The seventh item in the list is Jesus. Jesus, as in 2.9 and other places, is emphatic. On who arranged, literally “mediator” (Revised Standard Version), see 8.6 and 9.15. New renders a different word from that used in 8.8 and elsewhere, but the meaning in this context is the same.
As both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation show, the sprinkled blood is a separate item in the list, the eighth item. However, several translations show the close relation between Jesus and the sprinkled blood: Bible en français courant “Jesus, the intermediary of the new covenant, and his shed blood…” and Translator’s New Testament “and whose shed blood….” As 9.13-14 shows, the nonfigurative meaning of sprinkle is “make holy” or “purify.” Bijbel in Gewone Taal combines the last three items in the list, since they are related in meaning, even if they are separated grammatically: “Jesus, through whose mediation a new covenant is concluded, and whose shed blood speaks more powerfully than that of Abel.” As for example in 1.4 and 11.40, the Greek combines the meaning of “better” and “greater”; Moffatt has “nobler.” As in 9.13, 19, 21, sprinkled makes it necessary to keep the word blood, rather than to use some more general expression like “(violent) death” or “sacrifice.” But the blood of Old Testament sacrifices was sprinkled in order to make things ritually clean, and Phillips makes this clear by “cleansing of blood”; Jerusalem Bible “blood for purification.”
It may be difficult to speak of “coming” to the sprinkled blood. Since the sprinkled blood relates to Jesus, it is often better to render verse 24 as “You have come to Jesus, who was the means of producing the new covenant and whose blood, which was shed, promises for us that which is better than what the blood of Abel stands for” or “… represents.”
Than does the blood of Abel is literally “than Abel,” but most translations add blood, following Genesis 4.10. A few manuscripts have “than that of Abel,” implying “than Abel’s blood.” In this case the meaning would be that Abel’s blood cried for vengeance, and Christ’s blood speaks of salvation. The idea of blood speaking may be difficult to express in translation. Jerusalem Bible tries to avoid the problem by using a more specific expression, “pleads more insistently”; similarly Translator’s New Testament, “far better things to say to us than Abel’s”; more smoothly, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente has “sprinkled blood, which has a more powerful voice than that (meaning, than the voice) of Abel.”
This very brief reference to Abel’s blood may require an Old Testament reference or a marginal note to give the historical background. It is, however, quite possible to make sense of than … Abel without adding blood, since Abel was earlier presented as the first true worshiper, not as the first murder victim (see notes on 11.4). In this case the main reference would be to Abel’s sacrifice, offered in faith, though his murder, considered as a “sacrifice” of himself, would not be excluded.
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 .