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.

bronze altar (illustration)

The Hebrew that is translated as “bronze altar” in English is illustrated for use in Bible translations in East Africa by Pioneer Bible Translators like this:

Image owned by PBT and Jonathan McDaniel and licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

bronze

The Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Greek that is translated as “bronze” in English is translated in Newari as “bell-metal,” since bells are made of bronze in Nepal (source: Newari Back Translation).

See also bronze vessel.

complete verse (Exodus 38:30)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 38:30:

  • Kupsabiny: “Bronze was used to make the things on which the pillars of the entrance to the Tent stood, the bronze altar, the net of bronze and all the items/utensils for the altar” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “He made the bases for the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and altar of burnt offering, its bronze grid and utensils,” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “It used to make bases of the posts to-the entrance of-the Tent Meeting-Place. Others of-this was-used to make bronze altar and the grill/grating of-it, and all the things-that-are-use of-the altar.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “That bras, he used it for the post-bases of the opening of God’s shelter, and he enwrapped on the table of offerings, and used it for the bras grate, and used it for all the things of the table.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “They pound it for planting-hole of door of tent, and altar and its grating and its things,” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “With the bronze, Bezalel and his helpers made the bases for under the posts at the entrance of the Sacred Tent. They also made the altar for burning sacrifices, the grating for it and the tools used with it,” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 38:30 - 38:31

With it means with the bronze listed in verse 29. The bases for the door of the tent of meeting is literally “the bases of the entrance of [the] ʾohel moʿed.” This refers to the bases to go under the four posts at the “entrance” (Good News Translation) of the tent itself, where the “screen” was to be hung. (See 36.38.) The bronze altar and the bronze grating for it refers to the “altar of burnt offering” in 38.1 and the “grating” mentioned in 38.4. (See the comments there.)

The bases round about the court refers to the bronze bases mentioned in verses 10-12 above. The bases of the gate of the court refers to the four bases mentioned in verse 19 above. All the pegs … about the court refers to all the pegs mentioned in verse 20 above.

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 .