<p>11:35 <i>Women received their dead by a resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection</i>- The widow woman&rsquo;s son was resurrected because God heard Elijah&rsquo;s faithful prayer (1 Kings 17:22); and thus Heb. 11:35 alludes to this incident by saying that through faith- in this case, the faith of Elijah, a third party- women received their dead raised to life. The Centurion&rsquo;s servant was healed for the sake of <i>his</i> faith; Jairus&rsquo; daughter was healed because of <i>his</i> faith (Mk. 5:36). Heb. 11 cites women receiving their dead back to life as an example of faith. Because of the faith and prayers of the women, a third party, their dead loved ones were at times resurrected. Lazarus being raised because of his faithful sisters Martha and Mary is the obvious example we know about, but the Hebrew writer may well have had his mind on unrecorded Old Testament examples too. Our faith in prayer in some sense limits God's ability. But &quot;faith&quot; in Hebrews 11 is specifically faith in the promises to Abraham which form the basis of the new covenant. The women mentioned therefore believed that the promises implied future resurrection; and yet they believed that those promises could have some present realization too.</p><p>Some were tortured &quot;not accepting redemption&quot; because their eyes of faith were upon the future resurrection implied in the promises to Abraham. By implication they accepted the true redemption of the blood of Christ rather than the pseudo-redemption offered by this world and the claims of Judaism and the temple cult. Again, the redeeming work of Christ is what fortifies men against the fake Kingdom and redemption of the anti-Christ anti-Kingdom of this world. There will be degrees of reward in God's Kingdom- a &quot;better resurrection&quot; for those who endured torture. The comfort is that those who did not endure- and there would have been many- may also be saved. But those who did will have a &quot;better resurrection&quot;. This gradation of service and reward, some trading their talents better than others, is impossible for the legalistic mindset to cope with. But ranges of possible response to God's love, and appropriate eternal consequence for the choices made, is all the stuff of living personal relationship with God.</p>