---
title: Hebrews 11:3
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/hebrews-11-3/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/hebrews-11-3.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Hebrews 11:3
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Hebrews 11:3

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (1984 edition): "By faith we perceive that the systems of things were put in order by God's word, so that what is beheld has come to be out of things that do not appear."
- NWT (2013 revision): "By faith we perceive that the systems of things were put in order by God's word, so that what is seen has come into existence from things that are not visible."

## JW Usage

Hebrews 11:3 is read by JWs as a generic creation-by-word affirmation. The Watchtower's eschatological framework needs the NWT's "systems of things" rendering here and elsewhere, because it supports the teaching that the current world order is a "system of things" that will be replaced at Armageddon by a new "system of things" under the Kingdom. Hebrews 11:3 thus becomes a creation text that reinforces the distinctively JW world-system vocabulary.

## Protestant Usage

Hebrews 11:3's "by faith we perceive" establishes faith as the mode by which creation itself is understood — Christian cosmology is received as revelation, not derived from empirical observation. Pair with Hebrews 1:2, where the Son is the one through whom the same "ages" were made. Creation is Trinitarian: the Father speaks the world into being through the Son. The verse's theological weight is Christological, not eschatological — which is exactly why the NWT's distinctive "system of things" rendering matters: it quietly redirects the cosmic scope of aion into a replaceable social order.

## NWT Issue

The NWT renders aionas (plural of aion) as "systems of things" at Hebrews 11:3 and across its 40+ occurrences in the NT (Matthew 24:3, 2 Corinthians 4:4, and throughout). Greek lexicons (BDAG, Thayer, Liddell-Scott) give aion the range "age, era, eternity, world, universe" — no lexicon lists "system of things." The Watchtower's own Kingdom Interlinear renders aionas as "ages" in its literal column, contradicting the NWT main text. The distinctive rendering supports the Watchtower's eschatological vocabulary (the "present system of things" ending at Armageddon) while quietly narrowing Hebrews 1:2's Christological scope from "Son through whom the ages/cosmos were made" to "Son through whom a replaceable social arrangement was made."

## Arguments Using This Verse

- ["System of Things" — NWT's Theologically Motivated Rendering of Aion](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/nwt-system-of-things.md) — Hebrews 1:2 and the invisible Christological downgrade [NWT Translation]