did not receive the promise') withholds the promised τέλος. The genitive absolute τοῦ θεοῦ περὶ ἡμῶν κρεῖττόν τι προβλεψαμένου ('God having foreseen something better for us') makes God's foreknowledge causative: he deliberately delayed their consummation. The negative purpose clause ἵνα μὴ χωρὶς ἡμῶν τελειωθῶσιν ('so that apart from us they should not be perfected') is one of the most theologically loaded sentences in Hebrews. The aorist passive subjunctive τελειωθῶσιν picks up the τελειόω theme that has run throughout the letter: only Christ's once-for-all sacrifice perfects the worshipper, and the OT saints await the new covenant church to share that perfection together. The cloud of witnesses in 12:1 is no mere admiring audience but the great body of believers who, like us, await the unified consummation only the new-covenant Lamb can grant. Salvation history is one symphony, not two.
Faith's deepest exercise is not when it conquers kingdoms but when it refuses release for a better resurrection—and the clearest witness to a God-prepared city is the saint who would rather be sawn in two than walk back to the country he left.
Hebrews 11 is itself a sustained exposition of the Old Testament, condensing the entire Tanak into a single rhetorical sweep. The Abraham material (vv. 8-19) draws on Genesis 12:1 (לֶךְ−לְךָ…אֶל−הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ — 'go for yourself…to the land that I will show you'), Genesis 15:5 (the stars promise), and Genesis 22 (the Akedah). The phrase 'as good as dead' (νενεκρωμένου, v. 12) recalls Romans 4:19 and the same Abrahamic narrative. The reference to women receiving back their dead (v. 35) names no one but unmistakably points to the Zarephath widow's son raised by Elijah and the Shunammite's son raised by Elisha (the same κρείττων-comparison theme: those temporal resurrections were good, but the resurrection awaiting these saints is qualitatively better). The lions and fire of v. 33-34 evoke Daniel 6 and Daniel 3 respectively. The torture catalog of vv. 35-37 reaches into intertestamental literature—particularly 2 Maccabees 6:18-7:42, where the seven brothers and their mother famously refuse pork rather than apostatize, with the youngest brother explicitly hoping for resurrection (2 Macc 7:9, 14, 23). The phrase κρείττονος ἀναστάσεως ('better resurrection') almost certainly alludes to this Maccabean martyr theology.
The deepest OT thread, however, runs through the citation buried at v. 18, ‘Ἐν Ἰσαὰκ κληθήσεταί σοι σπέρμα’ ('In Isaac your seed shall be called'), quoting Genesis 21:12 LXX (כִּי בְיִצְחָק יִקָּרֵא לְךָ זָרַע — kī bə-Yiṣḥāq yiqqārēʾ ləkā zāraʿ). The author embeds the citation precisely at the moment Isaac is about to be sacrificed—exposing the contradiction Abraham's faith resolved: God promised the seed would come through Isaac, then commanded Isaac's death. Abraham's resolution (v. 19, λογισάμενος ὅτι… ἐκ νεκρῶν ἐγείρειν δυνατὸς ὁ θεός) is the first explicit resurrection-faith in the canon. The verb ἐκομίσατο ('he received him back') and the phrase ἐν παραβολῇ ('as a type') frame the Akedah as enacted prophecy: the only-begotten son who walks up the mountain bearing the wood of his own death and walks back down again is the parable that prefigures the cross-and-resurrection of the true Only-Begotten.
“Assurance” for ὑπόστασις (v. 1) — LSB takes the subjective sense ('the assurance/confidence of things hoped for') against translations that render it more objectively ('substance,' 'reality,' as KJV). The papyrological evidence supports either reading; LSB's choice harmonizes with Hebrews 3:14, where τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς ὑποστάσεως is rendered 'the beginning of our assurance.'
“Conviction” for ἔλεγχος (v. 1) — the term denotes proof or evidence in legal/forensic contexts; LSB's 'conviction' captures both the cognitive certainty and the courtroom-evidence sense. The pairing with 'assurance' frames faith as both subjective confidence and objective evidence at once.
“As a type” for ἐν παραβολῇ (v. 19) — rather than 'figuratively speaking' (NIV) or 'in a figure' (KJV), LSB's 'as a type' makes explicit the typological reading: Isaac's near-death and return prefigure resurrection. This preserves the technical theological vocabulary of typology that the New Testament authors employ.
“Strangers and exiles” for ξένοι καὶ παρεπίδημοι (v. 13) — LSB chooses 'exiles' over 'pilgrims' (KJV) or 'sojourners' (ESV). 'Exiles' captures the involuntary dimension that παρεπίδημοι implies: not voluntary travelers but those whose true homeland lies elsewhere by divine decree.
“Made perfect” for τελειωθῶσιν (v. 40) — LSB consistently translates the τελειόω family as 'perfect' rather than 'complete' or 'mature.' This preserves the sacrificial-cultic resonance: Christ is the one who 'has perfected for all time those who are sanctified' (10:14), and the OT saints await that same perfecting.
“Of whom the world was not worthy” for ὧν οὐκ ἦν ἄξιος ὁ κόσμος (v. 38) — LSB preserves the genitive case in English ('of whom') rather than smoothing to 'whom' (NIV). The slight archaism honors the rhetorical weight of the parenthetical reversal.