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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Hebrews 11:4 - 11:4
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Abel offered unto God (Ἄβελ προσήνεγκεν τῷ θεῷ)
For the phrase see Heb 9:14.
A more excellent sacrifice (πλείονα θυσίαν)
Greater in value in God's eyes. For πλείων in this sense, see Heb 3:3; Mat 6:25; Luk 11:31; Luk 12:23. In Paul never in this sense. Others explain a more abundant sacrifice, referring to the material character of the offerings. See Gen 4:4. But the difference between the offerings of Abel and Cain, considered in themselves, is largely a matter of speculation, and, as Lünemann justly remarks, such an interpretation accentuates unduly a purely external feature.
By which he obtained witness (δι ἧς ἐμαρτυρήθη)
Lit. was witnessed to, as Heb 11:2. The pronoun which may refer either to the sacrifice or to faith. Better the latter, as is apparent from Heb 11:2, and probably from Heb 11:7, although the relation there is somewhat different.
Righteous (δίκαιος)
Abel is called righteous by Christ himself. Mat 23:35. Comp. 1Jo 3:12. See on Rom 1:17.
God testifying of his gifts (μαρτυροῦντος ἐπὶ τοῖς δώροις αὐτοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ)
Defining more specifically the general was witnessed to. God bore witness by his acceptance of the gifts. Ἐπὶ marks the fact on which the witness was based.
Yet speaketh (ἔτι λαλεῖ)
Comp. Gen 4:10. Still, although ages have passed since his death. Comp. Heb 12:24. Not that his voice still cries to God (so Bleek and others), but that by his faith he still speaks to us in the O.T. Scriptures, though dead. Const. ἔτι yet with λαλεῖ speaketh; not with being dead, in the logical sense, “even being dead,” as Rom 3:7.