Commentary on Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles John Calvin
John Calvin
4. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
4. Fide Abel praestantiorem hostiam quam Cain obtulit Deo; per quam testimonium abtinuit quod justus esset, testimonium reddente Deo ejus donis: et per ipsam mortuus adhuc loquitur.
2. For by it the elders, 205 etc. He handles this subject to the end of the chapter --- that the fathers obtained salvation and were accepted by God in no other way than by faith.
The Jews indeed had some reasons for paying great deference to the fathers; but a foolish admiration of the fathers had so prevailed among them, that it proved a great hindrance to a thorough surrender of themselves to Christ and to his government. It was occasioned either by ambition or superstition, or by both. For when they heard that they were the blessed and holy seed of Abraham, inflated with this distinction they fixed their eyes on men rather than on God. Then added to this was a false emulation; for they did not consider what was mainly worthy of imitation in their fathers. It thus happened that they became attached to the old ceremonies, as though the whole of religion and perfect holiness consisted in them. This error the Apostle exposes and condemns; and be shows what was the chief excellency of the fathers, in order that their posterity might understand how they might become really like them.
Let us then bear in mind that the main point and the very hinge on which the Apostle's argument turns is this, --- That all the fathers from the beginning of the world, were approved by God in no other way than by being united to him by faith: and this he shows, that the Jews might know that by faith alone they could be bound together in holy unity with the fathers, and that as soon as they renounced faith, they became banished from the Church, and that they were then no longer the legitimate children of Abraham, but a degenerate race and bastards. 206
3. Through, or by, faith we understand, 207 etc. This is a most striking proof
205Macknight and Stuart render the word "ancients" and more suitably in our language. The word "elders" most commonly refers to age, but "ancients" to time: those meant here were such as lived before and under the Law. — Ed.
206The verb rendered in our version "obtained a good report," is rendered by Calvin, "obtained a testimony;" by Beza, "were approved;" by Macknight "were born witness to;" and Stuart, "obtained commendation". It is better to retain the idea of a testimony, as a reference is made either to the written testimony of Scripture, or to some express testimony given by God, as in the case of Abel. As the verb is everywhere used in a good sense, as referring to a good testimony, "the good report" of our version, or "the honorable testimony" of Doddridge, seems to convey the right meaning. — Ed.
207That is "We, by faith in God's word which gives the record, understand, or know how the world was made." This the heathens did not know by the light of reason, and yet they might have known this, as the Apostle declares in Romans 1:20. The reference here, according to this view, is to the fact, to the case as it was, but in the Romans to what ought to have been the case. Why "worlds?" the same word, though in the plural number is rendered "world" in verse 36 and 1 Corinthians 10:11, and so here by Beza and others. The universe, the whole visible creation, is what is meant, as it appears from "seen" in the next clause: and the word {αἰὼν}, in the singular number, says Stuart, is not employed to designate the ``world'' that is the universe. It is said to be used plurally to express the various parts of which the world is composed. But the term ``world'' in our language comprehends the whole: it means the whole visible creation. The verb ``framed,'' is rendered