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.

fat, oil

The different Hebrew and Greek terms that are translated as “(olive) oil” and “(animal) fat” in English are translated in Kwere with only one term: mavuta. (Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

complete verse (Exodus 39:38)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 39:38:

  • Kupsabiny: “(They) brought the golden altar on which things that smell nice (incense) are burnt, anointing oil, and the curtain for closing/covering the entrance of the Tent,” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “the altar of gold, anointing oil, the fragrant incense, curtain of the entrance of the tent,” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “the gold altar; the oil which is-for-anointing; the fragrant incense; the curtain to-the entrance of-the Tent;” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “and the gol table which is for offering incense, and oil which is a sign of the things belonging to God, and incense which makes smoke having a good smell, and the big cloth which is for the blocking the opening of the shelter,” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “and altar of incense which they make with gold, and its incense, and cloth of door of tent,” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “the golden altar for burning incense, the oil for anointing, the sweet-smelling incense, the curtain for the entrance to the Sacred Tent,” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 39:38 - 39:39

The golden altar refers to the “altar of incense” in 35.15. This is described in 30.1-4 and 37.25-27. The anointing oil is described in 30.23-25. The fragrant incense is described is 30.34-35. The screen for the door of the tent is listed in 35.15 as “the screen for the door, at the door of the tabernacle.” This refers to “the curtain for the entrance of the Tent” (Good News Translation). (See the comment at 26.36.)

The bronze altar refers to the “altar of burnt offering” described in 38.1-2. (See also 27.1-2.) Its grating of bronze, literally “the bronze grating which is to it,” is mentioned in 27.4-5 and 38.4. (See the comments there.) Its poles are described in 27.6-7 and 38.6. All its utensils includes the five different items listed in 27.3 and 38.3. The laver and its base, mentioned in 35.16, is the bronze “washbasin and its base” (Good News Translation) described in 30.18 and 38.8. (See the comments there.)

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 .