34But the priests were too few and could not skin all the burnt offerings, so, until other priests had sanctified themselves, their kindred, the Levites, helped them until the work was finished, for the Levites were more conscientious than the priests in sanctifying themselves.
The Hebrew olah (עֹלָה) originally means “that which goes up (in smoke).” English Bibles often translates it as “burnt-offering” or “whole burnt-offering,” focusing on the aspect of the complete burning of the offering.
The GreekSeptuagint and the LatinVulgate Bibles translate it as holokautōma / holocautōsis (ὁλοκαύτωμα / ὁλοκαύτωσις) and holocaustum, respectively, meaning “wholly burnt.” While a form of this term is widely used in many Romance languages (Spanish: holocaustos, French: holocaustes, Italian: olocausti, Portuguese: holocaustos) and originally also in the Catholic tradition of English Bible translations, it is largely not used in English anymore today (the preface of the revised edition of the Catholic New American Bible of 2011: “There have been changes in vocabulary; for example, the term ‘holocaust’ is now normally reserved for the sacrilegious attempt to destroy the Jewish people by the Third Reich.”)
Since translation into Georgian was traditionally done on the basis of the Greek Septuagint, a transliteration of holokautōma was used as well, which was changed to a translation with the meaning of “burnt offering” when the Old Testament was retranslated in the 1980’s on the basis of the Hebrew text.
In the Koongo (Ki-manianga) translation by the Alliance Biblique de la R.D. Congo (publ. in 2015) olah is translated as “kill and offer sacrifice” (source: Anicet Bassilua) and in Elhomwe as “fire offering.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The English translation of Everett Fox uses offering-up (similarly, the German translation by Buber-Rosenzweig has Darhöhung and the French translation by Chouraqui montée).
The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that are typically translated as “priest” in English (itself deriving from Latin “presbyter” — “elder”) is often translated with a consideration of existing religious traditions. (Click or tap for details)
Bratcher / Nida (1961) say this:
“However, rather than borrow local names for priests, some of which have unwanted connotations, a number of translations have employed descriptive phrases based on certain functions: (1) those describing a ceremonial activity: Pamona uses tadu, the priestess who recites the litanies in which she describes her journey to the upper or under-world to fetch life-spirit for sick people, animals or plants; Batak Toba uses the Arabic malim, ‘Muslim religious teacher;’ ‘one who presents man’s sacrifice to God’ (Bambara, Eastern Maninkakan), ‘one who presents sacrifices’ (Baoulé, Navajo (Dinė)), ‘one who takes the name of the sacrifice’ (Kpelle, and ‘to make a sacrifice go out’ (Hausa); (2) those describing an intermediary function: ‘one who speaks to God’ (Shipibo-Conibo) and ‘spokesman of the people before God’ (Tabasco Chontal).”
In Obolo it is translated as ogwu ngwugwa or “the one who offers sacrifice” (source: Enene Enene), in Mairasi as agam aevar nevwerai: “religious leader” (source: Enggavoter 2004), in Ignaciano as “blesser, one who does ritual as a practice” (using a generic term rather than the otherwise common Spanish loan word sacerdote) (source: Willis Ott in Notes on Translation 88/1982, p. 18ff.), and in Noongar as yakin-kooranyi or “holy worker” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
For Guhu-Samane, Ernest Richert (in The Bible Translator, 1965, p. 81ff. ) reports this: “The [local] cult of Poro used to be an all-encompassing religious system that essentially governed all areas of life. (…) For ‘priest’ the term ‘poro father’ would at first seem to be a natural choice. However, several priests of the old cult are still living. Although they no longer function primarily as priests of the old system they still have a substantial influence on the community, and there would be more than a chance that the unqualified term would (in some contexts particularly) be equated with the priest of the poro cult. We learned, then, that the poro fathers would sometimes be called ‘knife men’ in relation to their sacrificial work. The panel was pleased to apply this term to the Jewish priest, and the Christian community has adopted it fully. [Mark 1:44, for instance, now] reads: ‘You must definitely not tell any man of this. But you go show your body to the knife man and do what Moses said about a sacrifice concerning your being healed, and the cause (base of this) will be apparent.'”
For a revision of the 1968 version of the Bible in Khmer Joseph Hong (in: The Bible Translator 1996, 233ff. ) talks about a change in wording for this term:
Bau cha r (បូជាចារ្យ) — The use of this new construction meaning “priest” is maintained to translate the Greek word hiereus. The term “mean sang (មាន សង្ឃ)” used in the old version actually means a “Buddhist monk,” and is felt to be theologically misleading. The Khmer considers the Buddhist monk as a “paddy field of merits,” a reserve of merits to be shared with other people. So a Khmer reader would find unthinkable that the mean sang in the Bible killed animals, the gravest sin for a Buddhist; and what a scandal it would be to say that a mean sang was married, had children, and drank wine.
The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin that is transliterated “Levites” in English (only the Contemporary English Version translates it as “temple helpers”) is translated in Ojitlán Chinantec as “temple caretakers,” Yatzachi Zapotec as “people born in the family line of Levi, people whose responsibility it was to do the work in the important church of the Israelites,” in Alekano as “servants in the sacrifice house from Jerusalem place,” and in Tenango Otomi as “helpers of priests.” (Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
In American Sign Language with a sign that combines “temple” + “servant.” (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Levite” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 2 Chronicles 29:34:
Kupsabiny: “But because the priests who had cleansed themselves were few, they were not able to slaughter all those animals. So, the Levites came to assist them until that work was completed. The Levites continued to help until other priests had cleansed themselves. It was like that, because the Levites were more serious about cleansing themselves than the priests.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Because there were too few priests to flay all these animals, the Levites did that work until it was finished. They were helping them until the priests had purified themselves. For the Levites had been more careful to purify themselves than the priests had been.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “But there-were-not-enough priests to slaughter all these animals. So their blood-relatives the Levites helped them until there were-more priests that had-made- themselves -clean in-order-to help and until that work had-done. For the Levites were more faithful of making- themselves -clean than the priests.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “But there were not enough priests to remove the skins from the animals that would be completely burned on the altar. So their fellow descendants of Levi helped them until that work was finished, and until other priests had purified/consecrated themselves to do that work. It was necessary for them to do that because many of the priests had not yet performed the rituals to consecrate themselves for that work, like the descendants of Levi had done.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
But the priests were too few: But does render not the common Hebrew conjunction but rather an adverb meaning “Only” (Complete Jewish Bible). This adverb is used here to mark a contrast between the preceding and following text. New International Version translates “however.”
And could not flay all the burnt offerings: The Hebrew verb rendered flay means “to strip the skin off an animal” in this context. The same Hebrew word is used in a very different context in 1 Chr 10.8-9, where it refers to “stripping” the dead. The burnt offerings may be rendered “the animals for the burnt offerings” (New Century Version) or simply “these animals” (Good News Translation).
So until other priests had sanctified themselves their brethren the Levites helped them until the work was finished: To remove the skin of an animal requires a great deal of work and the number of animals that needed to be skinned was too great for the priests who were available because they were ritually clean. So while waiting for other priests to be made ritually clean in order to do this work, the Levites, who had remained ritually clean, were allowed to help. For had sanctified themselves, see the comments on 2Chr 29.5. The passive expression until the work was finished may be made active by saying “until they finished this work.”
For the Levites were more upright in heart than the priests in sanctifying themselves: The Levites were available to help in skinning the animals because they were more faithful in keeping themselves ritually pure than the priests. This sentences compares the Levites favorably to the priests. In some versions it is taken as a parenthetical comment through the use of parentheses (so Good News Translation, NET Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or a long dash (so Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible). Upright in heart is an idiom for obedience. Good News Translation renders more upright in heart as “more faithful,” and God’s Word says “more diligent.”
The structure of this verse is rather complicated in Hebrew and is reflected in Revised Standard Version. It may be simplified according to the following model based on Parole de Vie:
• The priests who were ritually pure were too few in number to skin all the animals for the burnt offerings. So their relatives the Levites helped them to finish the work while waiting for other priests to be made pure. In fact, the Levites purified themselves more willingly than the priests.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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