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.

bronze altar (illustration)

The Hebrew that is translated as “bronze altar” in English is illustrated for use in Bible translations in East Africa by Pioneer Bible Translators like this:

Image owned by PBT and Jonathan McDaniel and licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

bronze

The Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that is translated as “bronze” in English is translated in Newari as “bell-metal,” since bells are made of bronze in Nepal (source: Newari Back Translation).

See also bronze vessel.

complete verse (Exodus 38:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 38:4:

  • Kupsabiny: “(He) made a net from bronze wires and attached it inside the altar to go round at chest height (halfway up).” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “They made a bronze grid to keep in the edge of the altar that reached up to the center.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “They also made bronze grill/(grating) for the altar, and they put (it) under the altar, on object/the-place-to-put it halfway close-to the altar.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “And also, he made a bras grate for that table to be for fire. And on the tables four legs, he affixed a bras thing onto the middle of the legs, to be for holding the bras grate.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “They pound metal red, weave it it be bored eye like grating, put it into belly of altar.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “They also made a bronze grating to hold the wood and burning coals. They put the grating under the rim that went around the altar. They made it so that it was inside the altar, halfway down.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 38:4 - 38:5

These verses combine the information in 27.4-5 in different order. The verbs he made and He cast are again in past tense to show that the work was completed. For the altar replaces “for it” in 27.4. Under its ledge, extending halfway down uses the same words as 27.5, but this is mentioned before the reference to the four rings. (See the comment there on the meaning of ledge and halfway down.)

He cast four rings uses the same verb used in 25.12, which is more specific than the verb “to make” in 27.4. This suggests that the metal was melted and poured into a mold. It is not stated here what metal was used for these rings, but we know from 27.4 that it was bronze instead of gold. On the four corners is a bit confusing. Literally it says “in the four extremities,” which here refers to corners. But to say that he cast these rings on the four corners evidently means, as Good News Translation expresses it “he made four carrying rings and put them on the four corners.” Contemporary English Version is a little more precise: “Then he attached a bronze ring beneath the ledge at the four corners to put the poles through.”

As holders for the poles, literally “in houses for the poles,” is not used in 27.4, but the expression is used in 25.27 and 30.4.

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 .