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.

cubit

The Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek that is translated as “cubit” or into a metric or imperial measurement in English is translated in Kutu, Kwere, and Nyamwezi as makono or “armlength.” Since a cubit is the measurement from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, one armlength (measured from the center of the chest to the fingertips) equals two cubits or roughly 1 meter. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

Similarly, in Akoose, the translation is “arm distance.” (Source: Joseph Nkwelle Ngome and Marlie van Rooyen & Jacobus A. Naudé in Communicatio 2009, p. 251ff.)

In Klao it is converted into “hand spans” (app. 6 inches or 12 cm) and “finger spans” (app. 1 inch or 2 cm) (source: Don Slager) and in Bariai into leoa or “fathom,” which comprises the distance from a person’s fingertip to fingertip with arms outstretched, app. 6 feet (source: Bariai Back Translation).

distance (long / wide / high)

The concepts of distance that are translated in English with “long,” “wide,” and “high/tall” are translated in Kwere with one word: utali. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

complete verse (Ezekiel 43:13)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 43:13:

  • Kupsabiny: “This is how the altar was: A trench of twenty inches going down and a width of twenty inches and an outside ring of nine inches surrounded (it)” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘This is the measurement of the altar according to the official measurement: Around the foundation of the altar had somewhat-like-a-canal which was 20 inches deep and 20 inches wide, that had a border/hangings around which was six inches long.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “These are the measurements of the altar, using the same kind of measuring stick that was used for the temple area: There is a gutter around the altar that is 21 in./53 cm. deep and 21 in./53 cm. wide. There is a rim around it that is 9 in./23 cm. wide.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 43:13

These are the dimensions of the altar by cubits: This is a minor heading showing that Ezekiel is about to talk about “the measurements of the altar” (Good News Translation, New International Version, New Living Translation). For altar see the comments on 6.4 and 8.16.

By cubits (the cubit being a cubit and a handbreadth): Even though all the measurements in the previous three chapters have been in cubits, Ezekiel repeats the information he gave in 40.5 (see the comments there). If translators want to retain cubit, they may render the cubit being a cubit and a handbreadth as “When I speak of a cubit, I mean here a normal cubit plus a handwidth.” But for translators who do not use cubits but convert all measurements into metric or imperial figures, this phrase is not appropriate, and translations have handled it in different ways; for example, Good News Translation has “using the same unit of measure as in measuring the Temple,” Contemporary English Version says “According to the official standards,” New International Reader’s Version uses “The standard measurement I am using is 21 inches,” New Century Version translates “using the measuring stick,” and in a footnote New Living Translation (1996) says “In this chapter, the distance measures are calculated using the Hebrew long cubit, which equals 21 inches or 53 centimeters.” Of these renderings, Good News Translation is the best, but it would also be acceptable to omit this phrase entirely (so Buk Bibel).

Its base shall be one cubit high, and one cubit broad: Instead of base, the Hebrew text has “gutter” (Good News Translation, New International Version, New Living Translation), or “trench” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). The altar’s gutter was one cubit high, and one cubit broad, that is, 50 centimeters (20 inches) deep and wide. This gutter was dug into the ground around the base of the altar, presumably to catch the blood from the animals that were being killed for the sacrifices.

With a rim of one span around its edge: The gutter had a rim … around its edge, presumably on the outside to stop the blood from overflowing (compare Good News Translation “a rim at the outside edge” and Contemporary English Version “a … ledge on the outer rim”). This rim was one span, or half a cubit, that is, 25 centimeters (10 inches). This measurement probably refers to how high the rim was, even though Ezekiel does not say so. He does not say how wide it was.

And this shall be the height of the altar: Revised Standard Version and most other translations follow the Septuagint here, which is probably correct. This reading does not involve changing the Hebrew letters, except to change a word break by reading one letter with the previous word instead of the next word. So this clause just involves a change of focus from the bottom of the altar to how high it was. A possible model for this reading is “Now, with respect to the height of the altar.” Another reading, which is not reflected in the translations, makes no change to the Hebrew and simply concludes the description of the bottom of the altar: “This was the base of the altar” (compare New American Standard Bible “and this shall be the height of the base of the altar,” even though this rendering tries to have it both ways). The Hebrew word for “base” usually refers to a curved surface like a hump or a “bulge” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh footnote), often referring to the curved back of an animal or person. Here it refers to the hump of soil that made up the bottom of the altar. We recommend the reading in Revised Standard Version.

See verse 17 for models of verses 13-17.

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .