Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Hebrews 11:3
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, etc..] The celestial world, with its inhabitants, the angels; the starry and ethereal worlds, with all that is in them, the sun, moon, stars, and fowls of the air; the terrestrial world, with all upon it, men, beasts, etc.. and the watery world, the sea, and all that is therein: perhaps some respect may be had to the distinction of worlds among the Jews; (see Gill on “<580102>Hebrews 1:2”), though the apostle can scarce be thought to have any regard to their extravagant notions of vast numbers of worlds being created: they often speak of three hundred and ten worlds, in all which, they say, there are heavens, earth, stars, planets, etc.. f222; and sometimes of eighteen thousand f223; but these notions are rightly charged by Philo f224 with ignorance and folly. However, as many worlds as there are, they are made “by the Word of God”; by Christ, the essential Word of God, to whom the creation of all things is ascribed in (<430101>John 1:1-3). And this agrees with the sentiments of the Jews, who ascribe the creation of all things to the Word of God, as do the Targumists f225, and Philo the Jew f226. And these are “framed” by the Word, in a very beautiful and convenient order; the heavens before the earth; things less perfect, before those that were more so in the visible world, or terraqueous globe; and things for men, before men, for whom they were; and it is by divine revelation and faith that men form right notions of the creation, and of the author of it, and particularly of the origin of it, as follows: so that things which are seen: as the heaven, earth, and sea, and in which the invisible things of God, the perfections of his nature, are discerned: were not made of things which do appear; they were not made from preexistent matter, but out of nothing, out of which the rude and undigested chaos was formed; and from that invisible mass, covered with darkness, were all visible things brought into a beautiful order; and all from secret and hidden ideas in the divine minds; and this also is the faith of the Jews, that the creation of all things is ˆyam, “out of nothing” f227. There seems to be an allusion to the word arb, used for creation, which signifies to make appear a thing unseen; and is rendered in the Septuagint version by deiknumi, (<041630>Numbers 16:30) and katadeiknumi, (<234026>Isaiah 40:26 41:20) to show, or make appear; and thus God created, or made to appear, the heavens and earth, which before were not in being, and unseen, (<010101>Genesis 1:1,2) and created to make, as in (<010203>Genesis 2:3) that is, made them to appear, that he might put them into the form and order they now are.
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