Hebrews 11:4

Hebrews 11:4. A more excellent sacrifice partaking more of the quality of a true sacrifice with reference to what constitutes its excellence. Cain offered of his fruits what came first to hand; Abel offered of the firstlings of his flock, the choicest and best. Cain expressed at most his thankfulness, and that not hearty or profound; Abel's faith showed itself in acknowledging his sin and in laying hold of the Divine mercy in the midst of what he felt to be deserved wrath; and thus his offering was a true sacrifice.

By which (faith) it was witnessed of him (the same word is in Hebrews 11:2) that he was righteous. Witnessed by our Lord (Matthew 23:35), and later by John (1 John 3:12), but chiefly by God Himself, as the following clause shows:

God himself testifying of his gifts (the very expression in Genesis 4:4) probably as God testified in other cases (Exodus 14:24; 1 Kings 18:24; 1 Kings 18:38), by consuming and accepting the sacrifice.

And by it (still his faith) he being dead (having died, yet speaketh (the active voice is the true reading). But how? Partly perhaps to us by way of encouragement and example; but as a similar phrase is used in chap. Hebrews 12:24 of the blood of Abel as speaking unto God, it seems at least to be part of the meaning here that through the faith and the offerings of Abel, Abel, the first martyr, lives on after death: through his faith he still speaks to God; even as Enoch still lives, who never died at all.