Sacrificial and Festival Terms in the Old Testament: How Can We Translate Them?

Abstract

When we render terms for sacrifices and festivals in the Old Testament, it is helpful to look at the very different ways in which translations have dealt with these groups of terms and see which of their translation methods are the most helpful for our own translation and its specific readership. This article considers renderings in the new Tatar translation of 2015 and translations in some major European languages. Translations have often not been consistent as to which translation method has been followed in this area, but it seems advisable to render sacrificial and festival terms succinctly and according to a translation method that is applied consistently and is considered to be the most suitable for the intended audience, so as to show the contrasts between these terms. The article closes with some thoughts on whether some of these methods are more accurate than others and what we mean by accuracy.