THEY WERE STONED, THEY WERE SAWN IN TWO, THEY WERE TEMPTED, THEY WERE PUT TO DEATH WITH THE SWORD; THEY WENT ABOUT IN SHEEPSKINS, IN GOATSKINS, BEING DESTITUTE, AFFLICTED, ILL-TREATED: elithasthesan, epristhesan, en phone machaires apethanon, perielthon en melotais, en aigeiois dermasin, usteroumenoi, thlibomenoi, kakouchoumenoi: (1Ki 21:10,13, 14, 15; 2Chr 24:21; Mt 21:35; 23:37; Luke 13:34; Jn 10:31, 32, 33; Acts 7:58,59; 14:19; 2Co 11:25) (1Sa 22:17, 18, 19; 1Ki 18:4,13; 19:1,10,14; Jer 2:30; 26:23; Lam 4:13,14; Mt 23:35, 36, 37; Luke 11:51, 52, 53, 54; Acts 7:52; 12:2,3 ) (2Ki 1:8; Mt 3:4; Rev 11:3 ) (He 12:1, 2, 3; Zechariah 13:9; Matthew 8:20; 1Co 4:9, 10, 11, 12, 13; 2Co 11:23, 24, 25, 26, 27; 12:10; Jas 5:10,11)

They were stoned (3034)(lithazo from líthos = a stone) describes a common OT Jewish punishment.

The prophet Zechariah would qualify for this description.

Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people and said to them, “Thus God has said, ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord and do not prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has also forsaken you.’ ” 21 So they conspired against him and at the command of the king they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the Lord. (2Chr 24:20, 21)

According to tradition, which a number of the Early Church Fathers mention, the prophet Jeremiah was stoned to death in Egypt by his fellow Jews.

They were sawn in two - Tradition (again including a number of the Early Church Fathers) also says that Isaiah was sawn in two with a wooden saw by evil King Manasseh.

Lane records that according to...

mutually complementary rabbinic sources, Manasseh, enraged because Isaiah had prophesied the destruction of the Temple, ordered his arrest. Isaiah fled to the hill country and hid in the trunk of a cedar tree. He was discovered when the king ordered the tree cut down. Isaiah was tortured with a saw because he had taken refuge in the trunk of a tree. (Lane, W. L. Vol. 47B: Word Biblical Commentary: Hebrews 9-13. Word Biblical Commentary (390). Dallas: Word, Incorporated)

They were tempted (3985) (peirazo [word study] from the noun peira = test from peíro = perforate, pierce through to test durability of things) is a morally neutral word simply meaning “to test”. Whether the test is for a good (as it proved to be in Heb 11:17) or evil (Mt 4:1) depends on the intent of the one giving the test and also on the response of the one tested. The trials may come from God or in this context more likely under His permissive will from the world, the evil nature (the "flesh"), or the Devil. When the Scriptural context clearly indicates the testing is an enticement to evil, the word is most frequently translated by a form of the English tempt, which carries that negative connotation and this NEVER refers to a test from God.

Spurgeon comments...

It seems to me that the trials and temptations of this life are preparing us for the life to come, building character for eternity. Have you ever been in a piano factory? Did you go there to hear music? Go into the tuning room and you will say, “This is a dreadful place, I cannot stand it, I thought you made music here.” “No, we do not produce music here. We make instruments and tune them, and in the process much discord is produced.” Such is the church of God on earth. The Lord makes the instruments and tunes them down here. A great deal of discord is easily perceptible, but it is all necessary to prepare us for the everlasting harmonies up yonder. I am to stand one day so near to God that between Him and me there will be but one person, and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ, my Lord and Mediator. In Christ, I am to have dominion over all the works of God’s hands and to be crowned with glory and honor. Angels are to be my servants and heaven my inheritance. Will I ever grow proud? Will self-exaltation creep in? No! The character will be fixed for holiness as though etched in eternal brass. It may be that all the afflictions and temptations that God permits to pass over us here below are forming us for eternal bliss. Thus the corn is ripening for the harvester and the fruit is mellowing for the basket. Here, the engraving tool and hammer bring out the beauties that will shine in the courts of the Lord forever, when on us also the record will be written, “They were tempted”.

The presence of temptation in this list is somewhat surprising and expositors have found it difficult to interpret. Kenneth Wuest says that...

It is probably best to leave it as it is, and suggest that one of the most fiendish tortures was not that of the body but of the conscience, when the torturer would offer the victim opportunity to recant and thus obtain his freedom.

Put to death with the sword - Wuest writes that "The Greek has it that they “died by sword-slaughter,” indicating mass-slaughters. Examples of this abound in the Maccabean period."

Sheepskins and goatskins - What does this apparel signify? Where they simply "ascetics"? Was this "self-abasement and severe treatment of the body" (Col 2:23)? Surely not, for this is the chapter of faith, not works or legalistic self-made religion. The simple answer is that these were the only clothing they had to wear.

Destitute (5302) (hustereo from hústeros = last, latter, terminal, hindmost)  has the basic meaning of come to late (in time) or to come after (in terms of space) and thus it means to fail in something, come short of, miss, not to reach. Hustereo has the basic meaning of being last or inferior. It means to be left behind in the race and so fail to reach the goal, to fall short of the end, to lack. It means to come late or too tardily.

(MEN OF WHOM THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY), WANDERING IN DESERTS AND MOUNTAINS AND CAVES AND HOLES IN THE GROUND: on ouk en axios o kosmos, epi eremiais planomenoi kai oresin kai spelaiois kai tais opais tes ges: (1Kings 14:12,13; 2Kings 23:25-29; Isaiah 57:1) (1Samuel 22:1; 23:15,19,23; 24:1, 2, 3; 26:1; 1Kings 17:3; 18:4,13; 19:9; Psalm 142:1; Psalm 142:2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

Men of whom the world was not worthy - Phillips paraphrases it "by a world that was too evil to see their worth."

Constable comments that...

Sometimes the faithful person’s reward comes on the other side of the grave. Some of the readers and we might have to endure death. Those who accept death without apostatizing are those the world is not worthy of because they do not turn from following God even under the most severe pressure. (Hebrews 11 Commentary)

Hughes writes that...

The language is vividly descriptive of the savage indignities and severe hardships which men and women of faith have been willing to endure rather than deny the truth by which they have been liberated. It depicts, moreover, the fierce hatred of the unbelieving world in its guilty hostility to the truth as it ruthlessly hunts and assaults those whose trust is in the immutability of the divine promises. Rejecting the world they are ejected by the world. For their refusal to conform to this world's fallen standards the world attempts to eliminate them and their witness. But it is precisely these hunted heroes of the faith of whom (as our author declares in a resounding parenthesis) the world was not worthy. Their nobility and their integrity shine forth all the more brilliantly against the world's dark hatred; for in a world darkened and degraded by sin they truly are the light, and theirs is the true blessedness and the everlasting reward (Mt. 5:10-13). As those whose gaze is fixed on a better world they endure and by their faith they overcome, knowing as they do (and as the world refuses to know) that "the world passes away," but that "he who does the will of God abides for ever" (1 Jn. 2:17; 5:4). (A Commentary On The Epistle To The Hebrews)

Spurgeon...

You have seen the works of faith and the sufferings of faith; now you see God’s estimate of faith. He counts the believing man to be far beyond the rest of mankind.

These worthies lived before Christ came; but, since then, equally noble exploits have been performed by the heroes and heroines of faith. The Christian martyrs have shown the extremity of human endurance when they have been sustained by faith; and the bead-roll of Christian heroes, since their Lord ascended to heaven, is longer and even brighter than that of the faithful ones who came before them in the earlier dispensation.

This is the grandest roll of heroes that ever lived, and every one among them was a man or woman of faith. Faith made them so mighty. They were not greater, and in some respects not better than the rest of us, but they believed in God, they were firm in faith, and this became the basis of their conquering character, and thus their names are imperishably recorded here. They did not win the Victoria cross, but they bore the cross for their Lord, and he has honored them with an everlasting crown, which shall never be taken from them.

Steven Cole - Faith's Reward (Pastor Cole's sermons are highly recommended - See Sermons by Book)

2. Sometimes God blesses those who trust Him with the grace to endure horrible trials without wavering (Heb 11:35b-38).

“Women receiving back their dead by resurrection” is the apex of the spectacular. It doesn’t get any more impressive than that! Yet without skipping a beat, the author continues (He 11:35b-38), “and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted [this has weak manuscript support and may not be original], they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.”

After reading the first part of the list, you want to say, “These guys on the second half of the list must not have had faith, right?” But the author continues (He 11:39), “And all these, having gained approval through their faith,…” Those on the second half of the list were just as much people of faith as those on the first half! In fact, you could argue that they had greater faith, because it’s not as easy to trust God when you’re being scourged, stoned, or sawn in two as it is when you’re seeing foreign armies put to flight and the dead raised to life. While all of us, if we could, would sign up to be in the first group, we need to recognize that sometimes God is pleased to withhold spectacular results and bless us instead with His grace as our sufficiency in overwhelming trials (2Co 12:9, 10).

With one exception, many names could fit into the various categories on this list of persecutions. That exception is “sawn in two,” which is not in the Bible. Tradition says that the wicked King Manasseh killed the prophet Isaiah by sawing him in two. A Jewish work, The Martyrdom of Isaiah, recounts this terrible ordeal, saying, “Isaiah neither cried aloud nor wept, but his lips spoke with the Holy Spirit until he was sawn in two” (in Philip Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews [Eerdmans], p. 514).

The description of some being tortured, not accepting their release, may refer to two incidents during the reign of terror of the wicked Antiochus Epiphanes (reported in the apocryphal 2 Maccabees 6 & 7). In the first, an old teacher of the law, Eleazar, was forced to open his mouth to eat pork. But, “preferring an honour-able death to an unclean life, he spat it out” (2 Macc. 6:19, New English Bible). They then stretched him on a rack and flogged him.

At one point, they offered that he could eat clean meat, but pretend that it was the pork that the king had ordered. He replied, “Send me quickly to my grave. If I went through with this pretence at my time of life, many of the young might believe that at the age of ninety Eleazar had turned apostate. If I practiced deceit for the sake of a brief moment of life, I should lead them astray and bring stain and pollution on my old age. I might for the present avoid man’s punishment, but, alive or dead, I shall never escape from the hand of the Almighty” (6:24-27). In the other incident, seven sons of one woman were tortured and killed in front of her for refusing to eat pork.

Our text refutes the health and wealth heresy, to say the least! It shows us the fierce opposition that Satan has towards the faithful people of God. It reveals the irrational evil that consumes wicked people to inflict such atrocities on the godly. And, it should en-courage us to endure rejection, ill-treatment, injustice, and even torture and death, if need be, for the sake of the gospel. Although, like the Hebrews (He 12:4), we have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in our striving against sin,” it may come to that. If we do suffer for the sake of Christ, we will join a great company of God’s people down through history “of whom the world was not worthy” (He 11:38).

The last two verses of the chapter show us that…

3. God will bless all who trust Him with eternal rewards (He 11:39, 40).

“All these” refers to both groups. They all gained approval (or “a testimony”) through their faith, yet none received “the promise” (literal translation). Abraham received the promise of Isaac (He 11:17). Others “obtained promises” by faith (He 11:33). But none received the promise, which refers to Christ. They saw Him from afar in types and shadows, but we see Him clearly revealed in the New Testament. Most of them were under the old covenant, but God “provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.” That something better is the new covenant in Christ’s blood. The old covenant with its sacrifices could not make the worshipers perfect (He 10:1). But the new covenant has sanctified us “through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (He 10:10). The Old Testament saints were saved, but their salvation was not complete until the cross. Ours is complete because Jesus is the perfect sacrifice.

The author’s point is that if the Old Testament saints were faithful through all of these trials, even though they didn’t receive the promise of Christ in the flesh, how much more should we be faithful, since we have Christ! John Calvin (Calvin's Commentaries [Baker], p. 308) put it, “A small spark of light led them to heaven; when the sun of righteousness shines over us, with what pretence can we excuse ourselves if we still cleave to the earth?”

Any yet, although we have the promise of Christ, we do not yet have the full experience of the glory that is to be revealed with Him in heaven. And so we must, like the Old Testament saints, live by faith in God’s promise as we await the final consummation when Jesus returns. We must endure whatever trials come, even persecution, by fixing our eyes on Jesus (He 12:1, 2, 3).

Conclusion

Let me sum up this section with four applications. I cannot expand on these, but I encourage you to think about how they apply more extensively to your life:

(1) Faith is ready to sacrifice present comfort for future reward with Christ. Faith recognizes that this life is very short in comparison with eternity. With Paul, faith recognizes that “momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2Co 4:17). In Paul’s case, this “light affliction” included beatings, imprisonments, being stoned, shipwrecked, and often being in danger of death (2Co 11:23, 24, 25, 26, 27)! When you experience “light affliction,” do you grumble or do you joyfully trust God?

(2) Faith lives with a God-ward focus, not with a focus on people or things. The saints mentioned in our text could endure mockings, scourgings, imprisonments, and death because their focus was on God, not on other people or things. They were looking to eternity, not to this vapor of life here. Calvin put it this way, “we ought to live only so as to live to God: as soon as we are not permitted to live to God, we ought willingly and not reluctantly to meet death” (ibid., p. 306).

(3) Faith trusts and obeys God, leaving the results to His sovereignty. Some trust and obey God and He grants spectacular results. Others trust and obey the same mighty God and He enables them to endure horrific trials in His strength. The difference is not in the people or in their faith, but in God’s sovereign purpose in each situation. We know the same God that these Old Testament saints knew, and we have even more, in that we know Christ personally. So we should trust Him as they did, whether He chooses to put us to death, as He did with the apostle James, or to deliver us from death for a while, as He did with Peter.

(4) Faithfulness to Jesus Christ counts more than anything else, even than life itself. As Martin Luther put it (“A Mighty Fortress”),

Let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
the body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still;
His kingdom is forever.