Kapporet
/ˈkæpərət/noun
The gold-covered lid of the biblical Ark of the Covenant, also called the mercy seat or place of atonement.
Did you know?In the Greek Septuagint, Kapporet was translated as hilastērion, a term later used in the New Testament for a place or means of atonement.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Semitic
Proto-Semitic
*k-p-r
“To cover or conceal; the root later developed ritual meanings connected with expiation and atonement.”
Biblical Hebrew
Hebrew
כַּפֹּרֶת — kappōret
“The covering or lid of the Ark of the Covenant, regarded as the sacred site of atonement.”
3rd–2nd Century BCE
Septuagint Greek
ἱλαστήριον — hilastērion
“A place or object associated with propitiation or atonement; the Greek translation of kappōret.”
Late Antiquity
Rabbinic Hebrew
כִּפֻּרִים — kippurim
“Atonements or acts of expiation, from the same Semitic root.”
19th–20th Century
English
kapporet
“A scholarly transliteration used in English biblical and Jewish-studies writing for the Ark’s cover or mercy seat.”