'Thus the visible was made out of the invisible', is Moffatt's

translation.  Phenomena speak of things visible, things that do appear, but

there is another word employed by philosophers to speak of the invisible

world of thought, and that is the word Noumenon:

'Noumenon is the antithesis of phenomenon ... Noumenon means the

substratum or to use the scholastic word, the Substance.  Thus as

matter is recognized by us only in its manifestations (phenomena) we

may logically distinguish those manifestations from the thing

manifested; Noumenon is, therefore, equivalent to the essence;

phenomenon to the manifestion' (G. H. Lewes, Hist. Phil.).

The reader will probably recall that, even as phenomena are in view in

Hebrews 11:3, so 'substance' is found in Hebrews 11:1:

'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for'.

The English word 'substance' is derived from the Latin which means

literally 'to stand down under'.  This substance is invisible, and is only

known and recognized by the superficial appearances that go to make up our

present knowledge.  For example, we are told by the scientist, and we have no

doubt that he is correct, that the material which we call 'iron' is found not

only in the common metallic form, but is also present in the leaf of a

spinach plant, and very active in human blood.  Behind all the different and

apparently conflicting phenomena, lies the invisible yet very real substance,

which no scientist has ever seen.  The Greek word which is translated

'substance' in Hebrews 11:1 is hupostasis, written in English, hypostasis,

and is the exact equivalent of the Latin substare, that which stands under,

or 'substance'.  Substance represents essential nature, and underlies all

phenomena.  Substance can receive modification, but is not itself a mode.

Now this word hupostasis occurs earlier in Hebrews, namely in Hebrews 1:3,

'the Express Image of His Person', and this translation of the word was

evidently induced by the way in which the Arian controversy employed it.

With that we have no immediate association, and the R.V. very wisely omitted

the word 'person' and rendered Hebrews 1:3 'the very image of His substance'.

Christ as the Son is the very Image (Greek character) of the (invisible)

substance of Deity.  The A.V. reads in Hebrews 1:2, 'Hath in these last days

spoken unto us by His Son' which, while indicating the superiority of the

latest Teacher sent from God, disguises the true intention of the inspired

passage.  There is no Greek word equivalent to the pronoun 'His' in this

passage.  The words en huio are literally 'in Son'.  The construction is

comparable with 1 Timothy 3:16: God was manifested 'in flesh', en sarki.  To

the Hebrew, the expression, God has spoken 'in Son', would not seem strange.

We read in Exodus 6:3, 'I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob

In God Almighty' (Heb. b'El Shaddai).

This use of the Hebrew preposition is called by grammarians 'the beth

essential', beth, the letter b, being the preposition 'in'.  In Psalm 39:6 we

read, 'in a vain shew', where the translators have sought to retain the beth

essential, the original reading literally 'in image'.  It is possible that

some reader may not be very clear over the terms, noumena, phenomena,

substance and the beth essential, and in view of the extreme seriousness of

the whole matter that now we see by reason of a mirror in an enigma, and of

the bearing of this fact upon the Person of Christ Himself, we believe an

illustration, however crude, will be welcomed.  We will seek to use everyday

speech, even though by so doing we may fall foul of the more philosophically