The writer begins to apply his teaching in a long sentence which in Greek continues without a break until verse 25. It will usually be necessary to divide this in translation, especially in a common language translation. In the Greek text the three main verbs are “draw near” (verse 22), “hold fast” (verse 23), and “consider” (verse 24). If the sentence is divided, it is necessary to find other means of making the translation as solemn and impressive as the original. This can be done by using some words which are near the upper limits of common language, and by paying particular attention to the style and form of the translation, and to points of special emphasis.
The second word in the Greek is a strong word for “therefore” (underemphasized by Good News Translation‘s then; Bible en français courant has “Thus”). This Greek word is usually used in Hebrews to mark (a) the beginning of a new section, as in 4.14; 9.1, 23; (b) a transition from a statement to an appeal (“let us…” do something), as in 4.1, 11, 16; 10.35; 13.15; or (c) a conclusion drawn from an Old Testament quotation, as in 2.14; 4.6. In this verse “therefore” is both (a) and (b). The transition is also marked by my brothers (that is, “fellow Christians,” as in 3.1, 12; 13.22). Brothers does not exclude “sisters”; but neither does it suggest any blood relationship, and it is important in many languages to avoid an expression which would mean literally my brothers. In many languages an expression for “fellow Christians” is either “relatives” or “those of the same clan,” since the fellowship among Christians suggests the establishment of a new kind of family relationship based upon God being the father of all those who believe.
Complete freedom renders a single word in the Greek. Here, as in 3.6 and 4.16, it means confidence in approaching God, rather than as in 10.35, courage in facing opponents. In Ephesians 3.12 Good News Bible translates boldness. The underlying idea is that of having been given the right or permission to enter God’s presence. Complete freedom to go into may even mean “the right to use the way into,” that is, the path which Christ has opened up by his death. Go into the Most Holy Place recalls 9.7 and also 4.16; all Christians can now approach God as freely and closely as the high priests did under the old covenant. Most is implied, as in 9.25.
In rendering We have … complete freedom to go into the Most Holy Place, it may be important to indicate the symbolic or figurative nature of the expression, or to indicate by a note that this does not refer literally to the right of Christians to go into the Most Holy Place in the Temple. The author is speaking of access to God in a spiritual sense. Some translators have wanted to translate into the Most Holy Place as “into the Most Holy Place in heaven.” But this can be misinterpreted as meaning that “believers have complete freedom to go to heaven when they die.” The figurative meaning may be made clear by translating “we have complete freedom to go, as it were, into the Most Holy Place,” “… into the Most Holy Room,” or “… into the Most Holy part of the sanctuary.”
It is important not to translate either “blood” here, or body in verse 20, as if they were separate objects, distinct from Christ’s whole offering of himself in death. For this reason Good News Translation, in this verse as in 13.20 (sacrificial death), replaces the literal translation “blood” by death. However, this is not done in chapter 9 or in 10.4, 29, where blood has its literal meaning, which is necessary to the argument. Sometimes a verb may be used, that is, where “blood” refers to an event. Good News Bible does this in 12.4: you have not yet had to resist to the point of being killed. Translator’s New Testament chooses this solution in 10.19, “Jesus has died for us”; compare Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “because Jesus has sacrificed his blood.”
By means of the death of Jesus means the same as through his own body in verse 20 (see comments below), though the Greek is different. By means of the death of Jesus may have to be expressed as a separate clause or sentence; for example, “this is possible because Christ died.”
Jesus by itself is emphatic as usual; see comments on 2.9.
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 .