Here, as in verse 12, With one sacrifice may be translated as “By means of once having sacrificed himself” or “When once he offered himself as a sacrifice.”

“Making perfect” and “making pure” are difficult to distinguish. “Making people pure” means that God sets them apart to belong to him, or to be dedicated to him. “Making people perfect” involves dealing completely with sin and so cleansing the conscience from guilt. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates simply, “So he has with a single sacrifice brought to the goal those who are made pure by him” (similarly Translator’s New Testament).

As in other contexts, made perfect may be rendered as “made to be as they should be” or “made to be without guilt.”

Those who are purified from sin: in 2.11 the same Greek phrase is translated those who are made pure. In some contexts it may be rendered as “those whom God has made to belong to himself” or “those who are dedicated to God.”

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 .