altar

Click here to view graphically

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.

sacred pole

The Hebrew that is typically translated as “sacred pole” in English is translated in Elhomwe with mafanwiiwa a Asherimu or “idol of Asherah” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext) and in the English translation by Goldingay (2018) as totem pole.

See also Asherah.

complete verse (Jeremiah 17:2)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 17:2:

  • Kupsabiny: “Your children are occupied with the things of sacrifices
    and the pillars (they) raised for Asherah
    there under every big tree
    and on top of the hills.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Even your (plur.) children worship at your (plur.) altars and at the posts/[lit. thing-like-pillar] that symbolizes the goddess Ashera under the leafy trees and on top of the mountains,” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 17:2

Their children refers to the people of Judah: “Your people” (Good News Translation) and “You” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

There is some problem in the Hebrew text regarding the meaning of while their children remember their altars. An American Translation omits this clause, with the following result: “1 … It appears on the horns of their altars, 2 on their sacred pillars and sacred poles….” Moffatt is even more radical, omitting as well the words and their Asherim. Revised English Bible follows a conjecture, translating the clause as “to witness against them.”

Hebrew Old Testament Text Project believes the Hebrew is best interpreted as “They remember their sons in the same way [they remember] their altars.” It also proposes the possibility of “while/for their sons remember their altars.” A possible way to translate this would be “While this generation [or, they] remember the altars and symbols that were set up to worship the goddess Asherah beside every green tree and on the high hills, and on the mountains in the open country.” That is, their children refers to the people themselves, this present generation, and remember is understood to mean to remember with some longing for “the good old days.” Most translations have not followed this, however, feeling it is difficult in the context. Perhaps the rendering of Good News Translation is best in that (1) it follows the Hebrew, and (2) it makes some sense.

The Asherim were wooden objects representing the goddess Asherah (Good News Translation “the symbols that have been set up for the goddess Asherah”). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “sacred poles,” with a reference to the glossary note under “Asherah,” who is defined as a Phoenician-Canaanite fertility and vegetation goddess. This is the only place in Jeremiah where the word is used.

Beside every green tree, and on the high hills: See the comments at 2.20.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .