unleavened bread

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “unleavened bread” in English is translated in various ways:

  • Chichimeca-Jonaz: “bread that doesn’t have its medicine that makes it puff up”
  • Teutila Cuicatec: “bread without its sour”
  • Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “bread that has no mother” (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Mairasi: “bread without other ingredient” (source: Enggavoter 2004)

fat, oil

The different Hebrew and Greek terms that are translated as “(olive) oil” and “(animal) fat” in English are translated in Kwere with only one term: mavuta. (Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

Translation commentary on Exod 29:2

Three different kinds of bread are described. Unleavened bread, literally “and bread matsoth,” uses the plural of matsah, so the meaning is “unleavened breads,” or bread made without “yeast” (Good News Translation). (See the comment on matsoth at 12.8 and 15.) The size and shape of the pieces is not indicated, but see verse 23.

Unleavened cakes, literally “and cakes matsoth,” uses the term challah for cakes, suggesting a rich, unleavened bread that may have been perforated, braided, or twisted. Since the exact meaning in this case is uncertain, many English translations simply have “unleavened cakes” (see also New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New English Bible, Translator’s Old Testament). These cakes were at least distinguished from the bread by their richness from the olive oil that was to be kneaded into the dough. Mixed with oil means that the dough is first mixed and kneaded with “olive oil” (Good News Translation) and then baked.

And unleavened wafers, literally “and wafers matsoth,” describes this third kind of matsah as thin and flat. Spread with oil, literally “anointed in oil,” means that the “olive oil” (Good News Translation) is to be spread or “smeared” (Revised English Bible) on these wafers after they are baked.

You shall make them of fine wheat flour refers to all three kinds of unleavened bread. You is singular, but this does not mean that Moses is to do all the baking himself. Fine wheat flour means “finely ground flour from wheat.” This was “the best wheat flour” (Good News Translation), since only the inner kernel of the wheat was ground, rather than the whole grain. (See the comment on “wheat” at 9.31-32.) The word fine therefore has the double meaning of “finely ground” and “choicest” (New Revised Standard Version).

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• Take some of your best [or, finest] wheat flour and make three batches of dough without yeast. Make some of it into bread without olive oil, some into flat cakes mixed with olive oil, and the rest into thin wafers smeared with oil.

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 .