in faith. As Hugh Montefiore states, “This great cloud of witnesses are not merely onlookers of the present contest, but they have given their own witness of faith by their own past lives (cf. 11:39), some even to the point of death, martus here is approaching its later sense of martyr.”3 The central truth stated here, therefore, is that these Old Testament heroes of faith are testifiers (witnesses) to God’s care and providence. Concerning the thought that these are now actually observing us, Homer