Hebrews 11:18-20
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac descendants shall bear your name.”(A) 19 [a]He reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead,(B) and he received Isaac back as a symbol. 20 By faith regarding things still to come Isaac[b] blessed Jacob and Esau.(C)
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- 11:19 As a symbol: Isaac’s “return from death” is seen as a symbol of Christ’s resurrection. Others understand the words en parabolē to mean “in figure,” i.e., the word dead is used figuratively of Isaac, since he did not really die. But in the one other place that parabolē occurs in Hebrews, it means symbol (Hb 9:9).
- 11:20–22 Each of these three patriarchs, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, had faith in the future fulfillment of God’s promise and renewed this faith when near death.
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