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.

Abram

The term that is transliterated as “Abram” in English is translated in American Sign Language with the sign signifying sojourning with a staff, clearly differentiating it from Abraham. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)


“Abram” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor

Similarly, in Vietnamese (Hanoi) Sign Language it is translated with a sign that demonstrates that he has to wander from his home. (Source: The Vietnamese Sign Language translation team, VSLBT)


“Abram” in Vietnamese Sign Language, source: SooSL

Seer also Abraham.

complete verse (Genesis 12:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 12:7:

  • Kankanaey: “That’s where- God -appeared to Abram and said, ‘This is the land that I will give to your (sing.) descendants.’ Then Abram gathered rocks and made an altar (loan word) on-which-he-offered animal(s) to God who had appeared to him.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Then the LORD came to Abram and said — ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’ Then Abram built an altar for the LORD who had come to him at that place.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘This is the land I will-give to your descendants.’ Then Abram built an altar for the LORD who appeared to him.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Then Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’ Then Abram built a stone altar to offer a sacrifice to Yahweh because Yahweh had appeared to him.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Genesis 12:7

Some translations begin a new paragraph at verse 7, but most regard verse 7 as continuing the episode that commenced at the end of Gen 12.5. Revised Standard Version begins the verse with Then. Good News Translation has no linking word but continues within the same paragraph. Another possibility is to relate verse 7 to verse 6 by saying, as Biblia Dios Habla Hoy does, “There the Lord appeared….” We may also say, for example, “At that place…” or “While he was in Shechem….”

Then the LORD appeared to Abram: appeared translates a verb that is used of God’s act of revealing or showing himself to someone. It is not stated whether this was in a dream, a vision, or by a messenger, but the verb suggests that God became visible to Abram. We may translate “The LORD showed himself to Abram.”

The LORD’s speech to Abram is in the form of a promise that is more precise than the promises in verses 1-3: To your descendants I will give this land. Descendants translates the word “seed,” which is grammatically singular but collective in meaning. See comments on 3.15; 9.9. This land or “this country” (Good News Translation) has no defined boundaries here. Although the Canaanites are living in the land, it is the LORD who will give it to Abram’s descendants. This element of the promise is well brought out in one translation that links the last part of verse 6 with the beginning of verse 7: “At that time the people called Canaanites who lived in that country were still there, but the LORD showed himself to Abram and told him, ‘This is the country that I’m going to give to your descendants.’ ”

So he built there an altar to the LORD: Revised Standard Version makes this part a consequence of the LORD’s appearance and promise, while Good News Translation makes it a subsequent act: “Then Abram built….” Revised English Bible begins verse 7 with a “when” clause, and the building of the altar then follows as an act of response. Others do not mark the relationship between the LORD’s appearance and Abram’s act. All of these ways are possible. For altar see comments on 8.20. There means at Shechem or near Shechem, and in translation that may need to be stated. To the LORD means “to honor the LORD,” “to worship the LORD,” or “dedicated to the LORD.”

The relative clause who had appeared to him is stated by Biblia Dios Habla Hoy as the reason for building the altar: “… because he [the LORD] had appeared to him [Abram].” Another way of linking this clause with the building of the altar is given by some translations: “So Abram built an altar in order to worship the LORD, at this place where the LORD appeared to him.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

first person pronoun referring to God

Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. One way Japanese show different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also pronoun for “God”.