Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
we understand—We perceive with our spiritual intelligence the fact of the world's creation by God, though we see neither Him nor the act of creation as described in Gen. 1:1-31. The natural world could not, without revelation, teach us this truth, though it confirms the truth when apprehended by faith (Romans 1:20). Adam is passed over in silence here as to his faith, perhaps as being the first who fell and brought sin on us all; though it does not follow that he did not repent and believe the promise.
worlds—literally, "ages"; all that exists in time and space, visible and invisible, present and eternal.
framed—"fitly formed and consolidated"; including the creation of the single parts and the harmonious organization of the whole, and the continual providence which maintains the whole throughout all ages. As creation is the foundation and a specimen of the whole divine economy, so faith in creation is the foundation and a specimen of all faith [BENGEL].
by the word of God—not here, the personal word (Greek, "logos," John 1:1) but the spoken word (Greek, "rhema"); though by the instrumentality of the personal word (Hebrews 1:2).
not made, etc.—Translate as Greek, "so that not out of things which appear hath that which is seen been made"; not as in the case of all things which we see reproduced from previously existing and visible materials, as, for instance, the plant from the seed, the animal from the parent, etc., has the visible world sprung into being from apparent materials. So also it is implied in the first clause of the verse that the invisible spiritual worlds were framed not from previously existing materials. BENGEL explains it by distinguishing "appear," that is, begin to be seen (namely, at creation), from that which is seen as already in existence, not merely beginning to be seen; so that the things seen were not made of the things which appear," that is, which begin to be seen by us in the act of creation. We were not spectators of creation; it is by faith we perceive it.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Hebrews 11:3:
Genesis 2:4
Hebrews 1:2
Hebrews 1:3
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