altar

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The Greek 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)
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)

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)

Translation commentary on 1 Kings 6:20

The inner sanctuary …: The beginning of this verse in the Masoretic Text reads “and in front of the inner sanctuary….” This Hebrew text is difficult grammatically, and most translations (Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible) follow the Septuagint, which lacks the words “in front of.” Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {D} rating to the Masoretic Text and admits that the Hebrew text may not be what was written originally. If the Masoretic Text is followed, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible provides a useful model: “In front of the sacred room, whose length was twenty cubits and whose width was twenty cubits and whose height was twenty cubits, which Solomon had overlaid with pure gold, was found the altar which had been paneled in cedar” (similarly Nouvelle Bible Segond). La Bible de Jérusalem: Nouvelle édition revue et corrigée likewise reads “In front of the Debir which was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and twenty cubits high, and which he had covered with pure gold, he covered the cedar altar with gold.” Translations such as Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Nouvelle Bible Segond and New Jerusalem Bible make it clear that the altar of cedar was not in the inner sanctuary but in the room in front of it. Translations such as Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, following the Septuagint, do not make this clear.

Twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high: As in verses 2, 3, and 16, the equivalent of twenty cubits is about 10 meters or 30 feet. It has already been noted in the comments on verse 16 that the inner sanctuary was cube-shaped.

He overlaid it with pure gold: The gold that is used today to overlay items is a very thin gold leaf. The gold used to cover the walls was not this thin gold leaf but rather was thick enough that it could be stripped off (see 2 Kgs 18.16). In this verse the writer says that the gold was pure. Revised English Bible translates this as “red gold,” meaning that it was the best quality gold. In other languages the idea of purity in this sense is expressed by the adjective “true.”

He also made an altar of cedar: Revised Standard Version follows the Septuagint here in reading the verb made (also Revised English Bible). The Hebrew verb in the Masoretic Text is the same as the previous verb, which is translated overlaid. So according to the Masoretic Text, the altar was not made only of cedar; rather it was made of cedar and covered with gold. Verse 22 says that the altar was covered in gold. New Living Translation says “He also overlaid the altar made of cedar”; and this may well be the intended meaning. In addition to having the verb made, the Septuagint does not have the words of cedar. De Vries follows the Septuagint in this last sentence with “And he constructed an altar.” This altar is probably the altar on which incense was burned (Exo 30.1; see also 2 Chr 26.16). It was located in front of the doors that separated the Most Holy Place from the nave.

A possible model for this verse is:

• This inner room was ten meters long, ten meters wide, and ten meters high. Solomon lined it with pure gold. He also made an altar covered with cedar paneling in front of the inner room.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .