The roll–call of faith in Hebrews 11 is not only another list of seventeen but is specifically marked at its golden ratio. Look who gets the coveted eleventh spot.
- Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel
- Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch
- Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah
- Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham
- Hebrews 11:20 By faith Isaac
- Hebrews 11:21 By faith Jacob
- Hebrews 11:22 By faith Joseph
- Hebrews 11:23 By faith Moses’ parents
- Hebrews 11:24 By faith Moses
- Hebrews 11:29 By faith the people
- Hebrews 11:31 By faith Rahab
- Hebrews 11:32 Gideon
- Hebrews 11:32 Barak
- Hebrews 11:32 Samson
- Hebrews 11:32 Jephthah
- Hebrews 11:32 David
- Hebrews 11:32 Samuel and the prophets
…through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised…
Lest anyone complain that I didn’t separate out the prophets from Samuel in that last item, I will direct your attention to the number of prophetic books in Scripture. How many are there? I’ll give you just one guess!
I should perhaps also point out that there is another way of calculating a slightly different 17 in the roll-call of faith. There are in fact a grand total of 22 men, women or people mentioned but not all of them belong to the ‘faith reckoning’. Cain and Esau need to be excluded. If we also exclude the generic ‘people’ and ‘prophets’, we can then include Sarah. This would mean that, with the exception of ‘Moses’ parents’ the 17 are named. Both the women — Sarah and Rahab —are positioned at the most prominent points of the mathematical architecture, the golden ratio positions.