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Heb_13:15. Closing exhortation, through Christ, to offer to God sacrifices of praise. Deduced from Heb_13:8-14.
Διʼ αὐτοῦ ] is with great emphasis preposed: through HIM (sc. Christ), but not through the intervention of the Jewish sacrificial institution. Through Him, inasmuch as by the all-sufficiency of His expiatory sacrifice once offered, He has qualified believers so to do.
θυσίαν αἰνέσεως ] a praise-offering ( æÆáÇç úÌåÉãÈí ), thus a spiritual sacrifice, in opposition to the animal sacrifices of Judaism.
διὰ παντός ] continually. For the blessings obtained through Christ are so abundant and inexhaustible, that God can never be sufficiently praised for them.
τουτέστιν καρπὸν χειλέων ὁμολογούντων τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ ] that is, fruit of lips which praise His name. Elucidation of the meaning in θυσίαν αἰνέσεως , in order further to bring into special relief the purely spiritual nature of this Christian thankoffering already indicated by those words. The expression καρπὸν χειλέων the author has derived from Hos_14:3, LXX.: καὶ ἀνταποδώσομεν καρπὸν χειλέων ἡμῶν (in the Hebrew: ðÀùÑÇìÌÀîÈä ôÈøÄéí ùÒÀôÈúÅéðåÌ , let us offer for oxen our own lips). For the thought, comp. Vajikra R. 9. 27, in Wetstein: R. Pinchas, R. Levi et R. Jochanam ex ore R. Menachem Galilaei dixerunt: Tempore futuro omnia sacrificia cessabunt, sacrificium vero laudis non cessabit. Omnes preces cessabunt, sed laudes non cessabunt. Philo, de Sacrificantibus, p. 849 E (with Mang. II. p. 253): τὴν ἀρίστην ἀνάγουσι θυσίαν , ὕμνοις καὶ εὐχαριστίαις τὸν εὐεργέτην καὶ σωτῆρα Θεὸν γεραίροντες .
The referring of αὐτοῦ to Christ (so Sykes, who finds the sense: confessing ourselves publicly as the disciples of Christ) is unnatural, seeing that God has been expressly mentioned only just before as the One to whom the θυσία αἰνέσεως is to be presented.