altar

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The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated as “altar” in English is translated in a number of ways:

  • Obolo: ntook or “raised structure for keeping utensils (esp. sacrifice)” (source: Enene Enene)
  • Muna: medha kaefoampe’a or “offering table” (source: René van den Berg)
  • Luchazi: muytula or “the place where one sets the burden down”/”the place where the life is laid down” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. )
  • Tzotzil: “where they place God’s gifts” (source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965, p. 2ff.)
  • Tsafiki: “table for giving to God” (source: Bruce Moore in Notes on Translation 1/1992, p. 1ff.)
  • Noongar: karla-kooranyi or “sacred fire” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “offering-burning table” (source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “place for sacrificing” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “burning-place” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tibetan: mchod khri (མཆོད་​ཁྲི།) or “offering throne” (source: gSungrab website )
  • Bura-Pabir: “sacrifice mound” (source: Andy Warrren-Rothlin)
  • Kalanga: “fireplace of sacrifice” (source: project-specific notes in Paratext)
The Ignaciano translators decided to translate the difficult term in that language according to the focus of each New Testament passage in which the word appears (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight

Willis Ott (in Notes on Translation 88/1982, p. 18ff.) explains:

  • Matt. 5:23,24: “When you take your offering to God, and arriving, you remember…, do not offer your gift yet. First go to your brother…Then it is fitting to return and offer your offering to God.” (The focus is on improving relationships with people before attempting to improve a relationship with God, so the means of offering, the altar, is not focal.)
  • Matt. 23:18 (19,20): “You also teach erroneously: ‘If someone makes a promise, swearing by the offering-place/table, he is not guilty if he should break the promise. But if he swears by the gift that he put on the offering-place/table, he will be guilty if he breaks the promise.'”
  • Luke 1:11: “…to the right side of the table where they burn incense.”
  • Luke 11.51. “…the one they killed in front of the temple (or the temple enclosure).” (The focus is on location, with overtones on: “their crime was all the more heinous for killing him there”.)
  • Rom. 11:3: “Lord, they have killed all my fellow prophets that spoke for you. They do not want anyone to give offerings to you in worship.” (The focus is on the people’s rejection of religion, with God as the object of worship.)
  • 1Cor. 9:13 (10:18): “Remember that those that attend the temple have rights to eat the foods that people bring as offerings to God. They have rights to the meat that the people offer.” (The focus is on the right of priests to the offered food.)
  • Heb. 7:13: “This one of whom we are talking is from another clan. No one from that clan was ever a priest.” (The focus in on the legitimacy of this priest’s vocation.)
  • Jas. 2:21: “Remember our ancestor Abraham, when God tested him by asking him to give him his son by death. Abraham was to the point of stabbing/killing his son, thus proving his obedience.” (The focus is on the sacrifice as a demonstration of faith/obedience.)
  • Rev. 6:9 (8:3,5; 9:13; 14:18; 16:7): “I saw the souls of them that…They were under the table that holds God’s fire/coals.” (This keeps the concepts of: furniture, receptacle for keeping fire, and location near God.)
  • Rev. 11:1: “Go to the temple, Measure the building and the inside enclosure (the outside is contrasted in v. 2). Measure the burning place for offered animals. Then count the people who are worshiping there.” (This altar is probably the brazen altar in a temple on earth, since people are worshiping there and since outside this area conquerors are allowed to subjugate for a certain time.)

See also altar (Acts 17:23).


In the Hebraic English translation of Everett Fox it is translated as slaughter-site and likewise in the German translation by Buber / Rosenzweig as Schlachtstatt.

sanctuary

The Hebrew, Greek and Latin that is translated as “sanctuary” in English is translated in the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) with opatulika or “separated place.” This is understood in a religious setup as a place designated for worship. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

Translation commentary on 2 Maccabees 10:3

They purified the sanctuary: The pronoun They refers to Judas and his soldiers. For the Greek word rendered purified, see the comments on 1Macc 4.36, where it is translated “cleanse.” The sanctuary refers to the Temple (see the comments on 1Macc 1.21). This whole clause may be rendered “Judas and his soldiers made the Temple ready [or, acceptable] for worship again.”

And made another altar of sacrifice: See 1Macc 4.44-47. Since an altar is by definition a place of sacrifice, Good News Bible renders this clause as “and built a new altar,” which is sufficient.

Then, striking fire out of flint, they offered sacrifices, after a lapse of two years: It was apparently important that the fire on the altar be new fire, not brought from somewhere else (ideally, it should be lit miraculously; see 2Macc 1.19-36), so they started it from sparks made by striking flint, which is a hard stone. (Good News Bible‘s “new fire” is an interpretation built into the translation; it is not directly from the Greek.) Then, striking fire out of flint is literally “and having ignited stones [or, having heated stones red-hot] and having taken fire from them.” Goldstein insists that flint is not involved, and that stones (perhaps even coal) were heated red-hot and the altar fire was lit from these. The Greek certainly reads like that is what happened. We accept this, and recommend a model based on it. The text here says they began sacrificing again after a lapse of two years, but according to 1Macc 1.54 and 1Macc 4.52, it had been three years. Here is an alternative model for this part of the verse: “Then they used red-hot stones to light the fire on the altar, and they offered sacrifices for the first time in two years.”

And they burned incense and lighted lamps and set out the bread of the Presence: See 1Macc 4.50-51. For burned incense, see 1Macc 1.55; for the bread of the Presence, see 1Macc 1.22. Good News Bible translates the bread of the Presence as “the sacred loaves” here, but it usually says “the bread offered to the Lord.” The Greek expression here is slightly different than the one in 1Macc 1.22, but the meaning is the same. Some translators may be familiar with the term “showbread” used in New American Bible.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.