Hebrews 11:35-38

Hebrews 11:35-38. What faith has done we have seen; what it helps men to suffer is now told us. Women received (back) their dead raised to life again (literally, by a resurrection, which is regarded as the cause or origin of their so receiving them), true of the widow of Sarepta and of the Shunamite.

And others were tortured (broken upon the wheel). The word here used (a wheel or drum-head on which the victim was stretched and beaten to death) shows that the reference is to Eleazar (2Ma 6:18-31), and the heroic mother and her seven sons mentioned in chap. 7. Fuller details of the same martyrdom are given in the so-called Fourth Book of Maccabees, sometimes, though erroneously, ascribed to Josephus.

Not accepting (rejecting would be more exact) the deliverance which was offered them at the price of their principles (so the original means), in order that they might obtain a better resurrection than the mere return to the present life. ‘The king of the world shall raise us up,' they said, ‘unto everlasting life' (2Ma 7:9, etc.).