Hebrews 11:35

Women received their dead by a resurrection: and others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.

Old Testament instances of women receiving back their dead in a resurrection are those of the widow of Sarepta (1 Kings 17:17-24), whose son was raised by Elijah; and the Shunamite woman (2 Kings 4:18-37), whose son was raised by Elisha. From the New Testament, of course, may be added the widow of Nain, whose son Jesus raised (Luke 7), and the sisters of Lazarus (John 11), whose brother Lazarus was raised by Jesus.

Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance - scholars usually cite examples of things suggested here as written in the apocryphal books, as in 2 Maccabees 6-7; and it is quite possible, without receiving such books as inspired, to accept as historical some of the events mentioned. One such happening is related of one, Eliazar, who was tortured for not eating swine's flesh, refusing the deliverance he might have had through compliance with the order to eat it. The word "torture" as used in this verse means a very particular kind of torture, described by Milligan thus,

TORTURED means properly to stretch and torture upon the TYMPANUM; an instrument of torture in the shape of a large drum, or wheel, on which criminals were stretched in order to be beaten to death with sticks and rods.[43]

That they might obtain a better resurrection - these words raise the question, "better than what?" Some believe it means an eternal resurrection, rather than a resurrection to a mere continuation of earthly life, like that received by the loved ones of the women just mentioned. Others think it means a better resurrection in eternity than would have been theirs in case they yielded to temptation in order to prolong their earthly lives. This view would make the better resurrection to be the resurrection of the just, as contrasted with that of the unjust. Along with Milligan, Bruce, and others, this writer accepts the latter explanation as being more probably the correct one.