Revised Standard Version‘s “Now” has nothing to do with time; it indicates a new step in the argument. On the keyword faith, see comments on 4.2. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, alone among the common language translations, usually avoids the noun for faith, because the translators did not feel that it belonged to common language. Faith may also suggest a body of teaching rather than a relationship with God; this would be quite unsuitable for a chapter full of examples of faith expressed in action. To have faith or “to trust God” shows that “faith” is an event, not an object. For example, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch begins the verses which are to follow with “Because we trust God” (verse 3), “Because Abel trusted God” (verse 4), “Because Moses’ parents trusted God” (verse 23), and “Because the Israelites trusted God” (verses 29-30). In several places the subject of the verb “trusted” is implicit. However, nowhere in this chapter is there any doubt that God is the one who is “trusted.” See Appendix C: “The Translation of ‘Faith.’ ”
To be sure: the Greek word which Revised Standard Version translates “assurance” has been understood in three ways:
(a) From early times, some translators and commentators have thought it had the meaning “substance” or “underlying reality” which it has in 1.3 (God’s own being). This interpretation is chosen by King James Version “substance”; Knox and New English Bible say “gives substance to our hopes.”
(b) Most translations understand the word as “assurance” or “conviction”: Revised Standard Version and New English Bible footnote “assurance,” Phillips “full confidence,” New American Bible “confident assurance”; or verbal expressions like to be sure, Moffatt “we are confident.”
(c) Some French translations have “guarantee,” perhaps because “the word was often used in legal documents of the time for the title-deeds of a piece of property” (Translator’s New Testament note): Segond, Bible de Jérusalem, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “faith is a way of already possessing what one hopes for,” Jerusalem Bible “Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for.”
A suggested translation would be “Those who trust God are sure that he will give them what they hope for; they are certain that things they do not yet see are real.” Like Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version, this translation generally follows (b). “God” and “that he will give them” are implied. There is no “and” before “certain,” since the meaning of the second half of the sentence largely overlaps with that of the first, expressing the same thought in terms of space rather than time. “And” before “certain” would suggest that the writer intends to make a new statement in the second half of the verse.
The word which Revised Standard Version translates “conviction” (to be certain) is not used anywhere else in the New Testament. It probably refers to objective “proof” rather than to subjective “conviction,” but the writer may have intended both these aspects. In any case, “proof” in chapter 11 as a whole is not logical demonstration but evidence used for convincing people of the truth.
The word translated things is even more general in meaning in Greek, since it can cover both events and objects; “certain of what we cannot see.”
It is not always possible to employ an infinitive phrase such as To have faith as the subject of a sentence in which the predicate, to be sure of the things we hope for, equals the subject. In many languages there is no way in which one can employ such verbal expressions as subject and predicate of an equational sentence, that is, one which states that the predicate equals the subject. In reality, To have faith indicates a condition, and therefore the closest equivalent of the Good News Translation construction would be a conditional clause; for example, “If we have faith.” Such a condition can be easily combined with the rest of verse 1: “If we have faith, we can be sure of what we hope for, and we can be completely certain of what we cannot see.” In place of “If we have faith,” one may employ “If we trust God.”
If one wishes to emphasize the certainty suggested in the second part of this verse, it is possible to translate “we can be absolutely certain,” or express negatively “there is no reason at all for us to doubt.”
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 .