Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

What faith is, and a commendation of the same. The steadfast belief of the fathers in old time.

11 Faith is a sure confidence of things that are hoped for, and a certainty of things that are not seen. ² By it the elders were well reported of.

  ³ Through faith we understand that the world and all the things which are seen were made of nothing by the word of God.

¹³ And they all died in faith, and did not obtain the promises, but saw them afar off, and believed them, and hailed them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. ¹⁴ People who say such things show that they are seeking a country. ¹⁵ Also, if they had been mindful of that country that they came from, they were free to have returned again. ¹⁶ But now they desire a better country; that is to say, a heavenly one. And so God is not ashamed of them, even to be called their God. For he has prepared for them a city.

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when he was proved, offered up Isaac. And he offered him being his only begotten son that had the promises ¹⁸ (of whom it was said: In Isaac shall your seed be called), ¹⁹ because he considered that God was able to raise him up again from death. Therefore he received him back, for a figure.