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)
  • Cherokee: “fire nurturing place” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 26) (note that the Jewish priest is “fire feeder” in Cherokee)
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.

Translation commentary on Greek Esther 4:37

[Today’s English Version C.20; Revised Standard Version 14.9]

Beginning in this verse and continuing to the next verse is a list of six things that the enemies of the Jews have made a pact with their idols to do. Today’s English Version restructures for clarity but thereby loses the distinct statement of each intention as one follows the other.

What thy mouth has ordained refers to the Law of Moses, which the Jews observed (so Today’s English Version “to do away with your Law”; see 3.8; B.4).

On thy inheritance see 13.15-16 (C.8-9) and comments.

To stop the mouths: “to block up” or “to close” is an expression that means “to silence the people who praise you” (see 13.17 [C.10] and comments).

To quench thy altar and the glory of thy house: literally “to quench the glory of your house and your altar.” The verb is that of extinguishing a fire, and it is used here with reference to the altar in the temple and the glory associated with God’s house (see 1 Kgs 8.10-11). Some translations take glory with both the altar and the house (so Today’s English Version, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, Chouraqui), while others take glory only with the noun house, which immediately follows glory (New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible). While the Greek syntax allows for either interpretation, perhaps Revised English Bible most closely preserves the sense: “extinguishing the glory of your house and the flame on your altar.” The construction in Greek is elliptical, omitting the word “flame” (see Lev 6.12-13, which states that the fire on the altar shall be kept burning continually). It may be necessary in some languages to use two different verbs for extinguishing flame and glory.

Glory is sometimes difficult to translate. In other contexts in the book of Esther it has been used to describe royal splendor (1.4; C.13). It has also been used with the meaning of honor (Septuagint 5.11; C.5). In this context it refers specifically to the glory that is associated with God’s house (see Exo 40.34; 1 Kgs 8.10-11; Psa 26.8) or with God himself (Exo 33.18, 22). God’s glory is a manifestation of his presence. It is often identified with “brightness” or “shining light,” and some languages express it in those terms. Other languages may translate “majesty” or simply “greatness.”

Thy house means the “temple” (so New American Bible, Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy) in Jerusalem. Some translations capitalize the words altar and house to indicate that the temple is meant (so Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente; New Jerusalem Bible capitalizes “House”), but translators should not rely on capitalization alone to indicate the meaning. For the sake of clarity it may be translated “your house in Jerusalem.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Noss, Philip A. A Handbook on the Book of Esther — Deuterocanon: The Greek Text. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .