This verse is the first example of the general statement in verse 1. It is, however, of a different kind from all the other examples, and for this reason common language translations, following the UBS Greek New Testament, make it a separate paragraph.
As in verse 2, the expression It is by faith may be restructured as cause; for example, “Because we have faith, we understand…” or “Because we trust God, we understand….”
Understand is not emphasized, but the use of this word shows that in Hebrews “faith” is not opposed to “understanding”; the two belong together.
This verse contains two examples of the need to choose clearly between alternative meanings of a word. The Greek word for created sometimes means “repaired,” and the word for the universe sometimes means “the ages,” but these choices would obviously be wrong here.
The Greek term for word, as in 1.3, usually means a spoken rather than a written word, and this is so here; see Genesis 1.3 and Psalm 33.6, 9. However, there is no sharp distinction between the two Greek terms for word which are used in Hebrews: (a) in 1.3; 6.5; and here; and (b) in 4.12 and 13.7.
The statement we understand that the universe was created by God’s word may be restructured; for example, “we understand that God used his word to create the universe” or “… the heavens and earth.” It is also possible to render the universe was created by God’s word as “God spoke and in this way created the universe.”
So that probably means “with the result that,” not “in order that”; it is an expression of result rather than purpose.
Good News Translation uses seen twice to translate two different Greek words, used for the sake of variety but having the same meaning.
Was made implies “and still exists,” like the English “came into being,” but there is no emphasis, as there is in 1.3, on the idea of God’s “maintaining” or “upholding” the universe by his “word.”
Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version agree in taking the Greek word for “not” with “appear” (cannot be seen), to give the paraphrase “To say that the world came into being by God’s word is to say that the visible world was made out of something which cannot be seen.” It is grammatically possible, but less likely, to link “not” with the whole clause, to give the meaning “it was not out of the world of visible things that the visible world came into being.”
The most probable text means what can be seen (singular), though the Greek for what cannot be seen is plural (so Revised Standard Version). The change is probably made only for the sake of variety, but Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch use parallel expressions (both singular) to make the contrast clearer. The final statement of result, namely, so that what can be seen was made out of what cannot be seen, may be rendered as “as a result God made what can be seen by using what cannot be seen.” But the passive expressions can be seen and cannot be seen may require some modification; for example, “God used what no one can see in order to make what we do see.”
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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