It may be impossible to translate literally the blood of bulls and goats. Two kinds of blood are involved, so it may be necessary to talk about “the bloods of bulls and of goats” or “the blood of bulls and the blood of goats.”

Never translates the emphatic “it is impossible”; it is not an expression of time. For the writer’s typical phrase “it is impossible” (Revised Standard Version), see 6.4, 18; 11.6.

Take away in Greek is a compound verb used with sins or “sin” in both the Old and the New Testaments; see Romans 11.27, which refers back to Isaiah 27.9. John 1.29 in Greek uses the simple form of the same verb (without the equivalent of away). An expression for take away, in the Greek as in English, is here a dead metaphor. It does not make the reader ask “where are the sins taken?” but means essentially the same as “forgive” (9.22) or deal with (9.28).

Can never take away sins may be rendered as “cannot at all cause guilt to disappear” or “can never cause sin to be forgiven.” Expressions for forgiveness often involve idiomatic expressions; for example, to forgive guilt may be “to take guilt back” or “to throw guilt away.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .