Passage

Hebrews 9.28

Book: Hebrews · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

26. else must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once at the end of the ages hath he been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27. And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment;

28. so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:26-28, ASV)

WEB

26. or else he must have suffered often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27. Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,

28. so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him for salvation. (Hebrews 9:26-28, WEB)

KJV

26. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

28. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:26-28, KJV)

YLT

26. since it had behoved him many times to suffer from the foundation of the world, but now once, at the full end of the ages, for putting away of sin through his sacrifice, he hath been manifested; 27. and as it is laid up to men once to die, and after this, judgment,

28. so also the Christ, once having been offered to bear the sins of many, a second time, apart from a sin-offering, shall appear, to those waiting for him, to salvation! (Hebrews 9:26-28, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the anonymous author of Hebrews. Pauline authorship was doubted in antiquity and Origen concluded that who wrote it, God knows
Audience: Jewish believers under pressure to fall back from Christ into the older covenant observances
Location: unknown; the closing greeting from those of Italy (13:24) points in two directions at once
Time period: most likely before AD 70, since the sacrificial system is discussed as still operating

Theological reading

So Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation.

The verse closes the chapter by pairing the two appearances, and the parallel it draws is with verse 27, where it is appointed unto men once to die and after this judgment. As death comes once to each person, so the offering came once; and as judgment follows, so the second appearing follows.

Once offered. The same hapax emphasis the letter has repeated at 7:27, 9:12 and 10:10. The finality is the argument.

To bear the sins of many. The phrasing is drawn from Isaiah 53:12, where the servant bare the sin of many, and the allusion places the offering inside the Servant Song the New Testament reads Christologically throughout. The word many here contrasts with the one who bears rather than restricting the scope, which is the same idiom as at Mark 10:45 and Romans 5:19.

Apart from sin. The second appearing is not another sin-bearing. Whatever the second coming accomplishes, it is not a repetition of the atonement, which the letter has just spent two chapters arguing cannot be repeated because it does not need to be.

To them that wait for him. Salvation here is future and is the completion of what was begun, matching the letter's steady already-and-not-yet structure. See Eschatology.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G4991 - soteria, soteria, Strong's G4991
G0266 - hamartia, hamartia, Strong's G0266
G5547 - christos, christos, Strong's G5547

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.