HEBREWS 11:11 

Stephen M. Reynolds, Ph. D.

The Lorine L. Reynolds Foundation must not only publish articles exposing faulty translations and see that a good translation of the whole Bible is published, but it must also in this Bible be a true helper of God's people and in notes expose errors in existing popular translations where translators have unethically misled readers. A case in point is Hebrews 11:11:  

pi,stei kai. auvth. Sa,rra du,namin eivj katabolh.n spe,rmatoj e;laben [or  e;labe] kai. para. kairo.n h`liki,aj e;teken( evpei. pisto.n h`gh,sato to.n evpaggeila,menonÅ 

[Note: Some manuscripts omit e;teken , but the so called Koine or Greek Vulgate consisting of the majority of the Greek manuscripts has it. Beza's 1598 edition of the Textus Receptus also has this word.] 

Whether or not this word (meaning she bore a child) is accepted as original, all known translators, with one exception, have rendered the verse to mean that Sarah is the one whose faith is honored. 

The one exception is the New International Version (NIV) which commits a grave fault in transferring this honor from Sarah to Abraham To do this the NIV translators disobey Proverbs 30:6 and add the word "Abraham" in this verse in spite of the fact that it is in no Greek manuscript. They do not even do the honest thing of putting Abraham with some special indicator, such as italics, to show that it is not in the original. God has His own words for those who do such a thing as this: "Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you, and you be found a liar." 

The verse should be translated: “By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.” 

It is true that the Genesis accounts (Gen. 9-15; 21:1-3) do not speak of Sarah's faith in the matter of the conception of Isaac, but the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, inspired by the Holy Spirit, revealed a truth hitherto unrecorded that Sarah after she laughed had faith, and through her faith was able to conceive and give birth to Isaac.