It is only in the Epistle to the Hebrews that the term ‘substance’ is used with anything approaching a philosophical connotation. The meaning of the word in this Epistle is of unusual interest owing to the crucial place which it came to occupy in the Trinitarian controversies of later times. The history of its use as a theological term is given by T. B. Strong in Journal of Theological Studies iii. [1901-02] 22 ff.

In Authorized Version the word ‘substance’ is used to translate both ὕπαρξις and ὑπόστασις. The former is better rendered ‘possession’ (Revised Version ), as in the passage, ‘Ye have in heaven a better possession (ὕπαρξιν) and an abiding’ (Hebrews 10:34; cf. Acts 2:45). Interest centres then in the word ὑπόστασις, which occurs only five times in the NT. In two passages it means ‘confidence’ (2 Corinthians 9:4; 2 Corinthians 11:17). But in the remaining three, all of which are in Hebrews, a philosophical conception is probably involved. (1) Hebrews 3:14 : ‘We are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence (τῆς ὑποστάσεως) firm unto the end.’ Both Authorized Version and Revised Version render ὑπόστασις as ‘confidence.’ Most modern commentators concur in this subjective reference. The Vulgate renders it objectively (substantiae ejus), and many Patristic commentators take this view-e.g. it is ‘the faith,’ τὴν πίστιν (Chrysostom, Theodoret) or fidem Christi (Primasius). This rendering is improbable. There is yet a third possible explanation in view of what is said under (2) and (3). If in Hebrews 11:1 ὑπόστασις is ‘the giving substance’ (Revised Version margin) to unseen realities, the beginning of our ὑπόστασις may well be the beginning of that progressive spiritual state of realizing, or ‘giving substance to,’ in actual Christian experience, those eternal verities which Judaism only dimly adumbrated. As Christ (Hebrews 1:3) is the χαρακτήρ (‘perfect expression’) of the Divine ὑπόστασις (or ‘essence’), Christians, as ‘partakers of Christ,’ may in some measure embody (hypostasize, substantiate) the Divine reality eternally existing in Christ. The word of exhortation in this verse is then to ‘hold fast the beginning’ of that process of actualizing in Christian experience eternal spiritual realities. That such experience should lead to ‘confidence’ is inevitable. (2) In Hebrews 11:1 faith is described as ‘the substance (ὑπόστασις) of things hoped for.’ In Revised Version ὑπόστασις is rendered ‘assurance’ or ‘confidence’ (as in 2 Corinthians 9:4; 2 Corinthians 11:17, Hebrews 3:14). But in the margin Revised Version suggests ‘the giving substance to’ (favoured by Westcott, Davidson, Peake, Wickham). Both meanings may well have been in the mind of the writer; for, if faith enables the believer to ‘give substance’ to spiritual experience and embody the objective realities of his religious hopes, it naturally affords him a ground of assured confidence in them. The use of the antithesis ‘substance’ and ‘shadow’ (see article Shadow) found in this Epistle (Hebrews 8:5, Hebrews 10:1) shows that the writer is familiar with the Platonic and Philonic conception that the things seen are but shadows cast in time and space by eternal archetypal realities. The latter are the truly ‘substantial,’ and be asserts that faith is that state of mind, or experience, which actualizes the things as yet unseen and which proves that they alone have ‘substance’ or reality. (3) In Hebrews 1:3 there is contained the metaphysical embryo of later theological speculation. Christ is spoken of in relation to God as the ‘very image of his substance’ (χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως). In Authorized Version ὑπόστασις is translated ‘person,’ but the rendering is inappropriate and misleading. The philosophical conception of personality did not emerge until long after the Apostolic Age, and then largely through the contentions of the Greek and Latin Fathers over the question as to whether there was one hypostasis in the Godhead or whether there were three hypostaseis (or ‘persons’). The writer of Hebrews does not say that Christ is the express image of the Person of God. The substance (ὑπόστασις) of the Godhead, of which Christ is the ‘express image’ (χαρακτήρ), is the Divine ‘essence’ or ‘nature.’ ‘Substance’ (Lat. substantia) etymologically is ‘that which stands under’ (as a foundation or pedestal). Then it came to mean that in a thing which makes it what it is (its ‘essence’), the substratum beneath all its qualities. In its more modern philosophical meaning ‘substance’ is the reality which exists behind all phenomena. The theological and metaphysical associations of the word, as a technical term, cause most recent commentators to prefer the translation ‘essence’ or ‘nature’ in this passage as best interpreting the view of the writer as to Christ and His relation to the Godhead. He is the perfect expression in human life and history of the essential nature of God. In harmony with the teaching of the Fourth Gospel Christ is the Divine Logos, and He alone can assert, ‘He that hath seen me hath seen the Father’ (John 14:19).

M. Scott Fletcher.

Bibliography Information
Hastings, James. Entry for 'Substance'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/s/substance.html. 1906-1918.

Bible Dictionaries Substance

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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Substance