Substance

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

(Gr. ὑπόστασις, Lat. substantia)

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 Studiesiii. [1901-02] 22 ff.

In Authorized Versionthe 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 Versionand Revised Versionrender 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 Versionὑπόστασις is rendered ‘assurance’ or ‘confidence’ (as in  2 Corinthians 9:4;  2 Corinthians 11:17,  Hebrews 3:14). But in the margin Revised Versionsuggests ‘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 articleShadow) 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 Versionὑπόστασις 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.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Οὐσία (Strong'S #3776 — Noun Feminine — ouisia — oo-see'-ah )

derived from a present participial form of eimi, "to be," denotes "substance, property,"  Luke 15:12,13 , RV, "substance," AV, "goods" and "substance."

2: Ὑπάρχοντα (Strong'S #5224 — Verb — huparchonta — hoop-ar'-khon-tah )

the neuter plural of the present participle of huparcho, "to be in existence," is used as a noun with the article, signifying one's "goods," and translated "substance" in  Luke 8:3 . See Goods , Possess , A, No. 3.

3: Ὕπαρξις (Strong'S #5223 — Noun Feminine — huparxis — hoop'-arx-is )

existence (akin to No. 2), possession: see Possess , B, No. 4.

4: Ὑπόστασις (Strong'S #5287 — Noun Feminine — hupostasis — hoop-os'-tas-is )

for which see Confidence , A No. 2, is translated "substance" (a) in  Hebrews 1:3 , of Christ as "the very image" of God's "substance;" here the word has the meaning of the real nature of that to which reference is made in contrast to the outward manifestation (see the preceding clause); it speaks of the Divine essence of God existent and expressed in the revelation of His Son. The AV, "person" is an anachronism; the word was not so rendered till the 4th cent. Most of the earlier Eng. versions have "substance;" (b) in  Hebrews 11:1 it has the meaning of "confidence, assurance" (RV), marg., "the giving substance to," AV, "substance," something that could not equally be expressed by elpis, "hope."

King James Dictionary

SUB'STANCE, n. L. substantia, substo sub and sto, to stand.

1. In a general sense, being something existing by itself that which really is or exists equally applicable to matter or spirit. Thus the soul of man is called an immaterial substance, a cogitative substance, a substance endued with thought. We say, a stone is a hard substance, tallow is a soft substance. 2. That which supports accidents.

That which subsists by itself is called substance that which subsists in and by another, is called a mode or manner of being.

3. The essential part the main or material part. In this epitome, we have the substance of the whole book.

This edition is the same in substance with the Latin.

4. Something real, not imaginary something solid, not empty.

Heroic virtue did his actions guide,

And he the substance, not th' appearance chose.

5. Body corporeal nature or matter.

The qualities of plants are more various than those of animal substances.

6. Goods estate means of living. Job's substance was seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, &c.  Job 1 .

We are--exhausting our substance, but not for our own interest.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) Body; matter; material of which a thing is made; hence, substantiality; solidity; firmness; as, the substance of which a garment is made; some textile fabrics have little substance.

(2): ( n.) Material possessions; estate; property; resources.

(3): ( n.) Same as Hypostasis, 2.

(4): ( v. t.) To furnish or endow with substance; to supply property to; to make rich.

(5): ( n.) That which underlies all outward manifestations; substratum; the permanent subject or cause of phenomena, whether material or spiritual; that in which properties inhere; that which is real, in distinction from that which is apparent; the abiding part of any existence, in distinction from any accident; that which constitutes anything what it is; real or existing essence.

(6): ( n.) The most important element in any existence; the characteristic and essential components of anything; the main part; essential import; purport.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Lat. sub, under, sto or stans, to stand) is literally that which subsists by itself. In Greek. substance is denoted by Οὐσία ; hence, That Which Truly Is, or Essence, seems to be the proper meaning of substance. It is opposed to Accident; of which Aristotle has said that you can scarcely predicate of it that it is anything. Our first idea of Substance Is probably derived from the consciousness of self-the conviction that, while our sensations, thoughts, and purposes are changing, We continue the same. We see bodies, also, remaining the same as to quantity or extension, while their color and figure, their state of motion or of rest may be changed. — Substances are either primary, that is, singular, individual substances; or secondary, that is, genera and species of substane.

Substances have also been divided into complete and incomplete, finite and infinite. But these are rather divisions of being. Substance may, however, be properly divided into matter and spirit, or that which is extended and that which thinks. Substance is given by Aristotle as one of the four principles common to all spheres of reality; the other three being form or essence, moving or efficient cause, and end. He says, further, that the individual alone has substantial existence, and defines Οὐσία , in the sense of the individual substance, as that which cannot be predicated of anything else, but of which anything else may be predicated. Johannes Philoponus of Alexandria, by extending the Aristotelian doctrine, that substantial existence is to be predicated in the fullest sense only of individuals, to the dogma of the Trinity, thereby incurred the accusation of tritheism. John Scotus regarded the Deity as the substance of all things, and could not, therefore, regard individual, concrete things as substances, of which the general may be predicated and in which the accidental is contained. He views all things, rather, as contained in the divine substance.

Berengarius of Tours (De Sacra Cenan) disputes the theory of a change of substance, claimed by the advocates of transubstantiation, without a corresponding change in the accidents, i.e. a change in the bread and wine apparent to the senses. Roscelinus teaches that whatever is a substance is, as such, not a part; and the part is, as such, not a substance, but the result of that subjective separation of the substance into parts which we make in [thought and in] discourse. Gilbertus thus speaks: The intellect collects the universal, which exists, but not as a substance (est, sed non substat), from the particular things which not merely are (sunt), but also (as subjects of accidents) have substantial existence, by considering only their substantial similarity or conformity. Descartes defines substance as follows: "By substance we can only understand that which so exists that it needs nothing else in order to its existence," and adds that, "indeed, only one substance can be conceived as plainly needing nothing else in order to its existence, namely, God; for we plainly perceive that all others cannot exist without God's assistance." Spinoza understands substance to be "that which is in itself, and is to be conceived by itself. There is only one substance, and that is God. This substance has two fundamental qualities or attributes cognizable by us, namely, thought and extension; there is no extended substance as distinct from thinking substance." "There are not two substances equal to each other, since such substances would limit each other. One substance cannot produce or be produced by another substance. Every substance, which is in God's infinite understanding, is also really in nature.

In nature there are not different substances; nature is one in essence, and identical with God." Locke says, "The mind, being furnished with a great number of simple ideas, conveyed to it by sensation and reflection, remarks that a certain number of them always go together; and since we cannot imagine that which is represented by them as subsisting by itself, we accustom ourselves to suppose a substratum in which it subsists, and from which it arises; this substratum we call a substance. The idea of substance contains nothing but the supposition of an unknown something serving as a support for qualities." Leibnitz gives the name monad to simple, unextended substance; that is, a substance which has the power of action; active force (like the force of the strained bow) is the essence of substance. He held that the divisibility of matter proved that it was an aggregate of substances; there can be no smallest indivisible bodies or atoms, because these must still be extended, and would therefore be aggregates of substances; that the real substances of which bodies consist are indivisible, cannot be generated, and are indestructible, and in a certain sense similar to souls, which he likewise considers as individual substances. The individual, unextended substances were termed by Leibnitz monads. Hume remarks, "We have no clear ideas of anything but perceptions; a substance is something quite different from perceptions; hence we have no knowledge of a substance. The question whether perceptions inhere in a material or immaterial substance cannot be answered, because it has no intelligible sense." John Stuart Mill distinguishes substances as bodily and mental, and says, "Of the first, all we know is, the sensations which they give us, and the order of the occurrence of these sensations; i.e. the hidden cause of our sensations. Of the second, that it is the unknown recipient of them." See Fleming, Vocab. of Philosoph. Sciences, s.v.; Ueberweg, History of Philosophy (see Index).

Substance, a term used in technical divinity to describe nearly the same idea as essence or nature. Thus the Son is said to be the same substance with the Father, that is, truly and essentially God, as the Father is. (See Christology).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

sub´stans ( רכוּשׁ , rekhūsh  ; ὑπόστασις , hupóstasis ): Lit. that which stands under, is in the Bible used chiefly of material goods and possessions. In the Old Testament it is the translation of numerous Hebrew words, of which rekhūsh , "that which is gathered together," is one of the earliest and most significant (  Genesis 12:5;  Genesis 13:6;  Genesis 15:14;  1 Chronicles 27:31;  Ezra 8:21 , etc.). In the New Testament "substance" appears in a few passages as the translation of ousı́a , "being," "subsistence" ( Luke 15:13 ), húparxis , "goods," "property" ( Hebrews 10:34 ), hupárchonta , "things at hand" ( Luke 8:3 ). Special interest attaches to  Hebrews 11:1 , the King James Version "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for," etc., where the word is used in its proper etymological sense as the translation of hupostasis , "that which stands under." the Revised Version (British and American) changes to "assurance," margin "the giving substance to," which last seems best to bring out the idea of faith as that which makes the things hoped for real to the soul. The same Greek word hupostasis is rendered "substance" in  Hebrews 1:3 the Revised Version (British and American), instead of the King James Version "person," with reference to Christ, "the very image (margin "impress") of his substance," i.e. of God's invisible essence or being, the manifestation of God Himself.