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.

complete verse (Exodus 27:5)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 27:5:

  • Kupsabiny: “The net of bronze should be attached inside the altar at the chest/middle part.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “For the grate make stoppers inside the 4 sides of the altar. In this way when the grate is put in it must just reach the middle of the altar.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Then put this in the place-to-put inside the altar, half-way from the top.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “And on these four legs of the table, affix bras parts onto the middle of the legs to be for holding the bras grate.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “you shall put grating into belly of altar.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “They must put the grating under the rim that is around the altar. They must make it so that it is inside the altar, halfway down.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 27:5

And you shall set it means “you [singular] shall place the net.” Under the ledge of the altar is literally “under the karkov of the altar below.” The word karkov is found only here and in 38.4, so its meaning is unclear. Some think of it as a kind of “rim” (Good News Translation) around the altar that could also support the weight of the altar when lifted by the rings on the grating (verse 4). Others imagine that it may have been a ledge wide enough for the officiating priests to stand on, but this is unlikely, since the altar itself was to be only 4½ feet high.

It is not clear whether this karkov was at the top, the middle, or the bottom of the altar. Neither is it clear whether it was on the inside or the outside. New American Bible translates it simply as “around,” since its root meaning may have been to surround or encircle: “Put it down around the altar, on the ground.”

Note that the Hebrew phrase uses both the words “under” and “below,” possibly for emphasis or clarity. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “Set the mesh below, under the ledge of the altar,” and New Jerusalem Bible has “You will put it below the ledge of the altar, underneath.” Since there is so much uncertainty about the meaning of these terms, one must choose either the idea of a ledge or a “rim.” We may assume that it was a structural rim located probably around the top of the altar, but on the inside.

So that the net shall extend halfway down the altar is literally “and the net will be until half of the altar.” This does not indicate whether it means halfway down or “halfway up the altar” (Good News Translation). Most translations have “halfway up,” suggesting that the grating was placed in some way at the lower half of the altar. But Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version suggest that this ledge was near the top. It is probably better for translators to follow this interpretation.

A possible translation model for verses 4-5 is:

• Make a bronze grating, like a strainer, and attach a bronze ring at each of its four corners. Then place the grating under the rim that goes around the altar, so that it extends halfway down inside the altar.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .