One of the most noteworthy passages in the Bible is the first verse of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. There the author of this remarkable Epistle writes: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." This passage has been variously translated in different tongues. For example, Martin Luther uses, instead of "substance," a word meaning "confidence, trust." In a popular French Bible, the translator puts, in place of "substance," the words "firm assurance."Translation by Louis Segond; Although these various and varying translations are justified by the text of the original Greek, they fall far short of the insight displayed by the scholars who produced the King James Version.
For the inspiration that led these scholars to use the word "substance" raised this passage to a height of meaning and insight far beyond that contained in the other passages cited above. To speak of faith as being the very substance of things hoped for is a very different thing from saying that faith is merely the assurance of such things or the confidence in such things, for the first meaning which a dictionary gives of "substance" is "that which underlies all outward manifestations."Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition;
The author of this Epistle goes on to recount how the spiritual faith of numerous great Biblical characters brought them righteousness, protection, and reward, even in the face of death. In short, faith, clearly a quality of spiritualized thought rather than an aspect of matter, was proved to be the single most substantial and real quality in the lives of those individuals.
