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.

complete verse (Exodus 40:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 40:7:

  • Kupsabiny: “and someone place the basin for bathing/washing in the middle between the Tent and the altar and pour in some water.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “And placing the basin between the Tent of Meeting and the altar fill water in it.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Put the basin between the Tent Meeting-Place and the altar, and put water in-it.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “And between my shelter and the table of offerings, you (sing.) must put the dish for water, and then pour water into it.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “carry water jar big, put it between altar and door, put water in its belly.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “Put the washbasin between the Sacred Tent and the altar, and fill it with water.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 40:6 - 40:7

You shall set uses the same word as in verse 5, where Revised Standard Version has “you shall put.” The altar of the burnt offering is described in 27.1-5 and 38.1-4. Before the door of the tabernacle is literally “to the face of the entrance of the mishkan.” This means that this altar was to be placed outside the “Tent” but “in front of the entrance” (Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New American Bible, Revised English Bible). Good News Translation‘s “in front of the Tent” may not be clear enough. The tabernacle of the tent of meeting is the same as in verse 1.

And place the laver uses the same word for place as for set in verse 6. The laver is the bronze “washbasin” that is mentioned in 30.18 and 38.8. Between the tent of meeting and the altar means that the bronze altar for sacrifice had to be placed far enough from the entrance to the tent itself that there was enough space for the laver. And put water in it is literally “and you shall give water there.” The same word is used again for put. Good News Translation‘s “fill it with water” is not clearly stated, but it is a possible interpretation (so also Contemporary English Version, New Jerusalem Bible, and Translator’s Old Testament).

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 .