In faith renders a different wording from “By faith” in the Revised Standard Version of verses 8, 11, and earlier. It would be a mistake to translate It was in faith in the same way as similar expressions in verses 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8. Verse 13 does not involve a causal relation, and one would not want to say “Because they trusted God, all these persons died.” A more satisfactory rendering would be “All of these persons trusted God until the time they died” or “All these persons who trusted God died.” All these persons means the people mentioned by name earlier in this chapter, not the numberless descendants mentioned in the previous verse. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch specifies “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
In meaning, though not in grammar, They did not receive is more closely linked with in faith than with died. There is a double contrast between (a) in faith, (b) not having received, and (c) they saw and welcomed; both (a) and (c) are contrasted with (b). In order to indicate the relationship between the trust in God and the people not having received the things that God had promised, it is possible to render the first part of the verse as “All these people who trusted God died without having received the things that God promised.”
Good News Translation‘s They did not receive the things God had promised (similarly Revised Standard Version) is clearer than King James Version‘s “not having received the promises,” since Abraham and the others did receive a promise but not its fulfillment. The meaning is similar to receive what God has promised in 6.12, though the Greek is different. In the same way, what the patriarchs saw from a long way off was not the promises themselves, which are in any case invisible, but what God had promised. The picture language is drawn from the story of Moses looking at the Promised Land from a long way off (see Deut 34.1-4). “From a long way off,” in the Greek as in Good News Translation, refers to distance in space, not time, and really refers to such texts as Deuteronomy 32.49, 52 and 34.4. The idea of “greeting” inanimate objects is strange (see Revised Standard Version “greeted it from afar”). The writer means that the patriarchs looked forward with joy and confidence to receiving what God had promised; Phillips says “hailed them as true,” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “rejoiced about it.”
From a long way off they saw them may have to be modified so as to emphasize the temporal aspect and to indicate that saw is used in a figurative sense; for example, “long before what God promised took place, they, as it were, saw it” or “… saw what would happen.” The expression and welcomed them may be rendered as “and were very happy.”
Admitted openly translates a word which can be used to speak of “confession,” either of faith or of sin. Here admitted openly suggests something of which people might be expected to be ashamed. As Genesis 23.4 and 47.9 show, people living outside their own country were often despised. Admitted openly may be rendered as “freely told people” or “did not hesitate to say to people.”
The Greek word for foreigners is harsher than the word used in the Septuagint translation of Genesis 23.4, which means “strangers.” Refugees is a little stronger than the Greek, which does not suggest people who have escaped from trouble in their own country, but simply “resident aliens” (see comment on verse 38).
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .