They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—
The apostle having given us a classis of many eminent believers, whose names are mentioned and the particular trials and actings of their faith recorded, now concludes his narrative with a more summary account of another set of believers, where the particular acts are not ascribed to particular persons by name, but left to be applied by those who are well acquainted with the sacred...
Commenting on Hebrews 11:32-40
And these all having obtained a good report through faith,.... This may either be limited to the sufferers in the preceding verses, who were martyred, or suffered martyrdom for the faith, as the words may be rendered; and who are called martyrs or witnesses, in Heb 12:1 and so the Ethiopic version renders the clause, "and all these were witnesses concerning the faith": or it...
Verse 37. They were stoned. A common method of punishment among the Jews. . Thus Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, was stoned. See ; comp. . It is not improbable that this was often resorted to in times of popular tumult, as in the case of Stephen, ; comp. . In the time of the terrible persecutions under Antiochus Epiphanes, and under Manasseh, such instances also probably occurred.