Enoch Son,
This list in the letter to the Messianic Jews, the writer is encouraging those who suffer for their faith, illustrating that the trials of life come to ALL believers and that our reward is sure and will come at the Lords return. Here is a good reference to those the writer is using as examples:
3336 Through trusting, Moses conquered the kingdoms of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan (Numbers 21:2135). Daniel shut the mouths of lions (Daniel 6:129). Chananyah, Mishael and Azaryah (Shadrakh, Meishakh and Aved-ngo) quenched the power of fire (Daniel 1:6, 3:130). Elijah and Elisha were among those who escaped the edge of the sword (1 Kings 19:2ff., 2 Kings 6:31ff.). The widow of Tzarfat and the woman of Shunem received back their dead resurrected through Elijah and Elishas ministries (1 Kings 17:824, 2 Kings 4:837). From the Apocrypha we learn how in the days of the Maccabees, the 90-year-old Torah-teacher Elazar willingly chose to die >al kiddush haShem (to sanctify Gods name; see Ac 7:5960N), rather than eat pork and appear publicly to have forsaken Judaismhe was among those stretched on the rack and beaten to death, refusing to be ransomed, so that they would gain a better resurrection (2 Maccabees 6:1831). Yeshua himself was mocked, whipped, chained and imprisoned (Yn 19:13, Mk 15:19); compare also the prophets Mikhayahu (Micaiah, 1 Kings 22:24) and Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah 20:2, 7; 37:15).
3738 Zkharyah the son of Yhoyadah the priest was stoned to death (2 Chronicles 24:21; compare Mt 23:3537).
Being sawed in two was certainly a known form of torturing people to death (2 Samuel 12:31), and according to the first-century partly Jewish, partly Christian book, The Ascension of Isaiah, the prophet Yeshayahu was killed in this way. The Talmud gives this description:
Rabbi Shimon ben-Azzai said, I found a genealogy scroll in Jerusalem, and it is written there
[that King] Mnasheh killed Yeshayahu. Raba said, Before killing him, Mnasheh staged a trial and said, Your teacher Moshe said, For men shall not see me and live [Exodus 33:20]; but you say, I saw Adonai sitting on a throne, high and lifted up [Isaiah 6:1]. [Two similar contradictions are cited.] Yeshayahu replied, It is well known that you do not receive what people tell you; so if I answer your accusations, I will only turn you into a wilful murderer. So Yeshayahu said a Name [of God, thought of as having supernatural power] and was swallowed up by a cedar. However, the cedar was brought and sawed in two; and when the saw reached his mouth he died; [this was his punishment] for having said, I live among a people of unclean lips [Isaiah 6:5]. (Yevamot 49b)
Jeremiah 26:2023 mentions the prophet Uriah as having been murdered by the sword, and Elijah speaks of others who suffered the same fate (1 Kings 19:10, Ro 11:3).
Went about clothed in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, mistreated, wandering about in deserts and mountains, living in caves and holes in the ground. The description fits Elijah and Elisha (1 Kings 19:13, 2 Kings 2:14), as well as the pious Jews who fled from the persecution of Antiochus IV in the time of the Maccabees (1 Maccabees 2:38). Yochanan the Immerser wore camel skins (Mt 3:4) and led a similar life, while Yeshua himself had no home of his own (Lk 9:58).
In other words, the people who trusted God were utterly unrewarded and unappreciated in their time by the rest of humanity; the reverse side of this coin is seen when our author writes that the world was not worthy of them! Worldly people, since they themselves do not truly trust God, cannot fully appreciate those whose lives are based utterly on trust, because their values are so different. But as soon as worldly people, by Gods grace (Ep 2:89), take the tiniest step of faith themselves, then the great faith reported in this chapter takes on an altogether different significance for them and becomes a source of inspiration.
The Jewish New Testament Commentary, (Clarksville, MD: Jewish New Testament Publications) 1996.
Charles in Florida