burnt-offering

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 Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate 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)

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).

See also offering (qorban).

Translation commentary on 1 Samuel 13:9

So: the common conjunction is rightly taken as a logical connector by many modern versions, although it is also possible to take it as a temporal connector. New American Bible and New Jerusalem Bible have “Then,” and some omit it altogether (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Revised English Bible).

Burnt offering and peace offerings: see the comments on 10.8. In this context Saul is asking for the material to be offered and not for the finished sacrifices. In many languages it will be important to make this clear. Knox, for example, indicates that Saul “bade them bring the victims for the burnt-sacrifice and the welcome-offering.”

Offered the burnt offering: that is, “sacrificed the animal for the burnt offering.” Saul offered the burnt offering himself instead of waiting for Samuel to come and make the offering, as he had said that he would (10.8). God will later punish Saul because he offered the sacrifices himself (see verses 13-14).

In order to avoid the direct quotation in this verse, some languages will say “so Saul instructed them to bring the animals for the burnt sacrifices and the fellowship offerings to him.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .