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Heb_11:4. The example of Abel. Comp. Gen_4:3 ff.
Πίστει ] belongs to the whole statement: πλείονα … θεῷ . The conjoining of the same merely with πλείονα (Bisping) has against it the analogy of the following instances, and would weaken the force of the emphatically preposed πίστει . The dative, however, indicates, as Rom_11:20 and frequently, the cause or occasion. See Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 202 f. By reason of his faith (or because he had faith) Abel offered to God a greater sacrifice than Cain; i.e. the faith of Abel, which was wanting to Cain, was the cause that in the estimation of God Abel’s sacrifice had greater value than that of Cain.
πλείονα θυσίαν ] a greater sacrifice, namely, in a qualitative respect, thus a better, more excellent one. Comp. Heb_3:3; Mat_6:25; Mat_12:41-42, al. The quantitative acceptation (Valla: plus hostiarum; Erasmus, Clarius: copiosiorem hostiam; Zeger: abundantiorem) finds no point of support in the narrative of Genesis, and would unsuitably accentuate a purely external feature.
παρὰ Κάϊν ] is by Grotius and others made equivalent to παρὰ τὴν τοῦ Κάϊν , which is admissible, it is true, but not at all necessary. On παρά after the comparative, see at Heb_1:4.
διʼ ἧς ἐμαρτυρήθη εἶναι δίκαιος ] By it he obtained the testimony that he was righteous.
διʼ ἧς ] sc. πίστεως , not θυσίας (Cramer). For the πίστις is the main idea in the whole description, and διʼ ἧς ἐμαρτυρήθη manifestly glances back at ἐνταύτῃ ἐμαρτυρήθησαν , Heb_11:2.
ἐμαρτυρήθη ] Of whom? Not of Christ, by virtue of the declaration Mat_23:35 (Primasius, Faber Stapulensis, Justinian), but of God; as, accordingly, the author himself adds, more nearly defining the ἐμαρτυρήθη : μαρτυροῦντος ἐπὶ τοῖς δώροις αὐτοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ ] in that, namely, God gave testimony in respect of his offerings. What is meant is the testimony given in the fact that God looked with satisfaction upon Abel and his sacrifice (comp. LXX. Gen_4:4 : καὶ ἐπεῖδεν ὁ θεὸς ἐπὶ Ἄβελ καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς δώροις αὐτοῦ ), thus, in point of fact, recognised him as a δίκαιος (comp. Mat_23:35 : Ἄβελ τοῦ δικαίου , and 1Jn_3:12).
καὶ διʼ αὐτῆς ἀποθανὼν ἔτι λαλεῖ ] and by virtue of the same (namely: his faith, not: his sacrifice) he yet speaks after his death.
ἀποθανών ] is a purely parenthetic member: although he has died, and forms with ἔτι λαλεῖ an oxymoron. Hardly is it in accordance with the intention of the author to comprehend in one ἀποθανών and διʼ αὐτῆς . In addition to the ordinary one, this explanation also is proposed by Oecumenius, in referring the pronoun back to the θυσία by which the violent death of Abel was occasioned; it is followed by Bengel, with the difference that he supplements διʼ αὐτῆς by πίστεως , and will have διά taken in the sense of κατά or ἐν .
ἔτι ] is not the temporal: still, adhuc (Theodoret: μέχρι τοῦ παρόντος ), so that λαλεῖ would signify: he speaks to us of himself and his faith or piety (Theodoret: τὸ δὲ ἔτι λαλεῖ ἀντὶ τοῦ ἀοίδιμός ἐστι μέχρι τοῦ παρόντος καὶ πολυθρύλλητος καὶ παρὰ πάντων εὐφημεῖται τῶν εὐσεβῶν ; Heinsius, Bengel: loquitur de se et sui similibus contra Cainos, al.), or: he summons posterity to the imitation of his faith (Chrysostom: ὁ γὰρ παραινῶν τοῖς ἄλλοις δικαίοις εἶναι , λαλεῖ ; Cornelius a Lapide, Valckenaer, Kuinoel, Paulus, Klee, Bloomfield, and others). Rather is ἔτι employed, as Rom_3:7 and frequently, in the logical sense, and serves for the emphasizing of the contrast: “even being dead,” or: “notwithstanding he is dead, he nevertheless speaks,” while λαλεῖ is to be regarded as the more vividly descriptive pracsens historicum (Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 250), and is to be referred to the thought that the shed blood of Abel called to God for vengeance, and God, listening to this cry, was concerned about the slain Abel, as though he were still living. For manifestly, as appears also from the parallel Heb_12:24, there is an allusion in λαλεῖ to the words, Gen_4:10 : φωνὴ αἵματος τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου βοᾷ πρός με ἐκ τῆς γῆς .