Hebrews 11:10

For he looked for a city which hath foundations [ε ξ ε δ ε χ ε τ ο γ α ρ τ η ν τ ο υ ς θ ε μ ε λ ι ο υ ς ε ξ ο υ σ α ν π ο λ ι ν]. The sense is impaired in A. V. by the omission of the articles, the city, the foundations. Passing over the immediate subject of God's promise to Abraham - his inheritance of the land in which he sojourns - the writer fastens the patriarch's faith upon the heavenly fulfillment of the promise - the perfected community of God, which, he assumes, was contained in the original promise. By the city he means the heavenly Jerusalem, and his statement is that Abraham's faith looked forward to that. The idea of the new or heavenly Jerusalem was familiar to the Jews. See ch. Hebrews 12:22; Hebrews 13:14; Galatians 4:26; Revelation 3:12; Revelation 21:2. The Rabbins regarded it as an actual city. For the foundations comp. Revelation 21:14. In ascribing to the patriarchs an assured faith in heaven as the end and reward of their wanderings, the writer oversteps the limits of history; but evidently imports into the patriarchal faith the contents of a later and more developed faith - that of himself and his readers.

Builder and maker [τ ε χ ν ι τ η σ κ α ι δ η μ ι ο υ ρ γ ο ς] Tecnithv artificer, architect. Comp. Acts 19:24 (note), 38; Revelation 18:22, and LXX, 1 Chronicles 29:5; Song of Solomon 7:1; Wisd. 8 6; 14 2; Sir. 9 17 Dhmiourgov N. T o, originally a workman for the public [δ η μ ο ς]; generally, framer, builder. It is used by Xenophon and Plato of the maker of the world (Xen. Mem 1 4, 9; Plato, Tim 40 C; Repub. 530 A). It was appropriated by the Neo Platonists as the designation of God. To the Gnostics, the Demiurge was a limited, secondary God, who created the world; since there was no possibility of direct contact between the supreme, incommunicable God and the visible world.